For those who want more information on my hero, Sir Ian McKellen, he has an informative personal web page. Of particular interest are his writings about being gay, and an activist.
Apologies. I meant to state for the record that Vin Diesel has not outed himself, however, and therefore is not up for discussion. I certainly don’t want to slander the guy or anything.
I was just stating a…um…rather popular Hollywood opinion.
Yes we did discuss it, and I’m telling you that I don’t buy it! If its “well known in LA”, which to me is about as authoritative as saying “some guy I met at a club said so after buying me a appletini”, I’m sure it’d have been beaten to death on the talk shows and tabloids. Utter slanderous crap INO until I hear something convincing otherwise. Its just way too en vogue to label the famous mcho guy as gay these days.
The problem here is not so much with the gay/not gay question as it is with determining how “famous” someone is. Certainly Ian McKellen is getting a lot of publicity right now, but I think that far more people worldwide would be able to correctly identify Elton John than could identify Ian McKellen. (and I’d like to second what MrVisible said about McKellen being a personal hero, particularly after I watched his appearance on Inside the Actor’s Studio). Of course, it’s also true that far more people could identify Elton John as gay.
This all reminds me of a debate years ago about whether Barbra Streisand or Sammy Davis, Jr. was the most successful Jewish entertainer. I guess now it would probably be Jerry Seinfeld.
IMHO, discussions like this should focus on people who have outed themselves, as speculation can get ugly.
I pointed a friend to this thread, and his reply was that right now, Michael Barrymore is arguably the most famous gay man in Britain, due to all the media attention he has had recently.
Of course, this too will pass, whereas I don’t think Elton will suddenly fade into obscurity. He’s been famous for years.
Personally, I like Ian McKellen a great deal, particularly in “Gods and Monsters” (I also like Brendan, but for different reasons and that’s off topic).
If I were to single out famous “gay heros”, they would be:
living: George Michael, for being human, for snubbing the prudishness of society, for writing intense and meaningful lyrics.
historic: Michelangelo, for being one of the greatest artists of all time. I have seen his “Pieta’” several times and it never fails to move me to tears.
I’d have to agree that among the living, Sir Elton certainly reigns as most famous, if only for sheer visibility and unabashed, unapologetic, social-change-engineering-by-in-your-face-fabulous-living-out-ness.
I’d guess that this would be news to him and his wife. Certainly there are gay men who marry women and have kids with them, but few of them, especially as celebrities, end up on anyone’s “confirmed gay” list.
Tom Selleck is certainly gay-positive, given his role in “In and Out” but again, very married with a couple of kids. He spoke at length about why he was willing to do that role, about his support for gay rights, gay marriage and full acceptance and so forth, but that doesn’t make him a closet case.
Liz Smith makes no bones about her sexual relationships with women, she writes about them in her autobiography which came out late last year.
As for Sean Hayes, anyone have a link to his coming out statement, because I’ve never seen anything of the sort.
And as to Alan Cumming, he is open about his fluid sexuality, and the fact that he is currently in a lengthy relationship with a man. In his interview show on the Oxygen network, he and Gwyneth Paltrow laughed about how he’s gone from “dating celebrity models” to “living with a beautiful gay boy.”
David Hyde Pierce, definitely. He’s been living with a guy for over five years now.
There’s also a young movie star who is very gay, very, very busy (I know someone who can personally vouch for that) very famous, and very in the closet.
