Posted on 02/13/2006 9:40:35 AM PST by Lunatic Fringe
Sir Ian McKellen has said openly gay US actors are prevented from having successful Hollywood careers.
"It is very, very, very difficult for an American actor who wants a film career to be open about his sexuality," the gay British actor said.
"And even more difficult for a woman if she's lesbian. It's very distressing to me that that should be the case."
The Lord of the Rings star added: "The film industry is very old fashioned in California."
He was speaking at the Berlin Film Festival, where he received a lifetime achievement award.
The funniest write-up of the Grant/Scott "gay relationship" was when someone said, "They were gay because they lived together and had wild parties with a bunch of women!" That's gay?! Another one said the genesis of the gay rumors was a photograph of Grant and Scott sitting next to each other by their pool. Well, they were both stars, the press would want both of them photographed, and it's easier to take a photo with two people next to each other than to leave a "homophobe" space. Finally, one biography said the gay rumor was started about Grant because he did something to piss of Hedda Hopper or Louella Parsons--I always get those two chicks mixed up.
None of which is to say he absolutely wasn't gay. The rumors persist. Some recent book apparently says he was with Marlon Brando at some point. Gag.
Anyway, the most shocking gay celebrity to me is Tom Atkins. Well, at least his IMDb bio talks about the death of some man who was supposedly his "longtime companion." I have to believe they added the information to the wrong guy. :)
Well, I wasn't sure what it was, but I just didn't like X2. The first one was okay, but the second one didn't sit well with me.
Also, McKellen is a disgusting man who not only admits to ripping pages out of the Gideons Bibles he finds in hotel rooms, but he raged against a 13-year-old girl who told him that was an offensive thing to do. "Well, I find your Catholicism offensive!" Jerk.
I read years ago somewhere-after Flynn's death-that someone claimed Flynn was bisexual & frequented a male whorehouse in some third-world country while making a movie. Allegedly, Flynn said "One man's food is another's poison", or something like that. Just heresay, as far as I'm concerned. Never heard anyone else say anything about it. The undisputable facts are, he led a life of debauchary, had a thing for very young girls-he was with one on his boat when he died-and was an alcoholic & known to use drugs, notably opium. The people who performed the autopsy said the inside of his body looked like that of a 90-year old man. A true hell-raiser, as were most of the actors/actresses of the past. I always thought he was great onscreen, though. Oh-Danny Kaye was either a closeted gay, or bi, and that's pretty much a consensus by most who have written about sex and hollywood. Of course, if you watch him in those old movies, it's somewhat obvious.
The only two movies Segal has made to date I thought were great were ABOVE THE LAW (of course,the always under-rated Pam Greir didn't hurt)and EXIT WOUNDS. Both good action films, which no one's supposed to take 100% seriously anyway.
Worst part about Flynn was his drunken support of Castro late in life. Then again, even Ian Fleming was sucked into the Castro cult ever-so-briefly while the revolution was going on.
Yeah, a ton of people were into the "rebel Chic" stuff back then, just as many were into the Black Panther stuff later. By the way...for those who have never heard of Pam Grier-I can't believe it. Somebody said in a previous post the didn't know whoshe was. This is the delectable Pam (Rosey Grier's cousin, discovered when she was the switchboard operator at good old American-International Pictures):
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Foolkiller/pam_grier_010.jpg
I respect his acting; but, he needs to keep his sexuality to himself. Hollywood is about as conservative as a Brothel is pure. And I really don't want to know.
I am reminded of Woddy Allen's observation about bisexuality.
You should read "The Secret Life of Errol Flynn" by Charles Higham.
He was a very strange guy.
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