Kristin Chenoweth Fires Back at “Homophoboic” Newsweek Article; What’s Your Take?
May 10, 2010
Thanks to her recent roles on Pushing Daisies and Glee, we know Kristin Chenoweth can act, sing and dance.
Turns out, she can also express an opinion.
In the most recent edition of Newsweek, openly gay writer Ramin Setoodeh states that homosexuals do NOT make convincing straight men on stage or on film. For example, he refers to Sean Hayes’ performance in the Broadway musical Promises, Promises as “wooden and insincere.”
In response, Chenoweth writes:
“I’d normally keep silent on such matters and write such small-minded viewpoints off as perhaps a blip in common sense. But the offense I take to this article, and your decision to publish it is not really even related to my profession or my work with Hayes or Jonathan Groff (also singled out in the article as too ‘queeny’ to play ‘straight’). This article offends me because I am a human being, a woman and a Christian.”
She continues:
“Thousands of people have traveled from all over the world to enjoy Hayes’ performance and don’t seem to have one single issue with his sexuality! They have no problem buying him as a love-torn heterosexual man. Audiences aren’t giving a darn about who a person is sleeping with or his personal life. Give me a break!
“We’re actors first, whether we’re playing prostitutes, baseball players, or the Lion King. Audiences come to theater to go on a journey. It’s a character and it’s called acting, and I’d put Hayes and his brilliance up there with some of the greatest actors period.
“The examples he provides (what scientists call ‘selection bias’) to prove his ‘gays can’t play straight’ hypothesis are sloppy in my opinion… No one needs to see a bigoted, factually inaccurate article that tells people who deviate from heterosexual norms that they can’t be open about who they are and still achieve their dreams.”
What do you think, readers? Does Chenoweth make a convincing argument? Should she have gone off on the article in such a manner?
