Hell, forget even about TV or movies. Shakespeare’s female roles, I am told, were played by men for a not-insignificant amount of time.
No, I’m not. What I am is simply tired of people’s sexuality being turned into a big deal. This is the fourth thread on the topic in Cafe Society in the last month of so, and the prurience of it is tiresome in a big way.
I’m particularly peeved that the tenor of many of these threads is one of presumptions based on really stupid, illogical and insulting stereotypes, innuendo, rumor or other things that we as Dopers ought to be above. If our mission here is to stamp out ignorance, one of the first levels of ignorance we can stamp out is the obsession with labeling people and their sexuality, especially when those labels aren’t derived from personal facts (like coming out publicly, for instance, or never making any effort to hide the presence of a same sex “companion”) but on professional conduct or, as I mentioned before, the ubiquitous “I knew a guy who knew a guy…” blah blah blah.
If a celebrity wants to be out, great and more power to them, but if they want to be closeted for whatever reason, that’s their decision and it should be respected all the same – just as we do for non-celebrities. If an actor wants to perform in drag for laughs or because a great role demands it, great – that shouldn’t be extrapolated to be a statement about their personal life. And if a celebrity wants to never publicly label their sexuality but marries and has children, why shouldn’t they be presumed to be straight just like every non-famous Tom, Dick and Harry would be if they were married with children?
And more importantly, what possible difference could any celebrity’s sexuality make to the general public enough that it’s worth a specific discussion? Why does it matter if any or all of one or four of the KiTH were gay? Does it make them funnier? Does it make them less funny? Does it make you like them more? Less? Why the compulsion to know and discuss this topic at such lengths?
Scott Thompson’s gay?!
Man, I just don;t know which way’s up and which way’s down in this crazy world. 
…
Because of him, I could never take Dreamcatcher seriously as a horror film. It’s be weird and gross, but how scary would it really be?
Jesus, TeaElle, lighten up! They’re celebrities. They put themselves up for scrutiny. People are idly curious. It’s a casual discussion, not a tribunal that determines their destiny. The only one getting all bent out of shape about this (and way the hell out of proportion) is you.
Well, I guess I mostly see where you are coming from BUT, I will say that when I first saw one of the characters that Scott Thompson did–the absolutely over the top gay character who owns a bar and did a lengthy routine about coaching a softball team–I thought it was funny but–and this is just MY OPINION–I worried that it seemed a little homophobic: perpetuating stereotypes and all that.
When I found out that Scott was openly gay, then my concern about the skit being homophobic lessened considerably. It’s kind of like if I heard a comedian on the radio using the “n word”: my reaction might very well be different if I later learned that the comedian was white or black (or asian, or latin or whatever). Doesn’t mean I think a white person can never use the word in a comedy routine. Doesn’t mean that I approve every time a black comedian uses the word. But it is relevant. To me at least.
Same with Scott. If you are going to write comedy (not act in a movie written by someone else, or sing a song written by someone else) then I do think it’s relevant–to me at least–to know where you are coming from.
Gay = funnier. It’s been proven by several well known scientific studies, including the famous Johnson & Johnson’s Jocular Johnson experiment. Straight men need not be as funny for the act of queefing more than makes up for it.
Paul Bellini (the guy in the towel from KITH) is gay as well. He co-wrote the Buddy Cole book with Scott. The others are not.
Scott is the only gay one. The others have acted gay because it was either A. Funny B. In the script or C. They felt like it.
Yea, or people could just be curious…
And Jaston Williams and Joe Sears of the Greater Tuna series.
Wow. I didn’t know John Denver was gay!
Well, TeaElle, excuse the fuck out of me for wanting to know the answer to something. If these sorts of threads stick in your craw as much as they appear to, then I would suggest NOT READING THEM.
Jebus.
If the others are gay, then they’re closeted (to the point of being married!), but still associate with out-and-proud Scott, and often play gay men and women.
That just doesn’t compute.
You know, it’s not necessary to quote all five paragraphs of a previous posting to make a one-sentence reply.
Huh? Scott Thompson wasn’t in Dreamcatcher. Is this a whoosh? 
It may not matter to you if so and so is Gay, but I sure wish that Gay actors and others in the public eye would come out… I work with hundreds of kids every day and had a straight kid come up to me last week and tell me that he thought it was cool that I was open about being Gay… He said he’d never met a Gay person before that was open and OK about it…
And this is near San Francisco… So I imagine that there are lots of people across the country (both Gay and straight) that could use some more positive Gay role models…
I think some of the interest for many Gay people in knowing who is Gay or not is a holdover from that lack of role models… Wanting to prove to ourselves that we can be Gay or Lesbian and still be successful…
Sort of off topic, but hope you don’t mind that I threw it in for consideration…
I’m aware of this, Captain Obvious. I’m just a little miffed.
I wasn’t talking to you, Superdude.
Then my apologies for the misunderstanding, and the tone.
You mean you thought it was just coincidence that at the time of his death he was behind the controls of a two seater European import over San Francisco? He-llloooo!
Pardon the hijack, but my family’s brush with greatness came in the 1960s when my mother, then a junior high school teacher and still a chain smoker, accidentally singed off one of John Denver’s eyelashes. (He was John Deutschendorf [sp?] at the time and an obnoxious adolescent; he kept leaning over her shoulder to blow out the match whenever she lit her cigarette and this was in a moving vehicle- one sudden stop and no more eyelash.)