Newsweek gay actor controversy
Encyclopedia
The Newsweek gay actor controversy refers to the reaction to a piece written by Newsweek
magazine writer Ramin Setoodeh in which he asserts that openly gay
actors are not capable of convincingly playing straight characters. Setoodeh's article provoked strong reactions from both within and outside the entertainment industry.
revival of Promises, Promises
starring Sean Hayes
as the male lead. Hayes had recently come out
as gay in an interview with the LGBT
-interest The Advocate
magazine. Setoodeh found Hayes's performance "wooden and insincere, like he's trying to hide something, which of course he is". Setoodeh also challenged the acting ability of openly gay actor Jonathan Groff
, who had recently joined the cast of Glee
. While recognizing Groff as "a knockout singer and a heartthrob" for his Broadway performance in Spring Awakening
, Setoodeh found that Groff's television performance was "off" and distracting. From these two performances, along with how Setoodeh's perceptions of the performances of actors Rock Hudson
, Tab Hunter
, Van Johnson
and Anthony Perkins
—closeted or semi-closeted during their careers but now known to have been gay—changed with his knowledge of the actors' homosexuality, Setoodeh concluded that once the public learns that an actor is gay the actor can no longer convincingly play straight characters. Setoodeh acknowledged the ability of actors Neil Patrick Harris
and Portia de Rossi
to play straight characters on television (on How I Met Your Mother
and Better Off Ted
respectively) but dismissed them with the claim that they are playing caricatures, not characters.
was partially to blame for his own murder because of his effeminate self-expression, pondered whether Setoodeh's opinion on openly gay actors was rooted in some issue of Setoodeh's own with effeminate men. Jensen questioned what Setoodeh, himself openly gay, hoped to accomplish with the article and asserted that by writing it, Setoodeh was only making it harder for gay actors to make the decision to come out.
Actress Kristin Chenoweth
, Hayes's co-star in Promises, Promises, rose to Hayes's defense. Posting to Newsweek.com, Chenoweth noted that Hayes was nominated for Drama League
, Outer Critics Circle
and Tony Award
s and that "thousands of people have traveled from all over the world to enjoy Hayes’ performance and don’t seem to have one single issue with his sexuality". She accused Setoodeh of engaging in selection bias
through his choices of actors upon whom he focused the article and found the entire piece "horrendously homophobic". Following Chenoweth's response, Glee creator Ryan Murphy called for a boycott of Newsweek, writing in an open letter, "This article is as misguided as it is shocking and hurtful....I extend an open invitation to Mr. Setoodeh to come to the writers room of our show, and perhaps pay a set visit....Hopefully, some of the love we attempt to spread will rub off on Mr. Setoodeh — a gay man deeply in need of some education — and he not only apologizes to those he has deeply offended but pauses before he picks up his poison pen again to work through the issues of his own self loathing." In a second open letter, Murphy announced that Setoodeh had accepted his invitation and would meet with Glees writers and observe casting sessions. "I hope observing this process firsthand — and talking with our cast — will be illuminating to Mr. Setoodeh, and inform his future journalistic endeavors."
Jarrett Barrios
, president of the LGBT media watchdog organization Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
(GLAAD) joined with openly gay Academy Award
-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black
to take Setoodeh to task, writing for The Hollywood Reporter
:
Several openly gay actors, including Cheyenne Jackson
, Michael Urie
, Jane Lynch
and Cynthia Nixon
strongly criticized Setoodeh's article.
Months after the article appeared. Groff spoke with The Independent
about it. Comparing the article to a bad review based on an actor's not using an appropriate accent for a role, Groff said "You just have to take it like any good or bad review, and try to let it roll off your back. I've played all kinds of characters, with all kinds of sexuality, and I hope to go on doing that."
Newsweek
Newsweek culture editor Marc Peyser sat down with Dustin Lance Black and Jarrett Barrios to discuss the fallout from Setoodeh's article and the broader issues of being openly gay in Hollywood. Barrios and Black continued to point out what they viewed as attacks on the ability and talent of gay actors and discussed whether an actor at the top of his or her profession could maintain a career after coming out.
wrote a piece for The Huffington Post
in which he asserted that people being critical of Setoodeh were missing the point. Assuring readers that Setoodeh is "on the side of the good guys", Sorkin wrote, "The problem doesn't have anything to do with sexual preference. The problem has everything to do with the fact that we know too much about each other and we care too much about what we know. In one short decade we have been reconditioned to be entertained by the most private areas of other people's lives." Rather than directing ire at Setoodeh or boycotting Newsweek, celebrities should "[b]oycott the red carpet instead. You're going to win the Emmy, Ryan, and you're going to get the whole publicity bump that comes with it. You and your cast should proudly walk past every microphone that's shoved in your faces."
Writing for The Hollywood Reporter
, Andrew Wallenstein wrote that he could not understand what Setoodeh supposedly did wrong. Asserting (without explaining how) that "sexual orientation can distort a performance, and in more ways than one", Wallenstein continues, "there is always the possibility that even the most brilliant closeted actor in the most incredibly scripted heterosexual role could fall short, especially in a romantic lead role". Gay actors, he wrote, should be considered for straight leading roles but they may not be successful in playing them, and it is possible that Setoodeh merely identified two who cannot. Regardless of whether that is true or not, people should not "vilify those who dare to speak their mind even when being unkind".
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine writer Ramin Setoodeh in which he asserts that openly gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
actors are not capable of convincingly playing straight characters. Setoodeh's article provoked strong reactions from both within and outside the entertainment industry.
Straight Jacket
In a Newsweek article titled "Straight Jacket" dated April 26, 2010, journalist Ramin Setoodeh reviewed the BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
revival of Promises, Promises
Promises, Promises
Promises, Promises is a musical based on the 1960 film The Apartment. The music is by Burt Bacharach, lyrics by Hal David, and book by Neil Simon. Musical numbers for the original Broadway production were choreographed by Michael Bennett; Robert Moore directed and David Merrick produced...
starring Sean Hayes
Sean Hayes (actor)
Sean Patrick Hayes is an American actor and comedian. He is widely known for his role as Jack McFarland in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, for which he won an Emmy Award, four SAG Awards, one American Comedy Award, and six Golden Globes nominations.He also portrayed comedian Jerry Lewis in the...
as the male lead. Hayes had recently come out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
as gay in an interview with the LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
-interest The Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
magazine. Setoodeh found Hayes's performance "wooden and insincere, like he's trying to hide something, which of course he is". Setoodeh also challenged the acting ability of openly gay actor Jonathan Groff
Jonathan Groff
Jonathan Drew Groff is an American singer-songwriter, stage, television and film actor. He originated the role of Melchior Gabor in the stage musical Spring Awakening and appeared as Jesse St...
, who had recently joined the cast of Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
. While recognizing Groff as "a knockout singer and a heartthrob" for his Broadway performance in Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening is a rock musical adaptation of the controversial 1892 German play of the same title by Frank Wedekind. It features music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater. Set in late-19th century Germany, it concerns teenagers who are discovering the inner and outer tumult of...
, Setoodeh found that Groff's television performance was "off" and distracting. From these two performances, along with how Setoodeh's perceptions of the performances of actors Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
, Tab Hunter
Tab Hunter
Tab Hunter is an American actor, singer, former teen idol and author who has starred in over forty major films.-Background:...
, Van Johnson
Van Johnson
Van Johnson was an American film and television actor and dancer who was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios during and after World War II....
and Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
—closeted or semi-closeted during their careers but now known to have been gay—changed with his knowledge of the actors' homosexuality, Setoodeh concluded that once the public learns that an actor is gay the actor can no longer convincingly play straight characters. Setoodeh acknowledged the ability of actors Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris is an American actor, singer, director, and magician.Prominent roles of his career include the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D., Colonel Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers, the womanizing Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, a fictionalized version of himself in the Harold...
and Portia de Rossi
Portia de Rossi
Portia Lee James DeGeneres , known professionally as Portia de Rossi , is an Australian-American actress, best known for her roles as lawyer Nelle Porter on the television series Ally McBeal and Lindsay Bluth Fünke on the sitcom Arrested Development...
to play straight characters on television (on How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby with narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting...
and Better Off Ted
Better Off Ted
Better Off Ted is an American satirical situation comedy series, created and written by Victor Fresco , who also serves as the show's Executive Producer...
respectively) but dismissed them with the claim that they are playing caricatures, not characters.
Backlash
The day after the Newsweek article appeared online, LGBT media website AfterElton.com denounced Setoodeh and his conclusions. Editor Michael Jensen, noting previous articles by Setoodeh in which he claimed that effeminate characters on television were harmful to the gay movement and seemed to suggest that openly gay teenage murder victim Lawrence KingE.O. Green School shooting
The E.O. Green School shooting was the February 12, 2008, killing of Lawrence "Larry" Fobes King who was a 15-year-old gay student at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California, United States...
was partially to blame for his own murder because of his effeminate self-expression, pondered whether Setoodeh's opinion on openly gay actors was rooted in some issue of Setoodeh's own with effeminate men. Jensen questioned what Setoodeh, himself openly gay, hoped to accomplish with the article and asserted that by writing it, Setoodeh was only making it harder for gay actors to make the decision to come out.
Actress Kristin Chenoweth
Kristin Chenoweth
Kristin Chenoweth is an American singer and actress, with credits in musical theatre, film and television. She is best known on Broadway for her performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown , for which she won a Tony Award, and for originating the role of Glinda in the musical...
, Hayes's co-star in Promises, Promises, rose to Hayes's defense. Posting to Newsweek.com, Chenoweth noted that Hayes was nominated for Drama League
Drama League Award
The Drama League Awards, created in 1935, honor distinguished productions and performances both on Broadway and Off-Broadway, in addition to recognizing exemplary career achievements in theatre, musical theatre, and directing...
, Outer Critics Circle
Outer Critics Circle Award
The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season. The awards are decided upon by theater critics who review for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media outlets...
and Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
s and that "thousands of people have traveled from all over the world to enjoy Hayes’ performance and don’t seem to have one single issue with his sexuality". She accused Setoodeh of engaging in selection bias
Selection bias
Selection bias is a statistical bias in which there is an error in choosing the individuals or groups to take part in a scientific study. It is sometimes referred to as the selection effect. The term "selection bias" most often refers to the distortion of a statistical analysis, resulting from the...
through his choices of actors upon whom he focused the article and found the entire piece "horrendously homophobic". Following Chenoweth's response, Glee creator Ryan Murphy called for a boycott of Newsweek, writing in an open letter, "This article is as misguided as it is shocking and hurtful....I extend an open invitation to Mr. Setoodeh to come to the writers room of our show, and perhaps pay a set visit....Hopefully, some of the love we attempt to spread will rub off on Mr. Setoodeh — a gay man deeply in need of some education — and he not only apologizes to those he has deeply offended but pauses before he picks up his poison pen again to work through the issues of his own self loathing." In a second open letter, Murphy announced that Setoodeh had accepted his invitation and would meet with Glees writers and observe casting sessions. "I hope observing this process firsthand — and talking with our cast — will be illuminating to Mr. Setoodeh, and inform his future journalistic endeavors."
Jarrett Barrios
Jarrett Barrios
Jarrett Tomás Barrios is a politician, activist, and executive, currently serving as the chief executive of the American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts. He was a member of both the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Massachusetts Senate and became the first Latino and first openly...
, president of the LGBT media watchdog organization Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is a non-governmental media monitoring organization which promotes the image of LGBT people in the media...
(GLAAD) joined with openly gay Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black
Dustin Lance Black
Dustin Lance Black is an American screenwriter, director, film and television producer, and LGBT rights activist. He has won two Writers Guild of America Awards for his work on the television series Big Love and an Academy Award for the 2008 film Milk.-Early life:Black was born in Sacramento,...
to take Setoodeh to task, writing for The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
:
"The whole posse of off-kilter anecdotes in "Straight Jacket" seem only to confirm one thing: America is starting to embrace open gay and lesbian actors in heterosexual roles on stage and screen and Setoodeh himself is not yet ready to. In one example, Setoodeh goes out of his way to call Sean Hayes "queeny" and assert it as a disqualifier for his straight role in "Promises, Promises." It's when the author peddles tired stereotypes like a "queeny" that the piece leans away from reality and tilts toward openly gay Setoodeh's own issues with sexuality and femininity. The truth is, the glass ceiling Setoodeh posits has been constructed by his own arguments -- ones that ignore fact after fact about the direction Hollywood is headed in 2010. Maybe Setoodeh can't see 'Glee' and 'Promises, Promises' except through a lens of dark stereotypes he's inherited. Maybe he's got some axe to grind. But whatever the reason, with the stakes so high for gay Americans at this moment, it is no excuse for his editors inflicting such hurtful — and baseless — musings on the readers of Newsweek. We'd all have been better off leaving Setoodeh's tortured thoughts on his therapist's couch and leaving baseless stories like this one on the editor's desk."GLAAD further called upon Newsweek and Setoodeh to issue an apology.
Several openly gay actors, including Cheyenne Jackson
Cheyenne Jackson
Cheyenne Jackson is an American actor and singer. He started in regional theater when he moved to Seattle, and after moving to New York City, made his 2002 Broadway theatre debut understudying both male leads in the Tony Award-winning musical Thoroughly Modern Millie...
, Michael Urie
Michael Urie
Michael Lorenzo Urie is an American actor, television producer and director, best known for his portrayal of Marc St. James on the ABC dramedy series Ugly Betty.-Personal life:...
, Jane Lynch
Jane Lynch
Jane Marie Lynch is an American comedian, actress and singer. She gained fame in Christopher Guest's improv mockumentary pictures such as Best in Show and is currently best known for playing the role of Sue Sylvester in the television series Glee...
and Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....
strongly criticized Setoodeh's article.
Months after the article appeared. Groff spoke with The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
about it. Comparing the article to a bad review based on an actor's not using an appropriate accent for a role, Groff said "You just have to take it like any good or bad review, and try to let it roll off your back. I've played all kinds of characters, with all kinds of sexuality, and I hope to go on doing that."
Setoodeh's response
On May 10, 2010, Ramin Setoodeh wrote a piece responding to the controversy. Titling it "Out of Focus", Setoodeh asserted that his intention "was not to disparage my own community, but to examine an issue that is being swept under the rug", the issue supposedly being that society as a whole has trouble accepting openly gay actors in straight roles, and that he wanted to start a debate on the subject. He characterized much of the criticism directed at him as "attacks" and said that his opponents were twisting his words. He denied assertions that he is self-loathing or homophobic. This prompted AfterElton.com editor Jensen to accuse Setoodeh of "play[ing] the victim card" and failing to address any of the criticisms that were leveled at the article. "If his goal was to start a 'debate,' and he says it was, it's telling how uninterested he seems to be in actually having that debate."Newsweek' s response
Newsweek culture editor Marc Peyser sat down with Dustin Lance Black and Jarrett Barrios to discuss the fallout from Setoodeh's article and the broader issues of being openly gay in Hollywood. Barrios and Black continued to point out what they viewed as attacks on the ability and talent of gay actors and discussed whether an actor at the top of his or her profession could maintain a career after coming out.Defending Setoodeh
Screenwriter and producer Aaron SorkinAaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Social Network, and Moneyball.After graduating from Syracuse...
wrote a piece for The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
in which he asserted that people being critical of Setoodeh were missing the point. Assuring readers that Setoodeh is "on the side of the good guys", Sorkin wrote, "The problem doesn't have anything to do with sexual preference. The problem has everything to do with the fact that we know too much about each other and we care too much about what we know. In one short decade we have been reconditioned to be entertained by the most private areas of other people's lives." Rather than directing ire at Setoodeh or boycotting Newsweek, celebrities should "[b]oycott the red carpet instead. You're going to win the Emmy, Ryan, and you're going to get the whole publicity bump that comes with it. You and your cast should proudly walk past every microphone that's shoved in your faces."
Writing for The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
, Andrew Wallenstein wrote that he could not understand what Setoodeh supposedly did wrong. Asserting (without explaining how) that "sexual orientation can distort a performance, and in more ways than one", Wallenstein continues, "there is always the possibility that even the most brilliant closeted actor in the most incredibly scripted heterosexual role could fall short, especially in a romantic lead role". Gay actors, he wrote, should be considered for straight leading roles but they may not be successful in playing them, and it is possible that Setoodeh merely identified two who cannot. Regardless of whether that is true or not, people should not "vilify those who dare to speak their mind even when being unkind".