Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
Never too highbrow not to enjoy a little trashy gossip, Torontoist noticed a minor celebrity firestorm this week when recently beefed-up Canada.com boldly dropped a bomb into another actor's closet. The report multiplied instantly across celebrity blogs and caused a publicist to quickly respond with what some are calling an "inning."
The subject was Neil Patrick Harris, who according to the Canada.com report, nepotistically landed a role on TV series How I Met Your Mother for his "long time sweetheart" David Burtka. Harris's publicist immediately released a statement claiming that the former Doogie Howser, M.D. was "not of that persuasion." Torontoist assumes that he's not referring to Harris's alleged nepotism.
Since receiving such anthropologically fascinating comments to our Lukas Rossi post, Torontoist might, perhaps, maybe have been ever-so-slightly curious to what the message boards had to say.
Commenters on IMDb claimed, "I'd have to erase all my fantasies...his astrology chart is a perfect match for mine," and "on harold and kumar do white castle he was holding a chicks boobs so i don't think so." We wonder if this fan also believes that Harris graduated Princeton at ten to become a doctor at fourteen.
There were the inevitable bible lessons, and one poor dear even brought forth the old chestnut, "but he doesn't look gay." Readers of Towleroad and Perez Hilton also anonymously claimed first-hand knowledge, but had little proof other than hearsay.
Torontoist doesn't particularly care what "persuasion" Neil Patrick Harris is -- unless he gives us an exclusive, of course -- but we really gotta give props to our pals over at Canada.com for breaking the story if it turns out to be true. Considering that they had pretty good exclusives on Tori Spelling and the Lavigne-Whibley wedding recently, CanWest seems to be stepping-up their tabloid game. At the risk of a beatdown from the diminutive Shinan Govani, we suggest that they hire local blogger Faded Youth for some future scrappy commentary.
For now, we'll just fan the flames with some sensationalistic, out-of-context photos of Harris and hope that his publicist (or David Burtka's) calls us to clarify immediatement. We're also interested in hearing our readers' thoughts on the outing of public figures, so hit up the comments, folks.
UPDATE: Harris confirmed to People on November 3 that he is "very contently" gay. Defamer covered the original story here and the Toronto Star wrote about the resulting aftermath here.
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Cribbing from last Thursday's Social Studies column in the Mop and Pail.
In his forthcoming book Big Babies (Granta), Michael Bywater has some suggestions for being an adult, including:
...
Ignore celebrities, except when they're doing what they are celebrated for doing.
ummm...i don't care who's holes harris plays harry houdini with as long as that person is of consenting age ... unless of course it's my mom, caue that would be just wrong, and i'd have to beat him up ...
I didn't realize he was back on TV.
"unless of course it's my mom, caue that would be just wrong, and i'd have to beat him up ..."
But the article seems to allege that it would more likely be your DAD'S hole's...so, would that make you feel any different?
I think that people, by default, are entitled to privacy -- even celebrities when in a private setting -- but then there's the question of denial. If a publicist or an actor vehemently denies it, but it can be proven to be true because of public appearances, online cruising, etc., do they lose the right to that privacy?
That being said, the whole "is s/he gay?" rumour should theoretically be harmless, but even the speculation can still (allegedly) be damaging to a Hollywood career, the same way that getting older or fatter can change a casting agent's mind, as repellent as that is. Some argue that it's not fair to the celebrities who have been brave enough to acknowledge their sexuality. Others say that being a public person, by its very definition, means that the topic is fair game. Some believe that high visibility encourages discussion and compassion over the issue.
I think it's more of an problem with politicians (Mark Foley, for example) because they vote on issues that may even be to their detriment, perhaps in an attempt to keep the heat off.
Uhhh this is has been fairly common knowledge on celeb boards (yeah I'm trashy, but c'mon, WWTDD and The Superficial give you some VERY nice pictures!). I think NPH was actually out before he got his series last year, which may have resulted in him pulling a Tom Cruise and running for the closet.
I just filled out your survey and I wish there was a choice of what reader DON'T want on your site. This post would have been the perfect example.
It is wasting valuable bytes on your server.
out them.
they deserve to be out, especially if they lie about it.
Faded Youth is the best blog EVA!!!
Where is that totally amazing picture of Doogie from? Spider neck-tatoos? Painted nipples? How did this look never catch on?
It's when he played "The Emcee" in Cabaret a few years ago. At least he wore a bow tie...nothing goes classier with a painted nipple.
Doogie has officially re-affirmed his outness. ABC.com amongst others has the announcment direct from Neil.
I'm old enough to vaguely remember that each episode of DHMD closed with Doogie writing his thoughts and opinions into his computer. An M.D. at fourteen, excellent typist and the world's first blogger...was there anything little Doogie couldn't do?