Breakfast w/Greg: New LA Weekly cover story looks at publicist Howard Bragman and gays in Hollywood

Good Morning!!!

Wow, last night’s Screen Actors Guild-GLAAD event featuring a panel of out actors, producers and directors was amazing . It featured Bryan Batt, Wilson Cruz, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Michelle Paradise, Jonathan Slavin, Candis Cayne, producer Dan Jinks and director Paris Barclay.

I’ll have photos and stories later today.

In the meantime, you should check out this week’s LA Weekly cover story by Patrick Range McDonald called The Secret Lives of Queer Leading Men. It touches on so many of the issues covered at last night’s event such as the entertainment industry’s attitudes toward out performers and the pros and cons of being out.

The story is told through the experiences of famed Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman, a gay man who has helped many gay actors and athletes come out professionally. Some are quoted in the article including former Party of Five co-star Mitchell Anderson and retired NBA player John Amaechi.

McDonald writes that Bragman is not merely helping gay actors to form sensible plans for going public. The gay guru of Hollywood, Bragman is in fact facing down the U.S. film industry on its insistence that gay actors remain in the closet.

The publicist hasn’t brought out an A-list, gay male actor — yet. But Bragman says that day is coming, and after the first superstar decides to reveal himself, a fundamental shift in American acceptance of gay leading men may not be far behind. He’s currently working with a famous musician who’s still closeted from the public, but who will come out next year. And the manager of one major movie star approached Bragman a year ago and asked about his client’s possibly going public, but the actor still refuses to pull the trigger.

Having read many times that people are more likely to accept gays and lesbians if they know one, “that always stuck with me,” Bragman says. After he helped [Bewitched star Dick] Sargent to go public, he realized something else: “What I learned in Dick’s case was that it really made a difference in his career. He started getting movie offers and big magazine stories. Coming out can be used as a marketing tool.”

The article even includes a few quotes from me taken from a lengthy interview I did with Patrick last month. One point that I make, and was made by some at the SAG panel, is that gay people have to take the lead in Hollywood when it comes to breaking down barriers and being true to themselves.

“It’s up to the actors to do it,” I say in the article. “They have to not care about professional repercussions. They have to believe in their talent and be willing to possibly lose some jobs. They can change the system, and they have to come out to do it.”

Here is a LINK to the LA Weekly piece.