Glee Boss Calls for Newsweek Ban Over "Mind-Blowingly Bigoted" Article

Creator Ryan Murphy calls for boycott, demands apology after article says gay actors have a hard time believably playing straight

By Natalie Finn May 11, 2010 11:23 PMTags
Glee CastPatrick Ecclesine/FOX

It's all for one and one for all over on the Glee set.

Series creator Ryan Murphy has joined pal Kristin Chenoweth in slamming Newsweek over a recent essay that argued gay actors have trouble playing straight characters convincingly, and which happened to name check Glee star Jonathan Groff, who romanced Lea Michele on the show.

But while Chenoweth encouraged the magazine to watch its step in the future, Murphy is demanding an apology to the gay community and calling for a boycott.

"This article is as misguided as it is shocking and hurtful," Murphy wrote in an open letter obtained by EW.com. "It shocks me because [writer Ramin Setoodeh] is himself gay. But what is the most shocking of all is that Newsweek went ahead and published such a blatantly homophobic article in the first place…and has remained silent in the face of ongoing (and justified) criticism."

Well, not quite. Setoodeh did publish a response to the controversy on Newsweek.com yesterday, acknowledging that he took on a "complicated subject," but adding that "the Internet sometimes has a way of oversimplifying things" and that Chenoweth kinda missed the point.

"I was compared to Ann Coulter and called an Uncle Tom," Setoodeh wrote. "Someone described me as a 'self-hating Arab' that should be writing about terrorism (I'm an American, born in Texas, of Iranian descent).

"But what all this scrutiny seemed to miss was my essay's point: if an actor of the stature of George Clooney came out of the closet today, would we still accept him as a heterosexual leading man? It's hard to say, because no actor like that exists. I meant to open a debate—why is that? And what does it say about our notions about sexuality?"

Well, Murphy either hasn't read Setoodeh's explanation or doesn't care.

"Would the magazine have published an article where the author makes a thesis statement that minority actors should only be allowed and encouraged to play domestics? I think not," Ryan's letter continued.

"Today, I have asked GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios to stand with me and others and ask for an immediate boycott of Newsweek magazine until an apology is issued to Sean Hayes and other brave out actors who were cruelly singled out in this damaging, needlessly cruel, and mind-blowingly bigoted piece. An apology should also be issued to all gay readers of the magazine…steelworkers, parents, accountants, doctors, etc…proud hardworking Americans who, if this article is to be believed, should only identify themselves as 'queeny' people (a word used by Setoodeh in the article) who stand at the back of the bus and embrace an outdated decades old stereotype."

Murphy also extends an invitation to Setoodeh to, before he picks up his "poison pen," visit the Glee set and writers' room as they hammer out plotlines that are meant to encourage "all viewers no matter what their sexual orientation to go after their hopes and dreams and not be pigeonholed by dated and harmful rhetoric."

Seeing as how Setoodeh's a big fan of the Golden Globe-winning comedy, he'd probably totally dig that.

Follow @eonline on Twitter!

________

No one seems to care what the persuasion is of the ladies in our TV's Hot Girl-on-Girl Action gallery.