# Now that Ricky is out, what celebrities "everybody knows" are gay remain? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272 "2010-03-29T23:36:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/341 "2011-10-20T10:53:39Z")
I know nothing about this ‘club’ of which you speak. Based on what I saw, George Clooney likes women. Based on what my friend heard, Kevin Spacey likes men (but was irritated with whomever he was speaking to). Based on what my roomy’s dad knows, Michael Jackson— is still a frickin’ mystery! Damn you, you considerate man, you! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/342 "2011-10-20T19:04:36Z")
I think Clooney’s straight, just not ready for the ball and chain thing. He’ll probably do the Warren Beatty thing and marry and settle down and begin having a bunch of kids in his 50s or 60s. Robert Downey admits to having “experimented” with guys when he was a teenager, but while I have no evidence other than a vibe I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he’s gay. I’ve never thought Tom Cruise was anything as normal as a closeted gay guy. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/343 "2011-10-20T19:08:00Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Richard Simmons > > Is he out? The other day I saw a CS thread about **Gene** Simmons getting married and for a moment I went WTF?! ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/344 "2011-10-20T23:12:48Z")
How are we defining “out”? There seem to be a lot of celebrities, both male and female, who just don’t talk about their personal lives, but somehow we know they’re gay. There are the out celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres or John Barrowman or Rachel Maddow, who will talk about the fact that they’re gay publicly, and then there are the people like Anderson Cooper and Jodie Foster and David Hyde Pierce and Nathan Lane, where we know they’re gay but they don’t talk about it (except possibly in the pages of _The Advocate_, maybe). Then there are the Tom Cruises and the George Clooneys and the Kevin Spaceys, who may be gay or straight or bisexual but are straight as far as their public images are concerned. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/345 "2011-10-20T23:14:35Z")
Going from the context of the OP I took it to mean celebrities that publicly admit that they’re gay. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/346 "2011-10-20T23:29:39Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > There are the out celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres or John Barrowman or Rachel Maddow, who will talk about the fact that they’re gay publicly, and then there are the people like Anderson Cooper and Jodie Foster and David Hyde Pierce and Nathan Lane, where we know they’re gay but they don’t talk about it (except possibly in the pages of _The Advocate_, maybe). Jodie Foster and David Hyde Pierce have both thanked significant others of the same-sex at awards shows that were nationally televised. If that’s not the closest thing to calling a press conference to say “I’m gay,” I don’t know what is. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/347 "2011-10-20T23:45:00Z")
No, I know that. That’s why I said “we know they’re gay,” but they don’t talk about their partners or their activism or whatever in interviews. It is a fine line. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/348 "2011-10-21T00:17:07Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > Then there are the Tom Cruises and the George Clooneys and the Kevin Spaceys, who may be gay or straight or bisexual but are straight as far as their public images are concerned. I won’t speculate on Tom Cruise, but George Clooney has had quite a lot of girlfriends. Real ones, I think. I’m pretty sure he’s actually straight. Spacey? I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/349 "2011-10-21T00:55:45Z")
So am I, actually, but people fall into the “If he’s past 40 and not married, well…” trap. In his case it has to do with the way he picks up a new cocktail waitress (someone significantly below him in social status, not another celebrity) about every year, and then drops her after a year. (See **salinqmind** ’s post #96 in this very thread.) At least the women have nothing bad to say about him afterwards. To some people this seems like these women are being used to distract people from his real inclinations, nudge, nudge. (I didn’t say it made any sense.) Spacey had that losing his phone/getting mugged thing in Central Park or whatever it was, has been photographed getting awfully chummy with other men, and is also a certain age and not married. Also he used to be really angry a lot. Like, a lot. That’s got to mean something, right? Look how twitchy and nervous and just unhappy Tom Cruise is! He ought to be on top of the world! Why’s he so unhappy? Again, I’m not saying it makes any sense. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Sparky\_the\_Wonder\_Spirit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky_the_Wonder_Spirit)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/350 "2011-10-21T00:58:38Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Oh, I was just trying to make a (lame) semi-joke. Everyone knows Nimoy-era Spock is unavailable as he Shatner-era Kirk are a couple in slash- fiction- land. And Quinto-Spock and Pine-Kirk … aren’t? ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/351 "2011-10-21T01:14:28Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > So am I, actually, but people fall into the “If he’s past 40 and not married, well…” trap. In his case it has to do with the way he picks up a new cocktail waitress (someone significantly below him in social status, not another celebrity) about every year, and then drops her after a year. (See **salinqmind** ’s post #96 in this very thread.) At least the women have nothing bad to say about him afterwards. To some people this seems like these women are being used to distract people from his real inclinations, nudge, nudge… I am not sure, but with someone as high-profile as George Clooney, if he was really indeed gay and even infrequently sexually promiscuous with other men, wouldn’t at least one or two guys come out of the woodwork (a la Tiger’s Whores) to sell their story to a tabloid or spill on Inside Edition? Could you really stay on the down-low for so long in this day and age, with cell phone records, celebrity gossip sites, cameras everywhere you look and SO many people now willing to do ANYTHING for their 15 minutes of fame and/or infamy, maybe even leading to the Holy Grail of our Modern Age, i.e. a Reality TV deal? (In the 1940’s or 50’s, stigma or shame probably kept both parties involved in a gay tryst quiet, both the famous ones and the nobodies alike.) For the most part, there is not any real social stigma for some random John Doe coming out as gay anymore, at least as far as the mainstream media is concerned, right? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/352 "2011-10-21T05:23:16Z")
I asked the question a few years ago here; “Why do some stars have the persistent gay rumours?” and the best answer I got was, “Because they’re persistently being gay.” I think there’s a whole lot of truth in that. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/353 "2011-10-21T05:32:43Z")
How is Tom Cruise being persistently gay? ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/354 "2011-10-21T10:00:01Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > then there are the people like Anderson Cooper and Jodie Foster and David Hyde Pierce and Nathan Lane, where we know they’re gay but they don’t talk about it David Hyde Pierce openly talks about his husband (legally wed in California) all the time. He wasn’t out during Frasier but he surely is now. Nathan Lane, on the other hand, has been out and talking about being gay and about men being attractive and camping it up so hard he needs a tent and an air mattress since at least the days of his short-lived NBC sitcom. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/355 "2011-10-21T11:01:44Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I think Clooney’s straight, just not ready for the ball and chain thing. He’ll probably do the Warren Beatty thing and marry and settle down and begin having a bunch of kids in his 50s or 60s. > > Robert Downey admits to having “experimented” with guys when he was a teenager, but while I have no evidence other than a vibe I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he’s gay. > > I’ve never thought Tom Cruise was anything as normal as a closeted gay guy. You could be right on Clooney, but I’d be surprised. I heard an interview with him. He said he has no desire to replicate himself. I don’t have much of an opinion on Downey, but I agree with you on Cruise. heh Well said. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/356 "2011-10-21T14:33:28Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > David Hyde Pierce openly talks about his husband (legally wed in California) all the time. He wasn’t out during Frasier but he surely is now. Nathan Lane, on the other hand, has been out and talking about being gay and about men being attractive and camping it up so hard he needs a tent and an air mattress since at least the days of his short-lived NBC sitcom. Okay, then I don’t know anything. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/357 "2011-10-21T17:22:22Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > How is Tom Cruise being persistently gay? Not sure, but you know that somebody is a latent homosexual when you catch them not practicing. Genealogical pity about Clooney not reproducing; in addition to looks, intelligence and money he’s a direct descendant of Abraham Lincoln’s mother’s sister. Since Lincoln’s descendants died out in the 1980s and his siblings died without issue this means Clooney’s one of his closest living relatives. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/358 "2011-10-21T17:37:54Z")
[Johnny Weir](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Weir) – no, wait, he came out after the Olympics, to no one’s surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/359 "2011-10-21T18:05:32Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > How is Tom Cruise being persistently gay? I don’t know; I don’t run in his circles. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272/360 "2011-10-21T18:47:55Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Johnny Weir](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Weir) – no, wait, he came out after the Olympics, to no one’s surprise. For a male professional figure skater “coming out” means you’re straight. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-ricky-is-out-what-celebrities-everybody-knows-are-gay-remain/534272.md?page=19)