Newsweek magazine has been in the news partially because the publication is up for salebut it's also under a harsh glare from the LGBT community because of a controversial article.
Openly gay writer Ramin Satoodeh penned an item entitled "Straight Jacket" in which he commented that openly gay actors cannot portray heterosexual characters convincingly. He specifically referred to Sean Hayes ( best known as Jack on TV's Will & Grace ) , who recently officially came out and who co-stars with Kristen Chenoweth in the Broadway production Promises, Promises. Setoodeh also criticized Jonathan Groff, who plays the leader of a competing club ( and Lea Michele's boyfriend ) on the TV show Glee.
Setoodeh wrote, in part, that Hayes "comes off as wooden and insincere, like he's trying to hide something, which of course he is."
The reaction from the gay community and allies has been swift and fierce. GLAAD ( the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation ) wants Newsweek to apologize while Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy has asked people to boycott the publication. Jason Stuart, chair of the Screen Actors Guild's National LGBT Actors Committee, said in a May 13 statement that "Unfortunately, harmful attitudes like those of Setoodeh are used to pressure actors to stay in the closet. Our work is clearly not done and we will continue to fight to end fear within the acting community that being open about who you are means the end of your career. I'm an actor; it's not who I am but what I can play that counts."
In a comment under Setoodeh's article, Chenoweth posted a heated response that read, in part, "As a longtime fan of Newsweek and as the actress currently starring opposite the incredibly talented ( and sexy! ) Sean Hayes in the Broadway revival of 'Promises, Promises,' I was shocked on many levels to see Newsweek publishing Ramin Setoodeh's horrendously homophobic 'Straight Jacket,' which argues that gay actors are simply unfit to play straight. From where I stand, on stage, with Hayes, every nightI've observed nothing 'wooden' or 'weird' in his performance, nor have I noticed the seemingly unwieldy presence of a 'pink elephant' in the Broadway Theater."
Lesbian actress Jane Lynch ( who plays Sue Sylvester on Glee ) told Entertainment Weekly, "You can't play gay anymore than you can play somebody who's Catholic. ... I don't think you have to slap somebody down for making an opinion that you don't agree with. But I do think what Kristin and Ryan did was so important, and I'm glad that they said it."
Setoodeh has taken to defending himself, appearing on networks such as MSNBC and even writing a follow-up article. In said article, he wrote, "But what all this scrutiny seemed to miss was my essay's point: if an actor of the stature of George Clooney came out of the closet today, would we still accept him as a heterosexual leading man? It's hard to say, because no actor like that exists. I meant to open a debatewhy is that? And what does it say about our notions about sexuality? For all the talk about progress in the gay community in Hollywood, has enough really changed? The answer seems obvious to me: no, it has not."
Andrew Davis