SPACEY FACES THE FALLOUT
Gay community slams actor’s response
It began as an ordinary media session in a Manhattan highrise hotel.
Kevin Spacey was his usual courteous self when he showed up to chat with reporters in 2003, about his new movie. He also talked about the new job awaiting him — as artistic director of London’s Old Vic Theatre.
A journalist saw an opening: Did Spacey find the “lifestyle” of London preferable to that of Los Angeles? The Oscar-winning actor was starting to tense up. The reporter persisted. Of all the things written about him, what had upset him the most?
In 1997, Esquire magazine had published a cover story suggesting that Spacey was gay. The actor’s response? A terse “I don’t talk about any of that stuff.”
How did Spacey feel about these rumours? The actor lost his cool and exploded: “Mind your own f---ing business.”
Now, 14 years later, Spacey has admitted he is homosexual — but has done so under circumstances that have touched off a wider storm and could have devastating consequences for a distinguished acting career. Significantly, the gay community is savaging the 58-year-old star of House of Cards, for making this revelation part of his response to actor Anthony Rapp’s recent allegation that Spacey made sexual advances to him when he was 14.
Spacey claims not to remember the incident but has apologized for his drunken behaviour if, in fact, it did happen. What concerns the LGBT leadership is the implication there is a connection between being gay and sexual abuse of minors.
“Usually when celebrities come out we’re quick to send on our congratulations and talk about the importance of role models,” said Kim Sanders of the LGBT lobby group, Stonewall. “But for Kevin Spacey to choose this particular moment to come out is harmful. His sexual orientation bears no relevance to the serious allegations he is facing, and to conflate these things is extremely damaging.”
Meanwhile, with new accusations against Spacey surfacing and the actor announcing that he’s seeking treatment, to what degree should celebrities be expected to reveal intimate personal information?
What singles Spacey out is the degree of fury in some gay circles over his perceived hypocrisy.
It’s rooted in the early 1990s when a militant section of America’s gay community launched a crusade aimed at dragging people — whether movie stars, politicians or industrialists — out of the closet. Spearheading the movement was Gabriel Rotello, editor of the gay magazine Outlook. He claimed to be trying to destroy prejudice against homosexuals by ending a media conspiracy that treated the gay lifestyle as “a dark and evil secret that needs to be covered up.”
The word “outing” was coined to describe the process of exposing alleged gays who had chosen to hide their sexual preference. The tabloid press obediently began trotting out the names of the usual suspects — people like John Travolta, Chastity Bono and Richard Chamberlain. The sentiments that Rotello expressed some two decades ago may explain why Spacey has aroused such criticism over his manner of outing himself.
In a Postmedia interview several years ago, a media representative for America’s Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation argued that closeted homosexuals basically belonged in two categories. There were those who guarded their privacy responsibly — as Jodie Foster did for so many years — and who had a simple response to queries: “I don’t discuss my private life.”
Then there were those who denied publicly that they were homosexual. At this point in the conversation, the GLAAD spokesman went off the record and started listing the names of the liars. It became clear why there was enmity towards Kevin Spacey.
Spacey, worried for his career, clung to denial for far too long. He might better have taken a leaf from the book of Kevin Kline, who once starred in the comedy called In & Out about a school teacher who realizes he’s gay.
“Are you homosexual?” a gay reporter asked Kline hopefully at the media junket.
“None of your business,” Kline replied cheerfully.
As the reporter floundered to find a followup question, Kline helped him out.
“Ask me if I’m heterosexual,” the actor said.
“Are you heterosexual?” the baffled reporter asked.
“None of your business!”