Discussion: New York Times Reporter Agrees That Paper 'Quietly Outed' James Franco

Discussion for article #226059

What is the purpose of outing someone. Leave them the f__k alone.

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Nahā€“just bros being bros. Pretending to be ā€˜bros with benefitsā€™ for a predictable media frenzy. To publicize a bro-tastic little movie.

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So?

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So it was reporting a truthful statement made by James Franco that Franco himself was obviously not trying to hide. I am having difficulty following this one.

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The cool thing about this is that no one gives a shit. Itā€™s like reporting that someone lives in a condo or has attached earlobes. Whatevs.

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Correction: From the looks of things, James Franco lives with a ā€œmannequin.ā€ The Times regrets the error.

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This is all crap. Franco is in a committed relationsip with Kumiko, his Japanese anime body pillow.

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So heā€™s a gay caballero. Who cares nowadays except maybe the young female fans?

Years back, an Afr Am woman colleague told me how crushed she and her sister Johnny Mathis groupies were when they learned he was gay.

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Could be. Or it could be that Franco has figured out what most single guys already know, which is living by yourself is BORING. Living with friends so that you always have people around to do stuff with is way more fun.

Through the age of 32 or so I spent most of my time living with other guys and Iā€™m not gay. Hell I even lived WITH a guy that was gay for a while and Iā€™m STILL not gay!

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I had to find out here that Kumiko is not faithful to me?!?! You could have PMā€™ed me.

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Well, thatā€™s interesting, because I went to a screening of Child of God - a friend was the editor on the movie. And the actor, Hayes, who was there, talking about moving to the South with his girlfriend to get acclimated to the role. Nothing is proof, but the guy has some hetero impulses if his story is to be believed (I believed it, and he was cuddly with his girlfriend at the screening in the row in front of me). And this was in San Francisco, where really nobody cares if you are gay.

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It may be that Hayes is less secure with coming out and how it would affect the ability to get roles for him. Franco, being more established, wouldnā€™t have that concern.

All of this is purely speculative, as is the NYT piece and we all know Gawkerā€™s purpose in life is to be titillating and pointlessā€¦but it could be a reason. Hell, Elton John went as far as to marry a woman to hide what the rest of the world already knew, so did Rock Hudson. Wouldnā€™t be the first ā€œman and beardā€ situation in showbiz.

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Maybe the idea of outing is a bit anachronistic, at least on the coasts? But the language

ā€œso close that describing them merely as friends would be a disservice.ā€

is a little creepy. Itā€™s like ā€œoooo Iā€™ve got a real kinky news nugget here!ā€ Certainly reveals more about the journoā€™s issues than the actorā€™s. Maybe a little jealousy?

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ā€œOutedā€ because it was mentioned that two people share living space? Someone must think being gay is something to be ashamed of, and it wouldnā€™t be the reporterā€¦

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Iā€™m with you. Franco seems to be having a helluva good time with life. Maybe heā€™s gay or maybe his buddy moved in with his rich, famous friend because he was a starving artist who couldnā€™t afford Manhattan rent. That seems just as plausible as Franco being gay.

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Idk. Just based on the quotes given here, I donā€™t really see how the Times was trying to out him. I mean, I guess I can see how it could be interpreted that way, but it would surely have gone over my head. So the real people ā€œoutingā€ Franco (assuming heā€™s even gay at all) are the people announcing that the Times outed him, as itā€™s doubtful anyone else would have noticed.

Thus said, Iā€™m glad to finally live in a society where making announcements about a celebrityā€™s lifestyle preferences is considered to be controversial, and not the celebrityā€™s preference itself. If Franco wants to sleep with girls, guys, or pillows; thatā€™s his business. But itā€™s never ok to make someoneā€™s sexual preferences public against their wishes.

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The whole thing is just a big fat who caresā€¦

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You mean it isnā€™t contagious?!?

Thanks a lot. The 30 seconds I spent reading the article are lost forever.

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