
In LA Weekly, Patrick Range McDonald wonders how Hollywood, so vocal in favor of gay rights, still keeps actors in the closet:
In 2009, this situation seems incredible to those who have watched the tremendous success of Neil Patrick Harris, who became a star on Doogie Howser, M.D. Harris came out nearly three years ago. His recent widely accepted and positively reviewed hosting of the Emmys seemed almost like a globally televised message from one side of Hollywood to another: It’s okay to cast leading men who are gay, so get over it, studio heads. Harris continues to win audiences over, playing womanizer Barney Stinson on the CBS hit show How I Met Your Mother.
I love NPH, but his post-coming-out career has been limited to comic roles;
he plays a silly, superficial womanizer on HIMYM, not a tortured, tragic one. (Even Ted Danson came closer to the latter characterization on Cheers.) And he's been repeatedly passed over at the Emmy Awards.
Harris would really help the gay thespian cause if he landed a big, juicy, award-bait dramatic role -- if not in movie theaters, at least on HBO. I think he's capable of it, but I think a lot of closeted actors are waiting to see his fate after How I Met Your Mother winds down.
Cross-posted at Escargo-go.