Controversy: July 2007 Archives

I was ready to cancel my subscription...if I'd had one. But now Star magazine is apologizing for labeling the above mock kiss between Adam Sandler and Kevin James as "not normal" in its weekly "Normal/Not Normal" feature. Here what Editor-in-Chief Candace Trunzo had to say in an apology passed on by GLAAD:
"'Normal/Not Normal' is supposed to be funny, and I regret that this particular photo caption was offensive and not written in a way to make it clear that we were being humorous. The joke was that Kevin James and Adam Sandler are not gay. If the kiss was between Lance Bass and his boyfriend or any other gay celebrities it would be 'Normal.' Let me point out that in the same issue of STAR, we devote the entire Couples News lead to Neil Patrick Harris and his boyfriend moving in together. Now that's normal. I sincerely apologize that our attempt at humor was perceived by some to be offensive to the gay community. That was certainly not our intent. We are proud that we support the gay community and will continue to do so."

The good thing about Isaiah Washington getting the gig on NBC's "Bionic Woman" is that it got him to stop trash-talking T.R. Knight at least for awhile. But the way NBC;s Ben Silverman talked about it last week was completelty ignorant, as if they were not aware that this man had been FIRED from his previous show on ABC for his behavior. C'mon . A prospective employer obviously must vet out someone he's hiring.
Anyway, I love what ABC's Steve McPherson had to say about all this yesterday at the ABC Press tour. He wondered if NBC execs had been "living in a cave" when they professed to not be aware of the scope of the controversy surrounding Washington the gay slurs he used referring to Knight.
According to TV Guide, Silverman told reporters that he and Washington had conversations "before he became available." Said Silverman: "When he told me he was available I was like, 'You are? Wait, I don't understand. What do you mean? You're a huge star on a star television show. I don't quite understand what had gone on there."
Responded McPherson: "If (Silverman) was in fact talking to him before he was available, that's inducement to breach. So I don't know, he's either clueless or stupid."

You decide.
(By the way, I copied the little photo collage from Towleroad.com.)

Oh gpod grief, aren't we past this yet?
The supermarket rag, Star, has a lot of gay people pissed off and rightly so. I'm not gonna even start with how they make stories up out of whole cloth (why aren't they sued more, I wonder). One of their regular features is to show pictures of celebrities going about their business in their everyday lives and the crack staff of this rag label the activity either "normal" or "not normal." In the current issue, same-sex kissing is dubbed "not normal." The label was given to a photo of "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" stars Adam Sandler and Kevin James promoting their hit comedy.
Boy Culture Blog, who passed the story along to Towleroad, wants Star editor Candace Trunzo to “pucker up and kiss my normal, gay ass.”
Ditto.

So, you all know I usually try and ignore the whole set of celebutante trainwrecks that are Lindsay Lohan, Brittany Spears, Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. But I was pulled into the Lohan coverage yesterday to work on a story with my colleague and buddy Beth Barrett so wanted to produce a LINK to it for Out in Hollywood readers...I didn't wrtie the headline but I'm not saying it's not true: STARLET LINDSAY LOHAN: AN ADDICT, TROUBLED, JUST OUT-OF-CONTROL BRAT!

David Marshall Grant was at Outfest 2007 over the weekend to talk about "Brothers & Sisters," the show where he is a writer. But it is Marshall's other career as an actor - and one role in particular - that dominated the discussion for awhile: a gay man on "thirtysomething" who was shown in a 1989 episode in bed with his boyfriend "the morning after." Advertisers pulled out, there was mega-controversy...and they didn't even kiss. Poor Kevin Walker wouldn't get any on-screen action on "Brothers & Sisters" by 1989 standards.
"It wasn't even a kiss!" Marhsall said of the scene with Peter Frechette. "We were simply in bed and under the covers. That's what cost ABC $10 million in ads that night...The rule was we couldn't touch. There were touching police on the set that day."
A clip of the scene was shown or the audience and compared to a clip that aired later of Kevin smooching with Chad, this was so G-rated.
"I don't remember it being particularly hot," "Brothers & Sisters" producer and "thirtysomething" co-star Ken Olin told Marshall. "You're hot. It just wasn't a big deal...Can you believe the network almost shut us down for that?"
Grant is still acting, most recently on the big screen as Anne Hathaway's father in "The Devil Wears Prada." The out actor and prolific stage performer has also played gay in "Bent," and was nominated for a Tony Award for his role in "Angels in America."

Anti-gay hate-mongers like Rev. Fred Phelps are the biggest reason why a movie like "For the Bible Tells Me So" is so important right now.
According to a report in the Casper Star-Tribune, the city of Casper has for the second time rejected the Phelps' request to erect a monument stating that murdered gay hate-crime victim Mathew Shepard is in hell.
Casper Mayor Kate Sarosy wrote in a letter to Phelps: "Your monument is simply religious in character, based on your personal religious beliefs regarding Matthew Shepard, and bears no historical significance to the foundation of the law for our country. As such, the city cannot place your monument on city property without violating the establishment clause of the United States Constitution."
I would have written him a much shorter letter: "Go away!"
According to the paper, Phelps and members of his church have visited Casper several times since protesting Shepard's funeral in 1998 and they consider the town a "preaching opportunity," despite receiving a letter in 1999 from every preacher in Casper asking them to not come back.
"The end is coming, and it will be cataclysmic," said Phelps, 77. "I don't expect to save Casper."

Well, this is juicy and not something I had seen anywhere until it was linked to AfterElton.com. The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan, on her The Watcher blog, shares some of the questions posed to NBC execs this week during the Television Critics Assn. tour regarding the hiring of controversial Isaiah Washington for at least five episodes of the fall series "Bionic Woman."
The executive producers of "Bionic" were asked if adding Washington to the cast “would show disrespect” to the gay community.
“Absolutely not,” said Jason Smilovic, one of the show’s executive producers. “We embrace the gay community. We are hoping that they are going to watch the show, and we are in no way making any judgments or statements or assignations about what was said or what was done.”
Then after the panel, David Eick, another executive producer, said that the idea to cast Washington came from an NBC executive, who was relaying the request of NBC co-chair Ben Silverman.
Here's the real shock: Eick aid that he wasn’t really sure of what Washington had said or done to cause such an uproar. Hello? T.R. Knight? Gayhab? The Golden Globes? F****t? Ya been hiding under a rock David?
“You guys are going to hate me but I don’t really know what he said,” he said to reporters. “I’m sorry, whenever they’re picking a jury for a high-profile murder case, I never know how they get 12 people who didn’t hear about who did it. But I’m like that guy who didn’t hear about O.J. I knew there was some controversy, [but] honestly, I was so busy, I was trying to finish the ‘Bionic Woman’ pilot, I had another pilot at Fox this year, and ‘Battlestar’ was going, I didn’t know, I don’t know what he did.”
So, they told him what went down which resulted in Washington being fired from "Grey's Anatomy."
“That seems kind of rude and unfortunate and I’m sure he didn’t mean it,” Eick said. "I don’t know the man well enough, I had dinner with him once and thought he was delightful. I’ve seen his work and think he’s an intensely talented actor. I’m sure whatever transpired was a mistake and he feels sorry about it, and that’s not for me to say.”

I wondered a few weeks back how openly gay publicist Howard Bragman felt about repping Isiah Washington, particularly in light of his client's recent interviews where he hangs everyone out to dry...except himself. Bragman - of Fifteen Minutes Public Relations - speaks in the current issue of the Los Angeles Business Journal.
Of the controversial Washington he says: "I adore Isaiah. Before any of this happened, a mutual friend said “You should talk to Isaiah,” so I did. We talked on the phone for hours and met for breakfast for two hours. My biggest issue was that I didn’t want to represent someone who is homophobic. His history, his life – I’ve met his friends, his family – this man is not homophobic. Somebody who’s homophobic does not play gay in movies, does not have gay friends. I think Isaiah has more gay friends than I do. I do not think he is homophobic; I couldn’t. I believe he really used the wrong word in a situation and he will acknowledge that."
OK, if he says so.
Anyway, Bragman also comments on the celebrity of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears who seriously annoy me: "They’ll be replaced. Right now, it’s like a reality show, and it moves so fast. People like to follow it. The magazines like People and US and OK, they are really smart because they pick about a dozen characters – Angelina, Brad, Jennifer, Britney Lindsay, Paris – because people’s attention is limited. And we continue to follow these people, in spite of the fact that we should be paying attention to other things and other people. And it will continue until the ratings go down, in whatever way."

Just finished watching the one-hour "Larry King Live" interview with Isaiah Washington. Boy, if I ever cause a scandal, I want Larry King to interview me because his hot seat is pretty lukewarm. Isaiah was very calm during the interview and most of the time, often said the right things: "I am not homophobic, no way." Of the night at the Golden Globes when he denied calling T.R. Knight a "f****t" he said: "I unbelievably regret that. If I could take that moment back, I would." "That's not a word that I use, I don't need it." and "I love everybody... humanity is in my heart."
But he also said some incredulous things and there are inconsistancies there. At one point, he's grown up around gay people but later says "I didn't know what gay was until I moved to New York and lived 10 years [there]." And after giving an interview to Newsweek where he clearly stated he felt his being a black man had much to do with how he was treated, he tells King tonight: "I don't want to racialize this thing."

Washington repeated what he told Newsweek about T.R. Knight having issues with Patrick Dempsey and indicated that he stood up to Dempsey on the set on a day McDreamy in part because he was standing up for Knight "against the bullying" of Dempsey. As previously reported, his downfall began with an on-set confrontation with Dempsey who Washington said was 15 minutes late to the set. "I'm mad, I'm getting upset," he admitted. He chides Dempsey for being late, makes what is perceived as an unflattering remark about his acting ability and Dempsey "became unhinged. I'm asking him why he's screaming at me. He is irate. Why am I being berated? I begin to say a lot of things I'm not very proud of."
He told Larry that when he used the [gay slur] f-word during his shouting match with Dempsey, he was referring to someone who was "weak, not deserving of respect" not gay.

I'll be watching Washington's interview tonight and blog on it afterward. I'd rather he was being grilled by someone like Diane Sawyer or Matt Lauer rather than Mr. Suspenders but let's hope it's a good interview. I do wonder what there is left to say after reading Washington's interviews with Keith Boykin and with the Houston Chronicle. He will, again, give his side of the story about being fired from ABC's "Grey's Anatomy." Lemme guess: none of it was his fault and he's a victim in all of this.
His publicist, Howard Bragman, tells the New York Post: "Everything is fair game. We didn't set any ground rules with Larry." Bragman went on to say that "what a lot of people don't know is that Isaiah was gagged by ABC. That's one reason he can (now) do these interviews."
In my opinion, so far these interviews have not helped Washington at all. He probably would have been better served by just getting back to work. Will report back later with some of the highlights from the chat w/Larry.