Carrie Fisher: "My feeling about John has always been that we know and we don’t care"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Monday, Dec 13, 2010 10:14 ET
Was Carrie Fisher wrong to out John Travolta?
In an interview with The Advocate, she claims everybody knows he's gay. But is she overstepping her bounds?
By Mary Elizabeth Williams

http://www.salon.com/life/lgbt/index.html?story=/ent/movies/2010/12/13/carrie_fisher_outs_john_travolta



Princess Leia has a bone to pick with Tony Manero. In a no-holds-barred interview published Friday on Advocate.com, the perpetually frank Carrie Fisher opined about her gay fans, what it was like to be married to a man who later came out of the closet – and those career-long rumors concerning John Travolta. "My feeling about John has always been that we know and we don’t care. Look, I’m sorry that he’s uncomfortable with it, and that’s all I can say." But the former Danny Zuko cares – he cares a lot. The notoriously litigious actor/Scientologist most recently sent a stern warning to Gawker after it published "false and outrageous" claims regarding the star's alleged longstanding bathhouse habits, a story Travolta's team dismisses as "blatant defamatory lies."

When Travolta first became a sex symbol 35 years ago, there was no such thing as an openly gay star. Good God, even Liberace played it coy. But in ensuing, more enlightened years, performers who began their careers more circumspectly have transitioned gracefully into successful post-closet careers. It's not as if Ian McKellen or Ellen DeGeneres are hurting for work. And a whole new generation of stars have proven that audiences can fall in love with a smarmy womanizer like "How I Met Your Mother's" Barney Stinson and adore the openly gay Neil Patrick Harris.

Yet the closet – and the rumors of which big stars inhabit it – persists. A man like Travolta isn't some bachelor clinging to the story he's "keeping the private life private" with all the tenacity of a CNN anchor. He's a man with a wife and family, a guy whose new son was just born three weeks ago. Professionally, he may don a dress to play Edna Turnblad, but his roles are likelier to be manly man action heroes. And as a Scientologist, he's also a member of a group that defines homosexuality as a "deviation."

Unlike Gawker's source, Robert Randolph, who told them last month that he'd witnessed Travolta in flagrante in the steam room multiple times, I have no claim to what Travolta does in his personal life. It's possible Carrie Fisher has some evidence beyond her "We know," but she hasn't elaborated. But the response – to both her and Travolta – have been divisive and telling. "Why does this worthless drug addict find it necessary to out John Travolta for her own publicitary gains? It's a despicable act," wrote one commenter on Advocate.com. Another cheered, "I support the outing of anyone who goes about pretending to be what they are not!"

[vi5]

1. It's not as though Travolta has been anti-gay...

Or donated to anti-gay causes or anything of the sort (at least to my knowledge). Yes, scientology has a sketchy take on gays if I remember correctly, but to my knowledge that's never really infused or affected his actions or words.

If this were Mel Gibson I'd see an "outing" as a contradiction to how he's lived his life and what he has espoused and make him a hypocrite.

Travolta isn't in that situation as far as I know so I say that makes it nobody's business.

I don't even like the guy as an actor or particularly as a personality. And I'm o.k. with "outing" when it exposes hypocricy. But this just feels not so right to me.

[MineralMan]

2. Thank you for posting this in Entertainment.

[kestrel91316]

3. Local talk around this town is that he indeed is gay, and his main

man is Tom Cruise.

I've been told this by someone who knows Cruise personally. But I don't have much opinion on the matter, other than a sad sigh, because I think Tom is hot.

[mackerel]

4. I could absolutely careless and think that if the dude

doesn't want it to be the thing he's known for than let it be. Once your outed than it always becomes the 'gay actor Tom Cruise.'

Feck man they're actors, they're always somebody else.