people actually spend money on this ??

[joan davis fan]

Yesterday standing in line at Wal-Mart I noticed those tabloids that stores place by their cash registers.

Anyway one of them , think it was the National Examiner had some sort of guide to "who is gay in Hollywood" even talks about those who acording to them are not sure.

I picked it up and looked inside and it lists all these celebrities
who is and why they are gay. What gets me about this is, well a few things...

1. in the day and age why would people care if so and so is gay?

2. looking at this had me thinking about the poeple who spend
their money to read such stuff, like Elton John or Ellen deGen.
being gay ( not exactly hot news ). To me its weird !!!

also can stars sue the magazines over this? I heard they cannot
unless it hurts their job/image. And why does it seem it a star plays a gay on tv or in the movies why do people believe he/she is really gay but if they play say a drug pusher ( or whatever ) then its only acting. Hal Sparks is a perfect example. Wish I had a dollar everytime I heard he is "gay" just because he plays one on Queer as Folk. He also hosted E's Talk Soup for awhile too.

[XoVanillaRain90oX]

yea, who cares if someone is gay?? they dont bother you, you should have nothing against them..

2. looking at this had me thinking about the poeple who spend
their money to read such stuff, like Elton John or Ellen deGen.
being gay ( not exactly hot news ). To me its weird !!!

same here!

[Swimfan85]

actually once i was really tempted to buy one since i know all the stories are bs and it had cher on the cover and it was wack

[Bootsy Whoosh]

The stars can sue for libel. When sueing for libel they do not need to show proof of actual financial loss, whereas they would for slander, (unless the slander accused them of committing a crime, being adultrous, having certain contagious diseases, or being unfit for their profession).

And I agree, I don't understand why anyone would actually pay money to read those magazines. I can understand reading them while in the checkout if you are bored or want a good laugh, but to actually carry them out of the store?...

[vienna waits]

How do they get away with making up all of those bs stories?

[Ags2000]

Originally posted by tootieismyfav
How do they get away with making up all of those bs stories?

Because they know 9 times out of 10, the stars are not going to sue. They also know there are a bunch of people that would buy it, no matter what it says.


D

[Kay Scarpetta]

Yesterday I was in the store, and I was looking at one [not because I wanted to buy it] but it was saying some of these stars were gay even know they aren't. First of all, who cares, and second of all, why do people buy them if they are not true?

[bb]

Originally posted by joan davis fan
Yesterday standing in line at Wal-Mart I noticed those tabloids that stores place by their cash registers.

Anyway one of them , think it was the National Examiner had some sort of guide to "who is gay in Hollywood" even talks about those who acording to them are not sure.

I picked it up and looked inside and it lists all these celebrities
who is and why they are gay. What gets me about this is, well a few things...

1. in the day and age why would people care if so and so is gay?

2. looking at this had me thinking about the poeple who spend
their money to read such stuff, like Elton John or Ellen deGen.
being gay ( not exactly hot news ). To me its weird !!!

It should NOT matter to people if so and so is gay but the sad fact of the matter is you do have some out there who do care too much.
In my hometown over they years we had an older man ( about 70 or so ) who would write letters to the local paper talking about the "evils" of homosexuals and how he wished they would not find a cure for AIDS, ect... He even bashed the local movie theatre for allowing persons of the same sex to sit beside each other as ( according to him ) the practice can turn one gay. The letters got so weird ( and disgusting) that the paper stopped running them. I myself always believed the man was gay himself who used his "letters to the editor" as a vent to show his anger at it.

also can stars sue the magazines over this? I heard they cannot
unless it hurts their job/image. And why does it seem it a star plays a gay on tv or in the movies why do people believe he/she is really gay but if they play say a drug pusher ( or whatever ) then its only acting. Hal Sparks is a perfect example. Wish I had a dollar everytime I heard he is "gay" just because he plays one on Queer as Folk. He also hosted E's Talk Soup for awhile too.

It should NOT matter if one is gay or not but the sad truth is that some ( well many ) DO make it an issue. In my hometown we had an old man ( maybe 70 or so ), every month like clockwork he would write a letter to the local paper. Always anti-gay stuff like only gays get AIDS, gay people recruit others to be gay, even bashing local movie theatres because they allow people of the same sex to sit beside each other ( this man felt such practice would promote homosexual activity ). The local newspaper kept on publishing his letters because it IS freedom of speech no matter how stupid the letters were.

Anyway this man ended up stopped writing his letters only after a local amusement park responded to a letter he had written earlier about their "gay days", asking him ( in their letter )where he had he gotten the info as the park only promoted the event through gay media. In other words this man by accident outed himself- in my opinion using his homophobia to hide the fact the he is gay himself.

As far as suing goes, They can but one area I dont get is what happenes when a tv or movie stars has AIDS. A good friend of mine works for a local health department , she told me once that its against the law to discuss in a public forum that someone has HIV/AIDS unless they come out about publicly ( like Rock Hudson for example ).
That I dont see how the tabloids get away with. Many hospitals ( if not all ) do NOT allow their employees to discuss health matters outside the family.

Case in point was the late actor Tony Perkins (Pyscho's Norman Bates ). One day while visiting the doctor Perkins had his blood tested. Somehow either the blood itself and/or the results got into the hands of the tabloids and this happened without Perkins' knowledge. The results were published and they came back HIV positive, as a matter fact Perkins didnt even know the results til he himself read it in the tabolid ( forgot which one ). E did a story awhile back about this.

Robert Reed from the Brady Bunch I believe was another one. True Aids played a part of his death but if I am not mistaken since its been many years ago, according to Barry Williams & Florence Henderson ( who were both interviewed not long after Reed's death on Tom Synder's radio program ) Reed's family kept his death a secret but the tabloids somehow got wind of it and published it.

Wonder why Tony Perkins or Robert Reed's family never sued for having such private information made public.

about the actors playing gay characters and people believe they are really gay- it always seems that way. I myself enjoy Queer as Folk. Some of the best acting on tv today comes from that show. But everytime I tell people I watch it ALWAYS get the question " are you gay?" and I always told them no, I just enjoy watching a show thats well done. I guess the thought of someone who isnt gay watching Queer as Folk confuses some.

[Bootsy Whoosh]

Originally posted by bb
They can but one area I dont get is what happenes when a tv or movie stars has AIDS. A good friend of mine works for a local health department ans she told me once that its against the law to discuss in a public forum that someone has HIV/AIDS unless they come out about publicly ( like Rock Hudson for example ).
That I dont see how the tabloids get away with.

Wonder why Tony Perkins or Robert Reed's family never sued for having such private information made public.

They should have sued over it, and I also wonder why they didn't. Maybe it was too painful to have to deal with the added publicity and court hearings after the death of their loved one.

But your friend is right, that is against the law. It is both slander and libel (if it was printed in a tabloid), and it is one of the 4 special cases of slander where the person or the family of the deceased does not have to prove any losses to win the case.

[Chocoholic]

I don't understand how people can read trash like that either. I never pay any attention to it. I'm no homophobe, but I do think what a person does in their bedroom is their business, not mine and I don't care to know about it.

On a similar topic, I don't understand why people waste their money on lottery tickets and scratch tickets and Keno games and stuff like that. I've waited in many a checkout line at a "convenience" store or a customer service booth at a regular grocery store behind someone who decides to throw their money away on gambling. I've waited for up to 15 minutes at times before I finally got up to the counter (usually steaming mad by then). If stores want to have a lottery, then fine! But don't let it interfere with you dealing with customers who actually come in to buy stuff.

[AKA]

The sad truth is - whether or not we care to admit it - the United States is a country of homophobes. Most people aren't very open-minded or educated about homosexuality and they pass that ignorance onto their children.

[Kristina]

The only reason they do FAKE stories like that is just to sell their magazines.

[Bootsy Whoosh]

Originally posted by WingsFan
On a similar topic, I don't understand why people waste their money on lottery tickets and scratch tickets and Keno games and stuff like that.

Well I do buy the occasional lottery ticket, and also scratch off games, but only once in a great while. They can be fun sometimes.

But I do agree with you on the whole gambling thing. I went to a casino this weekend (first time I've ever been), and I guess it was interesting at first, but I got really bored after like an hour. I just kept wondering how in the world people could just throw their money away like that. Like I was watching one guy, in the "high roller" area....he was playing a slot machine and every time he pulled the lever it cost him $10. I can't even imagine.

I have no problem spending money, but I would rather spend it on something either tangible, like a new TV, or on something where I know I am going to have fun, like an amusement park, rather than on something where I merely have a small chance of making some more money.

[Pitooey]

Not everyone in this society feels the way you do. Being Homosexual is still a big issue believe it or not. There are alot of religious people in the world that condone this. & anyway if I saw that Examiner headline I would want to know who is gay or not. In the 50's Liberace sued a magazine because he was angry that they said he was homosexual. He won the case but, at the end he was gay. (I knew it the minute I laid eyes on him). Now somebody like Rock Hudson he didn't appear to be a gay man and he was........... I respect Liberace more than I respect Rock Hudson.

[Bootsy Whoosh]

Originally posted by JennyLee22
Not everyone in this society feels the way you do. Being Homosexual is still a big issue believe it or not.

I don't think anyone disputes that it is still a big issue.

Originally posted by JennyLee22
There are alot of religious people in the world that condone this. & anyway if I saw that Examiner headline I would want to know who is gay or not.

I'm assuming you meant to say the religious people don't condone it. But anyway, the Examiner ain't exactly the New York Times. You can't believe anything they print, so why bother. Even if some of the things they print are true, like the originator of the thread said, it's not exactly big news that Ellen is gay.

Originally posted by JennyLee22
In the 50's Liberace sued a magazine because he was angry that they said he was homosexual. He won the case but, at the end he was gay. (I knew it the minute I laid eyes on him). Now somebody like Rock Hudson he didn't appear to be a gay man and he was........... I respect Liberace more than I respect Rock Hudson.

So you don't respect Rock Hudson because he was a manly man? Is he somehow not allowed to be gay because he is a manly man, or is he simply not allowed to go around hiding that information from us, fooling us like that? Why don't you respect him?