Newsweek Article About Gay Actors Playing Straight Draws Conflicting Comments From Hollywood
Posted on Thu May 13th, 2010 10:50am PDT By X17 Staff
Ramin Setoodeh's Newsweek article "Straight Jacket" is causing a lot of fury!
Setoodeh asks a reasonable question: "Heterosexual actors play gay all the time. Why doesn't it ever work in reverse?" But in a confusing turn, criticizes the very actors paving the way for others. "The [Broadway] revival of Promises, Promises hands the lead over to Sean Hayes, best known as the queeny Jack on Will & Grace," writes Setoodeh.
And what about Jonathan Groff on Glee, Cheyenne Jackson on 30 Rock and Wanda Sykes on Old Christine?
Well, Hollywood is pissed! Jarret Barrios - prez of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation - and Oscar-winning writer Dustin Lance Black wrote a scathing response in The Hollywood Reporter. Hayes' co-star in Promises, Promises Kristin Chenoweth posted an angry letter about the article, including the following snippet:
- "This article offends me because I am a human being, a woman and a Christian. For example, there was a time when Jewish actors had to change their names because anti-Semites thought no Jew could convincingly play Gentile."
Finally, Aaron Sorkin wrote an article for The Huffington Post, arguing that he doesn't believe "Setoodeh was being homophobic, just wrong." In fact, Sorkin doesn't hate on the critic as much as everyone else - he even calls him one of "the good guys."
Wow, so much backlash! Will Hayes himself comment, and does he even need to?