Does Anyone Care if Tom Cruise is Gay?

No. No one on the A-list. Ever.

Someone mentioned wishful thinking and, as far as my gay male friends go, they looooove Mr. Cruise and believe with all their hearts that he's one of 'the children'. He would have alot of support, that's for sure. As Eva said, he'd take a hit but his career wouldn't be over.

Speculation on Tom Cruises sexual preferences have been floating around the web for the past 4 or 5 years. He launched a lawsuit in 2001 against a newspaper and they ended up making a retraction. I am just curious as to the reason for this thread since the very first post indicates that it is speculation and what if.... Since all of this speculation and allegations have been going on for so long and he is still extremely popular and his career has not been hurt, what would change if he actually was gay? You people are making the assumption that the great percentage of the population are intolerant.

Intrepid, I talked about the reason for the thread here:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1376031#1376031

And here:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1376222#1376222

I really agree with Valpower's points about whether a large percentage of the population is intolerant. How are all of these "defense of marriage" initiatives passing if people are so tolerant?

They're none of them "A-list" but I applaud the bravery of Sir Ian McKellan and Rupert Everett and in the music world, Melissa Etheridge, for coming out. I think the world needs more brave role models like them.

Who else am I forgetting?

Rupert Everett is a good one, closest to the male heartthrob. Has he had any really big roles since he came out, though?

Melissa Etheridge rocks, in every sense.

The world can really use better gay role models than Mr. Cruise.

That would make for a really cool cartoon charachter though.

" That's MISTER CRUISE to you, bitch."

Rupert played Julia Roberts' boss/friend in My Best Friend's Wedding. That's the biggest role I can thing of.

I loved him in The Ideal Husband. Perfect casting, but of course hardly anyone saw that.

Here's a link in case anyone can't place him:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000391/

Rupert did that movie with Madonna.

I think one of the things in-the-closet gay actors are afraid of is, it's easier for the public to accept a straight actor playing a gay role than a gay actor in a straight role.

Let's face it. How believable would it be in a movie to see a gay actor playing a straight romantic leading man? Could you really forget that aspect of his real life as simply as, say, the fact that he's married in real life but in the movie, he's single? I just don't think it would be that easy to dismiss. Take Richard Chamberlain. He was the king of the tv mini-series back in the 80's, climbing in and out of hot women's beds for a decade. Even Dr. Kildare was a major heartthrob back in the 60's. How big do you think he would have gone over if it had been common knowledge back then that he was gay? I don't think it would be much different today. Young people today are much more open sexually but some things don't change and I'm afraid that this may be one of them. Gay actors are not going to be accepted in straight roles. But I'd sure like to see someone give it a try.

You're right, eoe. Nobody had a problem with Tom Selleck playing a gay man in "In & Out," or with Robin Williams in "La Cage."

Personally, I don't care if Tom Cruise is gay. I didn't like him in Top Gun, and haven't ever started liking him better since. If he was to came out one day, the only change I anticipate is that some concerned people might start calling me homophobic for venting my antipathy of Tom Cruise.

As to his carreer, I voted that it would be the same as before, because after a come-out, two contradictory effects would more or less cancel out. On the one hand, many viewers would find his love- and seduction scenes less persuasive knowing he's gay. On the other hand, sex sells and gets you invitations to talk shows and lots of other publicity. Witness Hugh Grant's publicity boom after he 'accidentally' got caught receiving a blow-job. Why, I wonder, did he get caught in bright daylight, in the middle of a Los Angeles parking lot?


I never was able to buy him as a (hetero) romantic lead, and if he turned out to be gay that might explain why. Of course, he might just be an incompetent though good-looking actor. I'll tell you which explanation is more persuasive after I see him as the gay romantic lead in "Philadelphia II".


Which reminds me ... didn't Madonna admit to being bisexual? She's not an A-list actor, but she is definitely A-list in entertainment at large.

Is there a list anywhere of these A-List Actors? I googled it a couple of different ways and came up with next-to-nothing... certainly nothing definitive.

I don't think so -- I guess it's a matter of "you know it when you see it."

Maybe top earners in Hollywood?

This seems promising, if somewhat out of date (Jennifer Aniston?):

http://www.forbes.com/static_html/celebs/2003/index.shtml

Here we go. Click on "best paid: actors" and "actresses". (And check out who's #1 for actors...)

http://www.forbes.com/2004/06/16/celebs04land.html

Looks about right to me.

Okay, you win

Valpower- Funny. I knew about Richard Chamberlain in 1957. My girlfriend had a gay friend who went to gay parties with him.

I also knew about Rock Hudson in about 1965. I knew this guy who worked the front desk of a posh Manhattan hotel. He used to tell me stories about Rock checking in with these cute younger guys. I suppose that because I knew, I thought that everyone else did. Did not make one bit of difference to me!

I knew about Rock Hudson, Chamberlain, Tab Hunter, Jeff Chandler, Lizabeth Scott, Jeffrey Hunter, George Maharis, Martin Milner (both in "Route 66" TV series), George Nader, and others in the 50's and 60's living in Hollywood. There it was common knowledge and actually besides the attempted outing by Confidential magazine of Hudson, journalists pretty much stayed hands-off or maybe paid off?

Lightwizard- I tend to think that they weren't paid off. In those years, peccadillos of the rich and famous were not spread all over the media like they are today.

Can you imagine the brouhaha that would ensue now if the Kennedy trysts with both movie star and gangster's moll were happening today? We did not learn about them until JFK was dead and buried.