Wednesday 26 March 2008

Honesty vs. Career

Q: What do you think would happen if a major male movie star like Jake Gyllenhaal or Ben Stiller came out? -- Anson, Billings, MT

A: Assuming it’s someone at the peak of his career like Gyllenhaal or Stiller, and not a character actor like Ian McKellen or a “respected elder” like Jack Nicholson, I think it would all depend on how much money his next movie made. If the movie was a hit, he’d be lionized and hailed as a trailblazer in the media, and the offers would pour in (even as he’d be ridiculed and attacked on right-wing talk radio and on the “comedy” circuit; the paparazzi and online gossipmongers would be especially vicious).

But if that actor’s next movie tanked—and this is more likely, since most movies disappoint—well, that failure would be seen as instant confirmation of the “fact” that audiences won’t accept a gay male leading man…and that actor’s career would take a serious, perhaps non-recoverable hit. He’d still have to deal with all the nasty ridicule from right-wing talk radio and the online gossipmongers, but he probably wouldn’t get much more leading man studio work. He’d probably have no choice but to gravitate to character work or television, where he’d have another shot at stardom…but a television career would, again, depend on the success of his initial offering. If that first show failed, he’d probably have to take a few years off and hope for a comeback once things calmed down a bit.

How do I know this would happen? Well, I don’t, of course; it’s all speculation. But it’s pretty close to what happened to Ellen DeGeneres (and Anne Heche, for that matter).

Source: Ask the Flying Monkey (March 25, 2008) by Brent Hartinger

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's hoping that WFT1 finally closes down and people come over here to comment. It would be nice to have another place in addition to OMG.

Anonymous said...

Forgot to add, I think you're doing a nice job here.

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work Jackie. I think things will pick up for you when and if ever WFT 1 does go away. I hope you are able to keep things together. Good luck.

Anonymous said...

Ahh, Will and Grace shopping and packing on the pounds, with Grace's two rugrats in tow. Lots of hunky men around for Will to look at when he gets bored (with that bad ankle). Of course, the whole thing is timed to coincide with a movie starring Grace's x-husband *and* the woman he left Grace for, a woman almost ten years his junior. Almost as much of a coincidence as Grace showing up in NY, and Will's parents and sister just happen to be in Paris. Life's little coincidences.

Well, nothing cures bitterness and jealousy like a margarita and shopping with your gal-pal, your rug-rats and twenty of your favorite friends from the paparrazzi core.
Oh look, out in the ocean! What do we see? Future Oscars and Golden Globes fading even further into the distance.?

Yes, girls and boys, the whole thing is... what's Jake's favorite word? Hilarious? Actually, the word I would use is a *joke*, and the joke is not on us.

What a mess.

The entire enterprise reeks (no pun intended) of pr exhaustion. They look like two people dragging each other through a series of boring museum exhibits. All I every see is "are we there yet?"

Jackie said...

Jake is right - hilarious is the right word for Phonyspoon.