Richard Hatch: The Naked Truth

As Richard Hatch returns to reality TV to face Donald Trump on Celebrity Apprentice, the Survivor legend worries he might be sent back to prison for more tax-related problems. Can his gay wiles win him another battle?

When The Advocate interviewed Richard Hatch for an October 2000 cover story, the gay, 6-foot-4 Rhode Island native had just won the wildly popular premiere season of Survivor, a million-dollar victory some fans viewed as a metaphor for a gay man’s survival in a hostile heterosexual world. More than 10 years later, the snakelike strategist is equally famous for getting bitten by the IRS for tax evasion, a conviction that landed him in prison for nearly four years. Now free to compete on the fourth edition of Celebrity Apprentice, which premieres March 6th on NBC, the 49-year-old Hatch talks prison sex and the ongoing legal troubles that threaten his alliance with the gay tribe.

The Advocate: I can’t believe this is your first chat with The Advocate since 2000.
Richard Hatch: Well, you know, that whole prison thing can get in the way.

Oh, we’ll get to that. But when you last spoke to us, you still had very little sense of what your Survivor win meant to the gay audience. How has your relationship to the gay community evolved over the past decade?
As time unfolded, I started to recognize what my being on the show and being openly gay meant to people, because they started expressing it to me more and more. It’s hard to think about having the kind of impact that it turns out I had. To this day, people still write to me to talk about their experience of seeing somebody not afraid to be who they are. As a kid, I didn’t struggle as much as the kids who contacted me after the show, so it’s been humbling and rewarding, and I’ve really come to respect the influence that I’ve had.

You’ve said that your being gay was a main reason for your Survivor victory, in part because it taught you “to interact assertively with people.” Did you use your sexuality to your advantage on Celebrity Apprentice?
I think so, yes. [Laughs] I’m always using my gay wiles, but you’ll have to tune in to see how. But I never expected that some people might not even know I’m gay.

When you first saw your competition on Celebrity Apprentice, did you immediately have an idea of whom you’d befriend? All strategy aside, the little gay boy in me would’ve made a beeline to Lisa Rinna.
I did make a beeline to her. I adore her, and I couldn’t help it. I’m totally drawn to her, and we got along really well. She’s phenomenal. I love her because she’s so real. But the strategy part of the game was very similar to Survivor for me in that I needed information before I could fully strategize. I didn’t know anyone on Survivor, and even though I might’ve known who they were, I didn’t really know anyone in Celebrity Apprentice either. You need to get a feel for people before you can decide how they’re going to be helpful.

NeNe Leakes is already making headlines for her antagonistic behavior on the show. Are you a Real Housewives of Atlanta fan?
Oh, sure. NeNe’s a character. She’s just larger than life. When I meet famous people, very rarely are they who I think people might imagine them to be, but NeNe is. I’m drawn to her because she speaks her mind, and I don’t deal well with the whole superficial, hidden agenda thing. We actually got along well.

Were you starstruck by anyone?
Starstruck isn’t in my vocabulary — I’ve never really understood it — but I’m often impressed with goodness, kindness, and realness, and I did encounter that on this show. Some people were just wonderful to be around. And some weren’t. Irrationality is very difficult for me, so maybe you can make some speculation there.

Did you encounter homophobia from any of the contestants?
No. Other than with my legal battles and in the courts, I really haven’t encountered that in my life. Now I know what it is, but I certainly didn’t encounter it on Celebrity Apprentice.

Did you get the sense that Donald Trump is gay-friendly?
I had a great sense of that from before, encountering him a number of times in a number of situations. He even invited me to sit on the dais for his roast at the Friars’ Club, which I did. He’s a good guy. He loves women, so I don’t think he could relate to my being gay if his life depended on it, but I don’t think he cares.

Mr. Trump famously fired former Celebrity Apprentice contestant Khloe Kardashian because of a past DUI offense. Were you worried that Mr. Trump might judge you on your personal legal issues instead of the competition at hand?
Oh, absolutely. Obviously we’re not that close, so I’m certain that, as with most people, he only knows as much as he can know through the media. He has to be concerned about a person who’s been charged and convicted, though wrongfully so. I’m sure there was some tentativeness and wondering there, and that’s just what I encounter as a result of what’s happened.

That hardly seems fair.
It is fair because that’s life. You can’t know who somebody is until you spend time with them and process whatever data you have, valid or not. People don’t have an accurate understanding of who I am, and most of what the media has portrayed about my situation isn’t complete or accurate, but I’m used to it. I move forward, and hopefully someday people will understand.

As we’ve discussed, Survivor positioned you as a role model for the gay community. When the media’s focus turned toward your legal woes, did it feel like you had let the community down?
Absolutely. Well, I don’t know that I felt I had personally let them down, but I felt as if I was learning how undermined we as a community can be because of our second-class status in this culture and the pervasiveness of bigotry that I didn’t know was as powerful as it is. So, yeah, given the strong guy that I consider myself to be, I didn’t expect for anyone to abuse me the way I’ve been abused. It was a disappointment.

Even with some time having passed since your May 2009 release, you fully stand by your previous statements that antigay discrimination played a major part in your conviction?
It’s incontrovertible. This court refused to allow us to ask potential or selected jurors about their feelings toward homosexuals, even when many of them had submitted questionnaires that claimed “I could never find that fag innocent,” “I hate queers,” or “not a chance I could serve on this jury” — really unbelievable, blatant, clearly spoken homophobia that I didn’t even know existed. But I don’t blame the jurors; I blame the court and the bias of that particular judge from the outset.

Though most of your sentence was served at the Federal Correctional Institution in West Virginia, which is a minimum-security facility, the first six months of your sentence were served in a maximum-security facility. We’ve all heard the same horror stories, so how did you feel going to prison as a famously gay man?
I was never afraid of being raped or of anything physical because I’m a healthy, strong guy, and I’ve always held my own. I also know that people are people, wherever they are, so I truly didn’t have the sense that they were going to be animals in prison. But it’s fascinating to me how sex is such a part of that all-male environment. In the Federal Correctional Institution, where I spend three years, there were 1,500 guys, one of whom was an in-process transsexual who was in there for prostitution. Her breasts had already grown in, so she ended up being removed from the prison after being raped. There’s also a lot more education than I imagined — access to information about how disease is transmitted, what to do if you feel threatened, etc. — but there was quite a bit of sex in there.

Were you able to connect with other gay people in prison? I want to imagine you in there like Jim Carrey in I Love You Philip Morris.
I haven’t seen that yet, but yeah, I met quite a few people in prison who were gay. There were even some gay people on staff.

Were gay staffers generally friendlier or more lenient?
No. Like with anything, it ran the spectrum. There’s as much homophobia among gay people as there is among straight people, and with gay people it’s often more damaging and destructive. Just look at our politicians. And with positions of power often come exaggerated homophobia, gay or not.

Have you maintained any of the friendships you made with gay prisoners?
Well, there are rules. Being currently on supervised release, I’m not allowed to be in contact with any felon with whom I was in prison.

You married your partner, Emiliano Cabral, in Nova Scotia in 2005. How did your relationship survive your long absence?
I’m the luckiest man on the planet. Our relationship is as strong as it has ever been. I adore him. But living in a country that doesn’t recognize our marriage is still infuriating beyond description. We’re in our eighth year now, and I can’t even begin to describe the additional torture, stress, and difficulty this has created only because we’re gay.

I assume there were no conjugal visits.
No. And for the first six months, before I was moved to the Federal Correctional Institution in West Virginia, any visit with anyone was behind glass. The system is so broken that I don’t even know how to begin. That’s an entire topic I could go on about, and hopefully I will someday.

Aren’t you working on a book?
Oh, yeah. I wrote every day the entire time I was in prison. What publishers are waiting for and what I’m waiting for before accepting the offer is for the ending to be that I’m exonerated. It’s a heck of a battle, but I’m hopeful.

As recently as two weeks ago, it was reported that you might be headed back to jail. Should we be worried?
Absolutely you should be worried. I’m worried. Prosecutors are desperate to uphold this wrongful conviction. I’ve served nearly four years in prison, my entire sentence, and I’m on supervised release, which other people know as probation. I’ve also done everything humanly possible to comply with the original judge’s special conditions. One condition was that he ordered me to get mental health counseling. Probation got me a psychiatrist who said he didn’t understand why I was even there, so probation said I’d met that condition. The second condition was that he ordered me to amend my tax returns from 2000 and 2001, but they’re still the subject of an ongoing audit. To this day, the IRS has never given me a bill, so no taxes have ever been determined to be due. You can’t submit amended returns in the midst of an audit, not that I could submit them anyway because I haven’t been given figures as to how those returns should be amended. Not knowing what to do, the prosecutors just submitted their last brief on January 31, arguing to put me back in prison for not amending the returns. It’s infuriating. Now we’re waiting for the judge to decide what to do — decide whether this is a technical violation or whether I’m thumbing my nose at the court, which I’m obviously not. I’ve been in communication with probation this entire year and a half, and I have a hundred e-mails that express my cooperation with the IRS. But I’m still worried because I’ve seen what’s happened before. It’s not always about what’s true.

Here’s the million-dollar question: Considering all the problems that have stemmed from your Survivor winnings, do you wish you’d never won the damn prize in the first place?
That would be a waste of time, wouldn’t it? As an observer of life and one who lives it day by day, it is what it is. You take what you can from your experiences. It’s been devastating to me, my family, my friends, but I’m blown away and fascinated by what I’ve learned. Hopefully I’ll be able to make a huge contribution one day. Once I’m finally exonerated, I’ll have the credibility to make a difference that will affect many peoples’ lives.

Jamees Franco: "Maybe I'm Just Gay"

James Franco has played a good number of gay roles, most recently in the movies Milk and Howl—where he portrayed Harvey Milk’s longtime boyfriend Scott Smith and poet Allen Ginsberg, respectively. As a result, he’s faced a lot of questions about his own sexual orientation.

The actor, who told The Advocate last summer that he is straight, is now raising eyebrows by suggesting otherwise in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

“There are lots of other reasons to be interested in gay characters than wanting myself to go out and have sex with guys,” Franco tells Entertainment Weekly. “And there are also lots of other aspects about these characters that I’m interested in, in addition to their sexuality. So, in some ways it’s coincidental, in other ways it’s not. I mean, I’ve played a gay man who’s living in the ‘60s and ‘70s, a gay man who we depicted in the ‘50s, and one being in the ‘20s. And those were all periods when to be gay, at least being gay in public, was much more difficult. Part of what I’m interested in is how these people who were living anti-normative lifestyles contended with opposition. Or, you know what, maybe I’m just gay.”

Read more about the Entertainment Weekly interview click here.

Richard Chamberlain Doesn’t Advise Leading Men to Come Out, in The Advocate Interview

When he was a hot, young leading man on television’s Dr. Kildare then later on such classic miniseries as The Thorn Birds and Shogun, actor now openly gay actor Richard Chamberlain remained firmly in the closet.

In a new interview with Brandon Voss for The Advocate, the now 76-year-old Chamberlain surprisingly advises gay actors who are leading man types to do in 2010 what he did in the 60s, 70s, and 80s: stay in the closet!

“It’s complicated,” he says. “There’s still a tremendous amount of homophobia in our culture. It’s regrettable, it’s stupid, it’s heartless, and it’s immoral, but there it is. For an actor to be working is a kind of miracle, because most actors aren’t, so it’s just silly for a working actor to say, “Oh, I don’t care if anybody knows I’m gay” — especially if you’re a leading man. Personally, I wouldn’t advise a gay leading man-type actor to come out.”

Brandon follows up by asking: “When can a leading man come out – when he’s 69 and promoting a memoir?” (As Chamberlain did in 2004 with Shattered Faith)

“I have no idea,” the actor says. “Despite all the wonderful advances that have been made, it’s still dangerous for an actor to talk about that in our extremely misguided culture. Look at what happened in California with Proposition 8. Please, don’t pretend that we’re suddenly all wonderfully, blissfully accepted.”

Arrrg! With the success of such openly gay stars as Neil Patrick Harris, John Barrowman, Alan Cumming and others who can play straight or gay roles, this is exactly the kind of attitude that will never change things.

I wish Chamberlain, who will be guest-starring on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters as a love interest for Saul (Ron Rifkin), were more encouraging of actors coming and working to help change this viewpoint. Maybe Brothers & Sisters cast member, the openly gay Luke Macfarlane, can talk some sense into him!

To read the rest of Brandon’s interview with Chamberlain, go to Advocate.com.

MSNBC Takes on Thomas Roberts Full Time

Thomas Roberts has been upgraded to full-time status at MSNBC, becoming an anchor during the network’s daytime programming hours.

Roberts has served as a part-time anchor for the network since April. Roberts filled in for Keith Olbermann last month after the Countdown host was suspended for making political contributions without prior approval.

Roberts previously served as host of The Advocate On-Air.

Mariah, Unwrapped

In high spirits with another hit holiday album, Merry Christmas II You, Mariah Carey remembers her guncles, addresses bisexual rumors, and considers the possibility of a miraculous gay birth in this recent interview with The Advocate.

To use her words, Mariah Carey is having a Christmas music moment. Merry Christmas, her 1994 holiday album, yielded the seasonal staple “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” Merry Christmas II You, Carey’s successful new yuletide sequel, contains first single “Oh Santa!” which is perched atop Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart like a perfect angel.

Last night, the 40-year-old Grammy-winner starred in Mariah Carey: Merry Christmas to You, a music special that featured an appearance by Mimi’s mother, former opera diva Patricia Carey.

On December 17th she’ll be seen in TNT’s Christmas in Washington special, and she’ll also join the festivities for ABC’s broadcast of the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade. Now Carey, who’s expecting her first child with husband Nick Cannon, regifts the love of her loyal gay fans — and stuffs our stocking with the truth about her night with Lindsay Lohan.

The Advocate: No one does contemporary Christmas pop like you, Mariah. Do you really love the holidays, or are you just faking it?
Mariah Carey: You can’t really fake that. I don’t think people who don’t love Christmas could translate that into a great Christmas song. People ask me, “How do you make these songs feel like they’re already classics?” The point is that I do love the holidays so much, and I love writing songs and making records, so it seems like a natural fusion for me. I did the first Christmas album so long ago, and then every year I’d listen to it and pick it apart. So I needed to make a new Christmas album for myself as well as for the fans. I wanted an album that I could listen to during the holidays.

I’ve read reports that your holiday repertoire might be made into a Broadway musical about your life as early as next year. What’s the real story?
It definitely wouldn’t be about my life; start that rumor and they’ll never lose it, so make sure people know it’s not about my life. Right now we’re working on finding a script. We’ve been in discussions with HBO for over three years now. Everybody’s been very supportive of the project, but nobody wants to accept a script that’s not amazing. Anybody out there reading this who’s a writer or writer-in-training, we’re definitely accepting different ideas right now. Because it’s so important to me, I don’t want to make a mistake and have the script not be as good as the music. I want the script to be better than the music.

You’d rather debut your musical on TV than on Broadway?
A long time ago, the first idea I had was for it to be on Broadway and hopefully become a perennial. Then we spoke with HBO and got into discussions about making a movie musical. So it wouldn’t be a TV movie, because it’s not TV, it’s HBO.

Marc Shaiman, who worked as a writer-producer on Merry Christmas II You, would certainly be an asset on that musical project.
I love Marc Shaiman. He’s amazing, and I’d love to work with him again. Randy Jackson introduced me to him. When we sat down to write at the house in L.A., it was an amazing experience. After that, I was like, “He has to do the orchestrations for the entire album, because nobody else is coming close to what he’s doing, even in his demos.” And he’s hilarious. Being with him in person is almost as good as his e-mails.

Last year you made magic with filmmaker Lee Daniels in Precious, and now you’ve created another holiday miracle with Marc Shaiman. Not to detract from their talent, but is there something special about gay men that makes them a perfect creative match for you?
I mean, how could I say that there’s not? I can’t generalize too much because straight people I work with will be like, “Well, what does that say about me?” But it is true that there’s a certain chemistry there. Yes, their talents are gigantic, but they’re also open-minded, and it’s all about the shared references. I really clicked with Marc when we wrote our first song together, “Christmas Time Is in the Air Again,” because our references were so similar. His are way deeper than mine in terms of standards and older Broadway stuff, but he was surprised that I knew old standards that most people don’t know, because my mom would sing them when I was really little. And Lee’s another one that you just can’t help but love. He’s got his own unique personality, and we share so many of the same references as well. I can’t even think of all the crazy things we quote and laugh about.

Whether it’s those surprised concertgoers on Oprah last year or the “Party in the FIP” boys who just made a YouTube video for “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” your gay fans aren’t shy about expressing their love. When did you first feel that support from the gay audience?
I’ve never really categorized it like that. But I’ve always been able to connect with different kinds of people, because whoever connects with me realizes that I do truly appreciate and care about them. And ... wait, what was I saying? You touched on something I wanted to discuss ... Sorry, when you’re pregnant you don’t remember things from one second ago.

Your connection with gay fans.
Yeah, maybe part of the connection is that I do write songs from an outsider perspective. A lot of my die-hard gay fans don’t just know my singles, but they also know all the album cuts. I have songs about feeling different and alienated, because I grew up with my own issues, being biracial and not having money. Some of those lyrics can apply to anybody who feels different. My die-hard gay fans listen to songs like “Outside” and “Close My Eyes,” songs that most people wouldn’t know, and these songs have become anthemic for them for their own personal reasons.

Do you have any words of encouragement for the young victims of antigay bullying?
It’s horrible that it’s almost 2011 and this is still going on, but I don’t want to get on my podium and say, “Just keep believing!” — I know that’s cliché, and it would be typical of me to say something like that. It’s almost impossible to say anything, really, except you must be aware that dealing with that in high school is a passing place. You have to stay strong, rely on your true friends, and try to get through it, as opposed to drowning in it. Look at how many people suffered during high school and came out of it a better, stronger adult. That’s the thing to focus on.

You also returned the support from gay fans last year when you invited a young gay couple onstage at a Las Vegas concert to help facilitate their marriage proposal.
If two people want to get married, it’s their prerogative — we hope. Everybody should be able to do what they want to do and be in the pursuit of happiness. Ever since I was a little girl, my mother was very open-minded and had many different types of friends, so being gay never seemed wrong or strange to me. Her best friends were a gay couple, Ernie and Mort, and they kind of co-raised me. They were the nicest guys ever, and they would watch my little shows when I’d sing. Today, I guess they’d be called my guncles. Sometimes they’d put us up when we didn’t have a place to go. I couldn’t wait to go stay at their house because it was so beautifully done.

Are they still in your life?
One of them passed away. They weren’t together at the very end, but they were together for a long, long time.

Back to your gay fans, Marc Jacobs’s ex-boyfriend Jason Preston got a big tattoo of your name on his stomach a few years ago. Isn’t that a bit much?
I’ve seen it. How can I say it’s a bit much? No, it’s amazing. I mean, it is very surprising when you see something like that, but he’s a fun guy, so I thought it was adorable.

How might you and Nick handle it if your child turned out to be gay?
I guess we’d handle it as best we could in terms of being supportive.

You strike me as one of those people who might secretly hope for a gay son.
[Laughs] I just hope for whoever’s going to be happy and that I can be a great mother to.

What if you have a little lesbian who won’t wear your tight hand-me-down dresses and butterfly jewelry?
No comment. [Laughs] No, the thing is that you can’t try to make somebody something they’re not. Everybody’s like, “Oh, if she has a girl, everything’s going to be pink, blah, blah, blah.” But I don’t think you should go totally overboard on that. You should wait and see what the child wants.

What do you think about today’s female artists like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Ke$ha, and Christina Aguilera, who flirt with bisexuality in their lyrics, videos, and in the press? Many view it as a disingenuous marketing strategy.
Maybe it’s more a reflection of society becoming more accepting. Some of those different artists might really be expressing themselves, but yes, some might just be looking for a little more attention. You never know.

Bisexual rumors have surrounded you for years.
If it makes somebody happy to say that, then whatever, but that’s not the reality. I don’t have a discriminatory policy of who I’m friends with, so yes, I’m friends with women who are gay — gay, straight, it doesn’t matter to me. So I don’t get upset when I hear that, because it is what it is. I guess I could lie about it to seem more exciting.

Is Nick comfortable around your gay friends?
He’s fine. Honestly, he does his own thing and doesn’t really care what anybody else is doing. He’s just living his life and being happy.

Is it true that Lindsay Lohan has tried to seduce you?
No, but I have hung out with her at a club. She was with Sean Lennon, and they came over. I remember he was playing my Hello Kitty guitar, and we were all just singing, laughing, and making up songs. It really couldn’t have been more innocent.

Some reviews have referred to Burlesque as the new Glitter. Have you seen it?
I haven’t seen it, and I don’t feel like sitting in a movie theater right now. I can barely lie in bed and be comfortable. First I’m going to go see Elf, the Broadway musical, because I’m very focused on my Christmas music moment. But maybe I’ll see it when it comes out on DVD.

A Very Beekman Christmas

When The Advocate profiled partners Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell this past summer, their bold move from Manhattan to the 205-year-old Beekman Mansion on a 60-acre farm in upstate New York had become the focus of The Fabulous Beekman Boys, a reality series on the Discovery network’s Planet Green channel.

Not much has changed in the months since the first season aired — except the weather, as viewers will witness on The Fabulous Beekman Boys Holiday Special, a festive one-hour package that aired last night, on Planet Green. Ridge, who quit his job at Martha Stewart’s company to become a full-time farmer and Sharon Springs resident, reveals how he and Kilmer-Purcell keep warm and make their Christmas wishes come true.

The Advocate: I’ve seen pictures of your snow-covered farm on Planet Green’s website, and it looks like a postcard-worthy winter wonderland. Is it all cozy fireside hot chocolates up there, or is there a downside to winters at the Beekman?
Well, last year was my first full winter on the farm, and by the end of February, I understood why the suicide rate up here is so high. By the end of winter, you feel pretty miserable.

How do you and Josh warm up?
Literally or figuratively? [Laughs] It’s actually pretty hard to heat the house; it’s over 200 years old, so it’s very drafty. I pretty much confine myself to two rooms: the kitchen, where I can close the doors and start a fire, and the bedroom, where I can have a heated mattress pad on the bed. We’re also working a lot, so we try to stay active to keep the blood pumping.

What’s your favorite holiday tradition at the Beekman?
We have a long-standing tradition of going shopping for Christmas ornaments on the day after Christmas. Now we have a collection of over 1,000 ornaments. Our Christmas tree is a riot of color and styles with over 3,000 lights, so it’s a Christmas spectacular up there in our hallway.

Are the ornaments all one motif?
No, we don’t believe in having a themed tree. We like a cacophony of stuff.

I’m a fan of your farm-based Beekman 1802 product line. Out of all your goods, what’s the perfect stocking stuffer this year?
Probably our MilkShake, which is our goat’s-milk bath that comes with a dropper of an essential oil blend. It’s a great luxury that people probably wouldn’t normally buy for themselves, but it’s the perfect affordable treat to give as a gift.

Your holiday special promises previously unaired clips and bloopers. Can we look forward to anything especially embarrassing?
Well, Josh embarrasses himself a lot, no matter if it’s a blooper or not, so there’s plenty of that. Polka Spot, the llama diva, also has her own segment, because she’s really the breakout star of the show. Josh always had dreams of doing a Donny and Marie or a Sonny and Cher Christmas special, and I, of course, always had dreams of doing a Martha Stewart holiday special, so we tried to combine those things — on a much smaller budget.

The series has certainly increased your visibility. How has life changed in the four months since the first season aired?
Not a tremendous amount. We called our first season “our year of sacrifice,” because it was the first time in our 11-year relationship that Josh and I weren’t always together. But Josh is still working in the city to pay the mortgage on the farm. And for me, up at the farm full-time, it’s not like there’s paparazzi camping out. I still get up, do the chores, and go work in the shop, so life hasn’t really changed that much.

Surely you’re superstars up in Sharon Springs.
It’s funny, because nobody in Sharon Springs can get the channel. There are a couple places in the country where Time Warner can’t carry Planet Green, so a good portion of the people who live in our area haven’t even seen the show.

What can you tell us about season 2, which is scheduled to start in March?
We call season 2 “our million-dollar challenge.” I told Josh that if we can reach a million dollars in revenue over the year, that would be the cutoff point where he could quit his job and we could still cover our expenses on the farm. That’s what you’ll see us working toward. We’re filming season 2 through March 1, so we still don’t know if we’re going to make it.

For more information on The Fabulous Beekman Boys, click here.

Patrick Wilson Talks to The Advocate About His Gay Roles, His Gay Fan base & His Bare Ass

If Patrick Wilson is in a movie, you should always want to see it.

From his breakthrough in Angels in America to roles in Hard Candy, Little Children and Lakeview Terrace, he always delivers.

Lucky Brandon Voss got to chat with Patrick for The Advocate. Here are some highlights:

As an accomplished Broadway performer, were you aware of your gay fans before Angels?
Well, remember I did The Full Monty, so yeah, I was pretty conscious of the gay fans. [Laughs] But no amount of musicals can compare to the importance of Angels in the gay community, so I do think I gained a whole new legion of fans.

What does the support of the gay community mean to you?
It means a ton to me, and it’s something I take a lot of pride in. It’s silly in hindsight because everyone was awesome and convincing in their roles whatever their own sexual orientation is, but there were a few eyebrows raised before Angels came out because the majority of the male leads were straight. Regardless of the talent pool, people were like, How are they gonna pull this off? I understand the impact Angels has had on the gay community, so the fact that they thought I pulled it off was the best compliment I could get. I felt validated. You always hope you’ll have the confirmation of a core fan base; the gay community’s the core fan base of Angels, so that confirmation was a huge relief. Obviously, you don’t make a movie just for core fans, but that’s certainly where it starts.

You haven’t played gay since Angels. Why not?
There’s no rhyme and reason, but that is kind of funny, right? I really haven’t been offered a lot of gay characters. It didn’t get to the point where I auditioned, but I remember when Brokeback Mountain was happening early on—before they knew if it was going to work with Heath and Jake. But when I was sent the Brokeback Mountain script, I didn’t bat an eye. That was pretty soon after Angels came out, but I couldn’t have cared less if I only did two roles on screen and one was Joe Pitt and the other was in Brokeback. I don’t care whether a role’s gay or straight; if it’s good, it’s good.

As an actor who tackled one of the most memorable closet cases in contemporary literature, what’s your take on the Hollywood closet?
I don’t know—I feel like I could get in trouble either way. There are older actors that all of us in the business look at and think, Oh, come on. One side of me is like, Why don’t they just come out? But if they don’t want to, it’s nobody’s business. If coming out helps someone feel great and further a personal cause, that’s awesome, but I just wish no one cared. Every time I hear somebody came out, it doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s such a personal thing, and the last thing you’d want is for someone to feel like they needed to do it. I don’t know what that gains other than making some tabloid reader feel validated, like, “I knew it!” or “That’s shocking!” Then again, I don’t know that struggle. But no one’s calling me to ask about all the women I’ve slept with, so why does anyone need to tell people who they’re sleeping with? It’s a side of the business that I really detest. I don’t want anyone to know anything about me. You know, early on when we were dating, my wife asked me, “Did you care if anyone thought you were gay after Angels in America?” I said, “No, I hope they thought I was gay, Republican, a lawyer, and Mormon. Then I did my job.”

No complaints that you appear in various states of undress for almost every role, but your bare ass practically has more IMDb credits than you do. Have you ever felt sexually objectified?
I have, but not in the scenes that you’d think. You should talk to my lawyer, because if it were up to me I’d never do it except for when it’s really called for, like in Angels, Little Children, and Watchmen. Joe has to be naked in Angels because he has to strip everything away. You have to see them naked in Little Children because it’s got to be hot and raw like Body Heat. I had to be seen naked from behind in Watchmen because that’s one of the coolest panels in the comic. But then there are the things where a director will go, “Why don’t you be shirtless in this scene?” I’ll say, “Why am I shirtless?” “Uh…” “Ah, you see?!” At least I could justify it in Lakeview Terrace because it was 115 degrees out.

To read the entire interview with Patrick, go to Advocate.com.

James Franco Crossdresses for New Transgender Magazine Cover

James Franco is set to stun fans when new transgender magazine Candy goes on sale - he poses in drag on the cover.

The Milk star strutted his stuff for celebrity photographer Terry Richardson for the magazine's Fall-Winter 2010-2011 issue - and he's barely recognisable with his hair slicked back, and his face covered in blue eyeshadow and red lipstick.

According to The Huffington Post, Candy's editors describe the publication as "the first fashion magazine ever completely dedicated to celebrating transvestism, transexuality, cross dressing and androgyny, in all its manifestations".

The actor recently graced the cover of gay magazine The Advocate, in which he denied being homosexual despite constant speculation surrounding his sexuality.

He said: "Sure, I'd tell you if I was (gay). I guess the reason I wouldn't is because I'd be worried that it would hurt my career. I suppose that's the reason one wouldn't do that, right? But no, that wouldn't be something that would deter me. I'm going to do projects that I want to do."

James Franco: ‘I Don’t Smoke Pot - I’m Not Gay’

After taking roles in “Howl,” “Milk” and “Pineapple Express,” moviegoers have a few preconceived ideas about James Franco – and now the actor is setting the record straight.

“Everyone thinks I’m a stoner, and some people think I’m gay because I’ve played these gay roles,” James told The Advocate’s October issue. “That’s what people think, but it’s not true. I don’t smoke pot. I’m not gay.”

The actor understands why some of his colleagues might choose to keep their sexuality in the closet, but said he wouldn’t hide it if he were gay.

“I’d tell you if I was,” he told the mag. “I guess the reason I wouldn’t is because I’d be worried that it would hurt my career. I suppose that’s the reason one wouldn’t do that, right? But no, that wouldn’t be something that would deter me. I’m going to do projects that I want to do.”

In fact, James is tired of the typical big screen straight love story.

“In this history of cinema, there are so many heterosexual love stories,” he said. “It’s so hammered, so done. It’s just not that interesting to me. It’s more interesting to me to play roles and relationships that haven’t been portrayed as often.”

The only time when the actor’s team attempted to dissuade him from a taking a role was his recent foray into daytime TV as the character Franco on an ABC soap

“You want to know what my agents did try to talk me out of?” James said. “‘General Hospital.’ They didn’t think me acting in a soap opera was the greatest idea. But they know that I’ve always wanted to do a movie about the Beats, so no one tried to stop me from playing Allen Ginsberg.”

James is currently on the big screen in “Eat Pray Love,” and will play Ginsberg in “Howl” – opening in limited release on September 24. He’s also portraying Aron Ralston, a mountain climber who was forced his amputate his arm after getting trapped by a boulder, in the Danny Boyle-directed “127 Hours” – hitting theaters on November 5.

Out Actor Denis O’Hare talks to The Advocate About His Role as a Gay Vampire on “True Blood”

A really terrific interview has just been posted on Advocate.com with True Blood’s new vampire king, Denis O’Hare.

The Tony Award winning actor made his debut on Sunday’s episode as Russell Edgington, vampire king of Mississippi. He shows up with his handsome afterlife partner of 700 years.

Brandon Voss has a terrific chat with Denis and here are a few appetizers:

The Advocate: It’s great to see you playing a gay character in True Blood. You’ve played gay before in Take Me Out and An Englishman in New York, but you rarely take on gay roles, especially for an out actor. Has that been a conscious decision on your part?
Denis O’Hare: No. Years ago I went in for As Good as It Gets, that movie with Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, and Greg Kinnear. I auditioned for the gay part, and after I finished the audition the casting director rolled her eyes and said, “This is a gay character. I’m so tired of people playing gay people like they’re straight. This is a gay man.” I was like, “OK. Should I do it again?” She goes, “Yeah, make it gay!” So I went a little more in that direction, and it was fine, whatever. When we finished, she said, “So how’s your family? You’ve got a wife, right?” I said, “No. I have a boyfriend.” She said, “You’re gay? I thought you had a wife!” It was really revelatory to me that she had some weird assumption about how gay people were supposed to act. Somehow, because I wasn’t acting that way, I couldn’t possibly be gay. It was such a bizarre experience. So I guess to some straight casting directors, I’m not gay enough to play gay.

You’ve definitely played your share of straight jerks. So what did you think about Ramin Setoodeh’s Newsweek article?
I must admit I didn’t read it, so I shouldn’t even speak to it, but of course I have an opinion anyway. It annoyed me, but I thought it was more complicated than the ensuing discussion. I don’t think his point was that gay actors can’t convincingly be straight in roles; I think his point was that once the knowledge is out that those actors are gay, the audience is unwilling to suspend their disbelief. So I felt there was a finer point there that got lost in the stampede. His point has less to do with the ability of actors and more to do with society’s ongoing prejudices and our inability to cut a gay man the same kind of slack we’d cut Julia Roberts if she were playing a nuclear scientist. We could suspend our disbelief for that, but we can’t suspend our disbelief to accept that Sean Hayes is interested in sleeping with Kristin Chenoweth? That’s a problem.

True Blood is known for its gratuitous male nudity. Would you get naked for a scene if asked?
I was asked, and I’m in bed with somebody in episode 10. It’s just from the waist up, but I was wearing a teeny jockstrap thing. I’m 48, so I wasn’t quite hoping that’s the way my career would go, but I’m proud of how I look. I can’t compete with 25-year-old bodies, but I’m in pretty good shape. I did spend the previous two weeks doing a little extra at the gym.

Describe Russell and Talbot’s dynamic 700 years into the relationship.
What you’ll see is a marriage that’s well-traveled and a little frayed at the edges. These guys snipe and complain, but there’s always an incredible deep affection at the base of it. Theo and I worried that there were too many fighting scenes between us, but then we had this lovely scene later in the season, a lovely tender moment, where I finally get to put my hand on his cheek and basically talk about how much I care for him. It was a great relief to have that scene, because we kept talking about that every day of shooting: How do we show the love?

Go to Advocate.com to read the entire interview.

Belinda Carlisle Talks to The Advocate About Her Gay Son, Marriage Equality & More

Belinda Carlisle has just published her autobiography Lips Unsealed and it is filled with juicy stories about her years as lead singer of the Go-Gos and her addiction to cocaine.

She talked to Jeremy Kinser of The Advocate about that and more in a provocative new interview. Here is an excerpt:

ADVOCATE: You discuss your own experimenting by making out with fellow punk Alice Bag. What do you remember about that experience?
CARLISLE: I remember that we were on a bus bench on Vine Street in Hollywood, but back then everyone made out with each other. It was a genderless thing that you did and didn’t think twice about it. It was cool to be bisexual. There’s not a lot that I remember about it, but I’m sure Alice remembers it.

ADV: Were the Go-Gos ever pursued by lesbian groupies?
BC: The girls were much more aggressive than the boys. [Laughs] The boys were always intimidated by us so we never really had any male groupies. I can’t remember any one instance, but we’ve always had gay fans and groupies. Speaking only for myself, I’ve never had sex with groupies – male or female – because that was a scary thing. It wasn’t about sex with us. It was about having a good time and having a party.

ADV: Last year you filmed a public service announcement for marriage equality. Why is this subject so important to you?
BC: My son is gay and I want the best for him. I don’t understand why gay marriage is such a divisive issue in the first place. My son has political leanings and he’s outspoken about it and he got me riled up so we filmed the video in our backyard. I’ve always been really opinionated and I think at this point in my life I don’t have a lot to lose by saying what I feel.

These are things I believe in.

ADV: Speaking of your son, James Duke, he came out as gay when he was only 15. In your book you mention being shocked and having no idea he was gay. I found this really surprising since you’re so savvy and have been around gay people throughout your career.
BC: Well, I had little hints along the way that maybe he could be gay. Most of my friends are gay and lesbian, but when it’s your own kid it’s different, regardless of how open-minded you are. It took me by surprise. It was shocking and it wasn’t shocking. The first thing I thought about was how difficult it could be for him. The world can be harsh. Once I got over it I had to think about how to tell my husband. My husband is also very open-minded, but for a lot of men it’s a reflection on their own masculinity. It was a big, intense process. It took six months to a year for the dynamics in our family to adjust, but I wouldn’t want him any other way, honestly.

Click on this link for the Advocate's complete interview with Belinda Carlisle.

Molly Ringwald Talks to The Advocate About John Hughes and Being Replaced on “The Facts of Life”

For a long time, it seemed like Molly Ringwald was frozen in time in all those wonderful John Hughes movies she starred in in the 80s.

She left an indelible impression in Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Pretty In Pink, among other films.

Molly’s never stopped working in movies (Betsy’ Wedding), television (Townies) and on the Broadway stage (Cabaret, Learning to Drive). But it’s only since she took the role of a mother of a pregnant teen in the ABC Family series, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, that Molly has returned to the spotlight in a big way.

Her show is in its third season, she has a new self-help book out called Getting the Pretty Back, and Molly also reunited with several of her co-stars from the Hughes films for a tribute to their late director at this year’s Academy Awards.

Molly had a nice chat with Brandon Voss for The Advocate and here's a portion of their conversation:

Tell me about the humorous “Vote No on Prop. 8” video that you and your husband filmed in 2008.
My friend Matt knew somebody that was doing it and wanted me to be a part of it, so of course I said I would. It was important to me to do because it seems absolutely crazy that people who love each other can’t marry. It’s unfair the way the whole Prop. 8 thing went down — the act of voting no on something instead of yes was confusing, and it felt like a train wreck from the very beginning. Right now it’s frustrating, but years from now it’s going to seem crazy, like, “Oh, my God, we had slavery? We thought it was OK to enslave people?” Matt and Greg, the godparents of my children, have a relationship and a marriage that most people could only aspire to have.

Have you always been conscious of your gay fan base?
Since most my friends are gay, it would be hard not to be aware of it now, but I don’t think I realized it early on in my career because I don’t know that I definitely had that fan base until later. I became pretty aware of it in the ’90s, after some time had passed, and especially when I was living in New York and doing a lot of theater.

I feel like the gay community might’ve identified with the general outcast characters in your John Hughes films, but why do you think there was no gay representation?
Maybe it was just too soon and too controversial at the time, but from what I understand, John was a big Republican. I really didn’t know this back then, and maybe he wasn’t when I was working with him, but I guess he became one. Not to say that all Republicans are antigay, but historically, you know, that has to rub off a little bit, right?

Though there were no gay characters, homosexuality was addressed in those early films through the frequent use of the word “fag.” Your character, Samantha, called Anthony Michael Hall’s Geek a “fag” in Sixteen Candles. “You die, fag” is scrawled on Bender’s locker in The Breakfast Club. And though it’s never spelled out, some of those outcast characters I mentioned — Duckie in Pretty in Pink, Brian in The Breakfast Club — almost seem like gay characters, in a way.
Yeah, completely! I totally know what you mean, and if those films were done today, those characters probably would’ve been gay. But sometimes I wonder if John was even aware of that. I don’t know that he was. What made those movies so interesting and so hard for people to replicate is that for some reason John was still somehow emotionally in the mind-set of those teenagers. Usually you can hear when an adult clearly wrote something for a kid character, but John’s movies don’t sound like that because he was still emotionally in that place. So you know how some kids can be gay and not know it? Or maybe they kind of know it but aren’t facing it? I feel like maybe John was writing those characters like that.

You were a regular on the first season of The Facts of Life. What do you remember about that infamous 1979 pilot episode, in which Blair insinuates that her tomboy classmate, Cindy, is a lesbian?
I remember nothing about that. Wow. Now that you say that, it sort of rings a bell, but I did not remember that at all.

Were you too young to understand the gay implications?
I knew what being gay was before I did Facts of Life because I did the West Coast production of Annie, which opened in San Francisco, and all the dressers were gay. I remember my mom talking to me about it. I was actually in San Francisco right when all that stuff was going on with Harvey Milk. I remember my mom talking to me about the Twinkie defense, and she told me the whole story of the murders, how it was a travesty, and how it never should’ve happened. We had conversations about what it meant to be gay, so I knew about that when I did Facts of Life, but for some reason I don’t remember that episode.

Your character was phased out at the very beginning of season 2, but surely you remember the sexual tension between Blair and Jo when Nancy McKeon joined the cast.
[Laughs] You know, Nancy McKeon sort of replaced me in a way. They were trimming down the cast to just four girls, and originally I was going to be one of those girls. But then they changed their mind, decided to go with Nancy McKeon, and booted me out.

To read the entire interview, go to The Advocate.

Newsman Thomas Roberts Speaks Out About the Catholic Church Abuse Scandals

Former CNN Headline News anchor Thomas Roberts, currently host of The Advocate’s new television newsmagazine, has bravely spoken out in the past about the sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a priest at his Catholic high school.

Thomas spoke with http://www.gq.com/ The Wire about the Catholic Church and its handling of the abuse scandals that envelope it. Here are some excerpts:

What would you ask Pope Benedict if you had a chance to sit down with him?
I think I would ask why a man in his position doesn’t feel a greater sense of compassion for the victims…why he doesn’t just be like, The buck stops here. This is unacceptable. People are watching and do care about how [the Church] reacts, so I’d think they’d want to act with more swift justice so they can provide the confidence people need to still want to be Catholic.

One of many excuses the Vatican gave in the case of the priest who molested 200 deaf boys was that the incidents exceeded the church’s statute of limitations. As someone who waited almost 20 years to come forward, how do you feel about this? Were you in denial?
Oh, I was in complete denial. I considered myself to be a strong and intelligent person, and to place yourself in the “victim” category is very hard to do. I thought that I had been able to deal with what life had dealt me. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I’m happy that I was able to confront these demons that had been chasing me for a really long time and extinguish them.

So you came out to your family when you were 27. Later, when you were 33 you began opening up about the abuse. Some people see a casual relationship between abuse and sexuality. Did you worry that people would try and draw those lines?
For me these are two very separate, distinct issues, and I don’t want them to ever be confused. No one ever asks a woman who was abused as a young girl if she grew up and decided she was straight. I had the complete love and support of my family though, and that was most important thing.

You can read the complete interview by clicking on this link.

Jennifer Lopez: “No, I am Not Bisexual”

Jennifer Lopez has a new romantic comedy, The Back-Up Plan, coming out in April 23rd so she’s doing all kinds of interviews to promote it. Fortunately, one of those interviews was with Brandon Voss for The Advocate.

Here are some excerpts:

Gay directors have helmed two of your most successful movies — Robert Luketic on Monster-in-Law and Adam Shankman on The Wedding Planner. Alan Poul, who directed The Back-Up Plan, is also gay. So that’s a good sign, right?
It’s true. I get along with the gays — what can I tell you? We click. Gay directors have a certain sensitivity when it comes to women’s issues; I don’t know if that makes any sense, but that’s what I feel. They also have a tremendous sense of humor about life, so they know romantic comedy. I love them.

Does The Back-Up Plan feature a “gay best friend” cliché — maybe the guy your character asks for sperm in the film’s trailer?
[Laughs] Everybody thinks he’s gay, but I don’t think he was intended to be. It’s not specified, but it’s funny that he’s coming off as that. No, there’s no gay best friend in this one, but out of all the romantic comedies I’ve done, I find this one to be the funniest.

Who’s your best gay friend in real life?
Oh, God, I have so many, but my closest is my manager, Benny [Medina]. He’s the godfather to my child, so he’s become a part of my family. We understand each other, we love each other, we have a certain type of chemistry, we have similar work ethics, and we can talk about everything.

More and more celebrities are supporting the gay community by vowing not to get married until all Americans can marry. I guess you didn’t get that memo, huh?
Yeah, I didn’t get that memo three times. [Laughs] When it comes to gay marriage, I just believe in love. I believe that when two people find each other and love each other, they should be able to spend their lives together. Especially being married now and having been divorced twice — being younger, more immature, and making those kinds of mistakes — I don’t think marriage is to be taken lightly for anybody. You have to work at it.

Not to invade your privacy, but I’d like to address some recent rumors. Are you bisexual?
No, I am not bisexual.

Have you ever kissed a girl and liked it?
No, I’ve never kissed a girl. Sorry.

Click on this link to read the entire interview.

Jennifer Coolidge Wonders What Kind of a Lesbian She Would Be

Jennifer Coolidge seems like such a cool woman in addition to being a brilliant comedy actress who we’ve loved in such films as Best in Show, For Your Consideration, Legally Blonde and the American Pie movies as well as several TV series including Joey and The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

As part of the 20th anniversary of The Dinah, the annual lesbian party weekend in Palm Springs, Calif., the 48-year-old funny lady will headlined Girl Bar’s HRC fundraiser on Saturday night at Hotel Zoso.

Here are some excerpts from her recent interview with Brandon Voss for www.Advocate.com:

Q. You could discuss the phenomenon of women coming out late in life like Meredith Baxter.
A. Oh, yeah, I could. I like that she seemed so surprised in interviews. I feel bad for women sometimes because there’s so much pressure on us to be a certain way. I was clueless as to anything I really wanted to do with my life because so much energy went into being attractive to guys. I spent most of my life worrying about trying to snag a guy. Women are so busy taking care of all this other shit, how do they know what they really want? It’s like the comedy thing — I had no idea I wanted to do that. So I can understand when these women are like, “I was 55 when I realized I was a lesbian.”

Q. Have you ever been intimate with a woman?
A. Well, I was in New York in the ’80s, when there was a lot of ecstasy and stuff going on, so there were a lot of wild nights. Have I ever had a relationship with a woman? No. Then again, I’m always trying to figure out who I’d be with if I was with a woman. There are two different ways to go, and I feel like I could go both ways. I could be with a very sensual-looking woman like Angelina Jolie — a lipstick lesbian-type. But when I was in this rehab in my ’20s, there was a very butch girl in there who was like a really cute guy to me, and I remember thinking that I could’ve gone that way too.

Q. You’ll no doubt get hit on by girls at The Dinah. Will you welcome those advances?
A. Are you kidding? If anyone is attracted, I’m surprised and flattered. At this point in life, it’s a good thing if anyone asks me out.

You can read the rest of the interview at The Advocate.

Kelly Ripa: "I Love Me Some Gay Men"

I have been a dear fan of Kelly Ripa since her days as Hayley Vaughan Santos on All My Children, and I love her even more after her recent interview with Brandon Voss for The Advocate, where she talks about her love for gay men. Here is a portion of the interview:

The Advocate: Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with The Advocate.
Kelly Ripa: Oh, please, it’s my pleasure. I’m a fan.

How did you become involved with the Point Foundation?
I literally got an e-mail from them saying, “We’d love to have you cohost the Point Honors benefit with your friend Andy Cohen.” I was like, “Are you serious?” Because I’m not good at that stuff. I know I host a talk show, but I get so nervous when I stand in front of people who didn’t line up specifically to come to our studio. I feel like you have to be funny at award shows, but Andy was like, “No, we’re going have fun!” And once I realized what’s at stake, I really wanted to get involved. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t know anything about this cause, but it’s a worthy organization and I’m thrilled that they would even consider me.

The Point Foundation aids LGBT teens who’ve been cut off by their parents or left behind by the school system because of their sexual orientation. As a mother, does this particular cause strike a personal chord?
It most certainly does. Being a kid is hard enough when you do feel accepted and safe in your environment. A kid’s school is like their job, so home is a sanctuary where you can feel protected from anything that goes wrong during the day. Imagine if everybody at school made you feel like there’s something wrong with you, and then you came home for reassurance and your parents told you there’s something wrong with you too. I can’t imagine the alienation, isolation, and loneliness that would build in a person. There are so many smart, brilliant kids out there who aren’t going to get an education because their parents kick them out of the house.

Have you and your husband, Mark Consuelos, ever given any thought to how you’d personally respond to having a gay child?
Mark and I both feel fortunate that we’ve spent our entire adult lives in New York City, where we work, live, and play with some of the best and brightest gay and lesbian people in and outside of the industry — people I’m honored to call my friends and family. So we’ve never gone, “What would we do?” To us, our children are a gift, we’re lucky to have them, and they’re born how they’re born, so it wouldn’t even be a discussion in our house. And they go to a very progressive school with great examples of what all different families look like, so I’m very thankful.

When did you first become aware of your gay fan base?
When I read your request for this interview. [Laughs] I guess I don’t really think about it, but I love me some gay men — I’m not gonna lie. I love men in general, so if they’re gay, it’s just a bonus. I do feel the love from the gay community. When my son’s second-grade teacher went to a Halloween party downtown a few years ago, he said that there were a bunch of gay men there doing a dance called “The Kelly Ripa,” where they were just, like, model-walking and fanning each other. I was like, “Really? That’s incredible!”

You can read the entire interview at the Advocate.

And we cannot end this article without sharing with you a picture of her gorgeous husband, Mark Consuelos, from his early years as a "stripper".

Will & Grace Star Sean Hayes Confirms He's Gay

Will & Grace actor Sean Hayes has confirmed he is gay – adding that he was "never in" the closet.

The star, who played gay character Jack McFarland in the sitcom, has been criticised in the past for not declaring his sexual orientation.

In an interview with Advocate, he said: "I never have had a problem saying who I am. I am who I am. I was never in, as they say. Never."

The magazine had criticised him for giving media interviews in which he skirted around the topic of his sexuality, despite it being an open secret in Hollywood.

Hayes said: “Nobody owes anything to anybody. You are your authentic self to whom and when you choose to be. And if you don’t know somebody, then why would you explain to them how you live your life?

“I feel like I’ve contributed monumentally to the success of the gay movement in America, and if anyone wants to argue that, I’m open to it. You’re welcome, Advocate.”

On the magazine's criticism, he added: “Why would you go down that path with somebody who’s done so much to contribute to the gay community?

“That was my beef about it. What more do you want me to do? Do you want me to stand on a float? And then what? It’s never enough."

The actor also confirmed he was in a relationship, saying only: "I spend time with a special someone in my life. That's it. That's all I need. I don't need events. I don't do a lot. I live my life like an 85-year-old man. I'm just quiet. It's fantastic."

Read the entire interview at The Advocate.

Chloe Sevigny's The Advocate Interview About “Big Love,” Kissing Girls and Her Golden Globe Incident

Chloe Sevigny, Golden Globe Award winner for her performance on "Big Love", recently talked with Brandon Voss for The Advocate about her movie & TV roles and her dress rip incident at the Golden Globe Awards.

Here are some excerpts:

When lesbians hit on you, do you break their big gay hearts gently or shoot them down quick?
I have to shoot ’em down quick. [Laughs] They always want to buy me drinks, but I’ll be like, “Save your money. I get free drinks here.” It doesn’t happen all the time, but it may happen if I go to certain gay spots — like on Saturday night, when I was at this super-lesbo party [Choice Cunts] downstairs at Santos Party House. It was fun.

You’ve said that people thought you were a lesbian while growing up in Darien, Connecticut. Why do you think that was?
I was a tomboy and went through a lot of different phases. When you shave your head and pierce your nose during your junior year in high school, that’ll do it. But you didn’t need to do much back then.

In a 2000 New York Times profile, you said, “I’ve questioned issues of gender and sexuality since I was a teenager, and I did some experimenting.” Did you mind that some people branded you as “bisexual” after that?
There were a lot of articles that made reference to that, but at this point I couldn’t care less what people call me. I still kiss girls occasionally, but I wouldn’t say I was bisexual.

Could you ever see yourself in a relationship with a woman?
Probably not, no. I need more meat and potatoes — with more of the meat part, I guess. [Laughs]

A few days after the Golden Globes ceremony, when I discovered on Greginhollywood.com that the escort who stepped on your dress, Joe Everett Michaels, was gay, I thought, Great, another reason for people to hate us: As if our pesky demands for equal rights weren’t enough, now we’ve gone and ripped Chloë Sevigny’s Valentino!
Oh, geesh, I know. He actually found me in the ballroom afterward, came up to me, and was going on and on, like, “I’m so, so, so, so sorry!” The poor guy. Accidents happen, so of course I accepted his apology. You know, I had a feeling something was going to happen. I thought I was just going to stain the dress or that I was going to trip, but leave it to the gays! [Laughs]

You can read the entire interview at The Advocate.

Portia de Rossi on Cover of The Advocate

On the latest issue of The Advocate, Portia de Rossi, the lovely actress who stared in Ally McBeal, Arrested Development, Nip/Tuck and is now in the ABC's Better Off Ted, talks about her marriage to Ellen DeGeneres.

Here are some excerpts of the interview:

“It’s one thing to have attention; it’s one thing to stand for something,” she says in an Advocate cover story regarding her marriage to Ellen. “But unless it’s backed up with genuine happiness, I think people can sense that it’s not worth celebrating.”

“Ever since Ellen and I got together, I feel like I’ve been given an opportunity to actually—God, this sounds corny…” She rolls her eyes at herself, fidgets, and then forges ahead. “Well, I feel like my life can actually kind of stand for something. And I don’t mean that in a self-aggrandizing way, like, ‘Look at me, I can make a difference.’ But I feel like, maybe I get why I’m here. … Maybe by sharing my life, I can make people more aware of how important gay marriage is.”

“I think it’s up to us to save marriage,” she adds. “Up to gay people across the country, seeing as though we’re fighting for it so vehemently.” De Rossi has an impressive ability to marry the personal and political: “This whole thing has been a wave of excitement and hope, and then it gently falls back into despair. And then it picks us up again. Unfortunately, we’re the ones who have to suffer this—this humiliation, really. There’s kind of a dignity that’s been stripped from us. Gay people are the ones who have to suffer through it—but without it, it won’t change.”

Go to Advocate.com to read this terrific interview in its entirety.

Matt Ross Talks About the Debut of His Gay Love Interest on HBO’s “Big Love”

Last night the fourth season premiere of HBO’s Big Love was televised and the character of Alby Grant, whose struggle with his sexuality has just been glimpsed at in past years, got a boyfriend!

Matt Ross, who plays Alby, talked to Brandon Voss of The Advocate about what is happening with his character. Here is a portion of the interview:

When you found out that Alby would have a love interest this season, did you as a straight actor see that as a challenge?
No, because love is love. The challenge for me was just making the emotional adjustment to being more emotionally present. He has many wives and he has children, but he’s obviously not heterosexual, so he’s clearly suffering a great deal. I always thought of Alby as this sort of junkyard dog who’s been kicked and beaten for his whole life by his father, so I had this idea of him as this emotionally disturbed, soul-deadened individual until I learned that he was living this secret life. To open that up and actually feel love was difficult for me to navigate.

The gay community appreciates representation on TV, but not so much when the gay character’s a ruthless villain like Alby. Will having a love interest make Alby a more sympathetic character?
That’s an excellent point, and I hope so. I’m clearly built as an antagonist on the show, so when his homosexuality began to be sketched in, I worried about that too, because you don’t want to portray a community’s negative characteristics. But then I also thought, Well, we’re not a public service announcement; we’re a narrative drama and people are complex. I applaud what we’re doing because it’s more truthful not to worry so much about creating a positive image of a gay man, but instead try to create a complex image of a man who happens to be gay. That’s at the heart of what we’re doing here. Alby’s not defined by his homosexuality, and I think that’s a very mature, evolved way to write drama.

Tell me about working with Ben Koldyke, who plays Dale. Was it easy to be intimate with him on camera?
Well, we didn’t know each other before, but I was very fortunate to have Ben, because you never know who you’re going to get. Ben is just a very open, present, serious actor who’s really game for anything, which is what the role required. Frankly, intimate scenes are no less awkward if it’s with a man or woman, but it can be awkward when you view the other person as a close friend, so I was happy I didn’t know him. You just sort of show up, do the work, and let go. It was very comfortable. We both just wanted to do justice to the relationship and make it real.

You mentioned the truck stop restroom scene in season 3, but that wasn’t the first time in your career that you’d played a closeted gay man getting attacked from behind in a bathroom.
Oh, in American Psycho? I think I was attacking Christian Bale! [Laughs] No, you’re right. He came in the bathroom to kill me and I turned around and kissed him. So it was sort of the same, only last time I was singing Les Misérables.