I'm really not trying to make more out of this than there is, but why do some "straight" people still feel the need to constantly remind everyone that the idea having sex with someone of the same sex "isn't their thing"? For no apparent reason, reformed homophobic Mark Wahlberg reverted to his Marky Mark persona briefly in the new issue of Premiere when asked about his purported involvement in the early casting stages of "Brokeback Mountain": "I met with Ang Lee on that movie, I read 15 pages of the script and got a little creeped out. It was very graphic, descriptive -- the spitting on the hand, getting ready to do the thing. I told Ang Lee, 'I like you, you’re a talented guy, if you want to talk about it more …' Thankfully, he didn't. I didn't rush to see 'Brokeback,' it’s just not my deal … Obviously, it was done in taste -- look how it was received."
Believe me, I don't have a problem with the whole world not being gay, but can't the average Joe -- let alone someone in the public eye who has had run-ins with hate speech before -- realize how comments like this come across to other people? First of all you're an actor. Was he creeped out blowing away people in "The Big Hit" or playing a pathetic drug addict in "Boogie Nights"? It's just one of those unintentional slights that get made on a regular basis that people would never do with other minority groups. Would Dennis Quaid, who has been married to a couple of white women, tell a magazine that he was happy he didn't do "Monster's Ball" because kissing a mixed-race woman isn't "his deal" -- even if that were the case? Of course not. I'm not saying this is some big conspiracy against gays and lesbians, but sometimes people just need to shut their traps.
Click to revisit the heyday of Chelsea's 8th Avenue
My blog is featured in Susan Olsen's tell-all about the ill-fated "Brady Bunch Variety Hour"!
Growing up in Madison Heights, Mich.
The Web leads to an unexpected return to a house I grew up in.
Carlsbad, Calif. (2008)
Go Behind the Music of my high-school band, A La Plage
Little Larry left us too soon.
With Debbie Harry
With Robert Buckley
With Roger Federer
With Ed Burns
With Thomas Roberts
You've read the blog -- now read the book!
My memoir is available at Three Lives & Co. in the West Village
Like my book on Facebook here.
