Tuesday, April 01, 2008
I'm not outing Jay Leno
I have no idea if Jay Leno is gay or not. My gaydar always fired when I saw him on TV in the early days. And his obsession with gay jokes always made me wonder a little bit more. He makes a lot of anti-gay jokes, A LOT. It's nice to see someone finally called him out on it.Rewind to last week. Ryan Phillipe talked on air with Ellen DeGeneres about his first acting role, as a gay teenager on a daytime soap. It was pretty courageous of him to accept the role. Here's the video of him and Ellen:
Then, when he was on Leno's show. In response to the Ellen piece, the late-night talk show host took the low road, made fun of Phillipe, and asked him to give his "gayest look." Ugh.
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation called him out on it. Perhaps now he'll lay off the gay obsession. GLAAD sent this around tonight:
"In talking about Ryan's first role, I realize that what I said came out wrong," the host said in a statement. "I certainly didn't mean any malice. I agree it was a dumb thing to say, and I apologize." Leno also called GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano directly to extend an olive branch.
Phillippe, on the show to promote his new film Stop-Loss, got his acting break on One Life to Live playing daytime television's first gay teen character. Leno riffed on the sexuality of the character, asking Phillippe to reenact his work by giving his "gayest look" to the camera. Phillippe tried to laugh it off, but Leno continued his misguided use of adolescent humor. The visibly flustered actor stood up and jokingly threatened to leave but stayed for the rest of the interview adding, "This may be my last visit."
"We are proud of Ryan for refusing to participate in Leno's thoughtless attempt at humor," GLAAD's Giuliano said after the incident. "Under the guise of comedy, the talk show host is demonstrating a lack of respect for the gay community and insensitivity to both his co-workers and the audience, to whom he owes an apology."
By: Michael Rogers
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