Kristin Chenoweth Blasts Newsweek Over "Horrendously Homophobic" Article

Stage and screen star lashes out over article that says gay men have trouble believably playing straight

If it makes Kristin Chenoweth feel any better, Newsweek is in dire financial straits.

The wee Emmy winner penned an angry comment (one of many, actually) on the weekly's website Friday, up in arms over an article titled "Straight Jacket," which argued that gay male actors, such as Glee's Jonathan Groff, have a hard time pulling off heterosexual romantic leads.

Chenoweth, who's currently starring opposite Tony-nominated Sean Hayes on Broadway in the romantic-comedy musical Promises, Promises, and has guest-starred on Glee, called Ramin Setoodeh's article—which called Hayes' real-life homosexuality the "big pink elephant in the room"— "horrendously homophobic."

"From where I stand, on stage, with Hayes, every night—I've observed nothing 'wooden' or 'weird' in his performance, nor have I noticed the seemingly unwieldy presence of a 'pink elephant' in the Broadway Theater," Chenoweth wrote on Newsweek.com.

"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 continued. "For example, there was a time when Jewish actors had to change their names because anti-Semites thought no Jew could convincingly play Gentile. Setoodeh even goes so far as to justify his knee-jerk homophobic reaction to gay actors by accepting and endorsing that 'as viewers, we are molded by a society obsessed with dissecting sexuality, starting with the locker room torture in junior high school.' Really? We want to maintain and proliferate the same kind of bullying that makes children cry and in some recent cases have even taken their own lives? That's so sad, Newsweek!"

She goes on (read her comments in their entirety at here) to defend Hayes and Groff's acting work, also name-checking How I Met Your Mother womanizer Neil Patrick Harris and Sex and the City's Cynthia Nixon as examples of gay actors who play straight quite convincingly.

"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," Chenoweth wrote. "I am told on good authority that Mr. Setoodeh is a gay man himself and I would hope, as the author of this article, he would at least understand that. I encourage Newsweek to embrace stories which promote acceptance, love, unity and singing and dancing for all!"

The Pushing Daisies star later alerted her Twitter followers to the cause, writing, "Check it out. I couldn't stay silent on this one."

There seemed to be no response from Setoodeh on his Twitter page, though he appears to be an avowed Glee fan, writing on April 26, "Watched new episode of Glee early. Pitch-perfect and totally angsty, just the way I like it."