It's NOT gay pride
by Guy Punderdun
''EVERYONE OF US CAN SEE IT, BUT YOU CAN'T.''
For those unfamiliar with the FOX medical drama HOUSE, you may need a set-up to this piece of news to appreciate it. HOUSE stars Hugh Laurie as the malcontent medical superhero Gregory House. The man has only one true friend who will put up with his socially deficient personality. This friend is oncologist James Wilson, played by Robert Sean Leonard. With my TIVO set to record every show, I'll say that these actors are terrific and the characters are beautifully written. As is often the case, when friends are too close on television for long enough, homosexuality is hinted at by some. Ask Oprah about how the public mind eventually works its way over to these hints given enough exposure. Heck, ask Bert and Ernie! As a matter of fact, House's character even once alluded to a gay relationship with his friend sarcastically. That's SARCASTICALLY in case some people weren't looking.
Since Hugh Laurie's character spends a goodly chunk of his time at work ogling his female boss's behind and looking down her notoriously low cut blouses, I find it a little silly that in the small town of Slattery, Ohio the gay community is protesting. What are they protesting about exactly? I'll get to that. First I have to point out how small the potatoes are here, because WOW.
How many gay individuals can there be in Slattery, Ohio-a small township? I have no idea really but out of an estimated 811 residents, 12 are out and protesting House. Why? Because of a rumor no less! Not one person who works for the show has even commented on it and yet there's a small town uprising taking place many miles from where the show is filmed. I doubt it's become a blip on their radar considering the writers strike.
What was this rumor that would cause eleven gay men and one gay woman to ''riot'' in the middle of a small Midwestern town? God only knows who started it but, the Slattery residents claim that the writers of the show wanted to make the House and Wilson characters ''realize'' their ''romantic love'' for each other and FOX shut them down because the [straight] female fans wouldn't have Laurie and Leonard be tainted as their sex symbols. A man named Yes Pompeo- the loudest of the angered gay men- talked to me over the phone about this while local news there ignored the protest and his friends tried to stop annoyed townsfolk as they walked by.
Pompeo says ''Ever since House told Wilson that he loved him, I feel the writers were trying to brace straight America for the relationship to become out in the open.'' As a fan of the show myself, I asked if he'd ever seen Hugh Laurie's character around Doctor Cuddy-played by the lovely Lisa Edelstein. Sounding as though he thought I were just being coy, Mr. Pompeo responded ''So, he acted straight, most of us have done that. Everyone of us can see it, but you can't...''
When asked where he heard this rumor, he declined to comment because it ''wasn't the issue''.
Pompeo called the protest a ''gay pride protest'', mentioned that the actors would be fine with the idea of a gay relationship and that it would be a landmark for two big characters in television thought to be straight for several successful seasons were ''outed''.
Do you think there even is an issue and want to protest? You may wonder, if you're going to protest in this manner, does it matter where in your small town you're located? Sure! Why else would they choose to stand outside a movie rental store to remain nameless, simply because there's a poster of Hugh Laurie in the window from his role in Stewart Little? With all respect to Mr. Pompeo, I don't know what to call this, but I hardly think it falls under the heading of ''gay pride''. I think this is just silly and the rumor could've come from anywhere, but maybe that's just me.
10 comments:
OH MY GOD! This is SOOOOO Stupid! Yeah like after all the butt comments House makes about Cuddy, he's really thinking about WILSON'S! hardee har har. If Will and Grace were still around I'd get people in BFE to protest and say Jack was straight!
Oh brother! I see you guys got your new site up and running, congrats. And, of course, you've managed to find yet another obscure news story of interest Guy. I don't know how you guys do it.
Pardon my french but this is BULLSHIT. I've got nothing against gays but Christ does EVERY show need to have gay main characters? I mean, honestly.
Who cares about any of this stuff? Ron Paul is being railroaded and having his words twisted, he's not a racist! That was media bombardment! Ron Paul 2008!!!
Wtf Is all this Bullplop about like I have nothing against gay people but like this is just stupid I mean why would you protest about this?!?! Its BAD ENOUGH that the WRITERS are protesting but the gay VEIWERS are protesting because they think the writers are writing about gay main characters!! Wtf like seriously both strikes are rediculous i mean Honestly........!!!!!
Many, many fans thought the writers were planning on taking the House/Wilson relationship to the next level. It would have made me so happy because the most we would see onscreen if anything was prolonged eye contact with mood music and maybe, and here it's a big maybe a very chaste kiss - something that you would see between men anywhere but North America. I prefer this to the really, really gross interactions between House and Cameron for instance, i.e. the HAM puke kiss, or the similarly nasty Foreman/Wendy kiss or the Chase and Cameron sexual romp all over the hospital, a patient's bedroom and much earlier in Cameron's apt during her big AIDS scare.
Then there's the equally gross scene where House is literally sniffing Cuddy. For me, all these scenes that are unwatchable the second time around.
Finally, there's the House/Stacy romantic moments, including on bedroom scene. Most viewers thought HL looked very uncomfortable so much so that most viewers described the scene as cringeworthy.
I prefer House/Wilson because the two actors, HL and RSL have such awesome chemistry together and great comedic timing. It doesn't require the obligatory bump & grind that we have to endure with het couples. Nothing turns me off to a show faster than how the show writes its romance. The House writers do not write the het romance well. Most of it is just cringeworthy.
And by the way, why would anyone think House's demeaning remarks toward the women in his sphere of influence indicate a het sexual preference? Given how he treats men versus how he treats women, I've come to a very different conclusion.
So are you trying to create some sort of homophobic tempest in a teapot? Because according to the post office, Google and a map of Ohio, your lovely little town of Slattery is fictional.
If you have an opinion on the characterization of the show, why not just make the comments? Why make up a story?
If this is a real news story, by all means post the links to actual coverage of it in a newspaper or something. Don't just stir the shit without some back up to your claims.
As for the poster who asked where you find these stories, I guess the answer is "in your fertile little brain"
If you have actual articles, etc. to prove this story is true, I'll happily admit I'm wrong.
Happy New Year.
oh, this is so obviously a joke, it's only trying to sound as real as the upper most naive people will believe. *honestly* I didn't bother to check but if there is no slattery ohio then that just proves it's not even trying that hard. I assumed as much when I read the title of the blog, come on.
PS: Stewart Little-lol. Was he even in that?
Oh...well, if it is a joke then I feel kind of silly. Guess this isn't my kind of humor, I got alittle pissed at that
This is a ridiculous news story, but please don't belittle the people who do think there is a gay relationship hinted at on the show. One of the producers, Garrett Lerner, has in fact admitted that every bit of subtext is intentional, so regardless of whether or not Hugh Laurie and Robert Sean Leonard ever do anything remotely sexual on screen, the subtext exists and the viewers who see it are not crazy.
A dumb piece of news, but the television issue is a real (if not serious) one.
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