Video: Ramin Setoodeh Does "Joy Behar Show." Is About as Articulate as Expected

by Michael Jensen, Editor

Newsweek journalist Ramin Setoodeh appeared on The Joy Behar Show Tuesday night where he lamely defended his latest article on gay actors. As you'll see in the clip below, Setoodeh is less than articulate and when Joy asks him about why he thought Hollywood wasn't casting gay actors in lead roles in movies, his response was to shrug his shoulders and say, "I don't know. That's why I wrote the piece."

At least, gay publicist Howard Bragman was hand to offer at least some insight into an issue that is of very real concern to the gay community. (That being said, Bragman wasn't exactly great here either.) That Setoodeh had so little to say about an issue I presume he's thought about a lot, says a great about his gravitas as a journalist. Of course, that was already apparent from his previous work.

What's most frustrating about this whole topic is that Setoodeh is being taken seriously despite the fact that almost everything he's written about the topic of gay actors has been poorly reasoned, poorly articulated and reeks of his own issues with his sexuality. And this latest piece about Hollywood not casting gay characters seems to me be nothing more than Setoodeh desperately trying to change the topic from his hit job on Sean Hayes, his ridiculous assertions about gay actors not being able to play straight roles and to cast himself as the victim because he "dares to tell the truth."

The only truth here is that Setoodeh has used up his two minutes of fame and needs to STFU. And media outlets like Newsweek, The Daily Beast and The Joy Behar Show need to stop giving him the time of day.




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Newsweek Writer's Gay About-face

By Advocate.com Editors

Ramin Setoodeh, the Newsweek writer who caused a stir last year when he suggested gay actors aren’t convincing in straight roles, now says he doesn’t think Hollywood wants gay actors to play gay either.

In a new column for The Daily Beast, Setoodeh recalls the column in which he argued that Sean Hayes did not make a convincing straight man in the Broadway musical Promises, Promises. Upon catching another performance of the show, he says he came to a realization.

“It’s not just that audiences don’t often see openly gay actors in straight roles. What’s even more unsettling is that Hollywood doesn’t even allow gay actors to play gay.”

Setoodeh points to the fact that not a single gay actor is up for an Oscar nomination this year, and that the actors who are potential nominees for playing gay (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right, among others) are all straight.

He then goes on to argue that no one questions Natalie Portman as a ballerina or Colin Firth as a king, “but audiences still haven’t gotten to the point where they can suspend disbelief long enough to accept a gay person in a leading romantic role.”

The article comes one week after Rupert Everett told the BBC he was forced to leave Hollywood after coming out because no one would hire him.

Read the full column here.

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