Jodie Foster Offers Strange Speech In Which She "Comes Out" as a Lesbian, Then Argues No One Should Come Out as Gay

I don't know the backstory on this. Based on what I see here, I get the sense she's reacting defensively, probably towards agitation in the gay media that she should "come out" more vigorously and do more for to help the community and so forth.

So we have a weird thing here in which someone asserts her right to keep her private life private -- and only come out to people actually in her life -- but discussing just that on national television, while also knocking the idea that any gay celebrity must come out with, as she puts it, "a press appearance, a fragrance, and a prime-time reality tv show." She also suggests that anyone who doesn't live by her (prudent enough!) creed of privacy is an exhibitionist: She says "I am not Honey Boo Boo."

I'm not saying this is bad. Just saying I think she's undermining the very point she's trying to make, isn't she? She's saying "It's absolutely none of your business if I'm gay or not, the private life is private (or should be), and I reject your demands I expose my private life for your cause; but since you've asked, why sure I'm gay, and I said so long ago, and here I am saying so again. But this is private." That's a lot of disclosures for someone pushing the idea that she is entitled to actual privacy in her private life.

If you stay with it you again her demonstrate her loyalty towards Mel Gibson, calling him out and saying he "saved" her. I don't know the backstory on that but Jodie Foster went ahead with casting Gibson in her movie The Beaver even when Hollywood officially considered him untouchable. For reasons I'm not sure either has explained, they seem mutually loyal to each other.

Does "saved" mean Saved? Two actors seem especially loyal to Gibson -- Robert Downey Jr. and Jodie Foster. Both of them were child actors (well, very young actors in RDJr's case, even if not a "child") and we can guess that both had their Bad Times. (I don't think we need to guess in RDJr's case.)

Given that Gibson is himself very religious, are both loyal to him because he Testified to them, "saved" them?

In Robert Downey Jr.'s case, he might just be loyal to Gibson because Gibson employed him when he (RDJr.) was considered untouchable. But maybe it's more than that.

I'm just curious about what Gibson did for Foster to merit the loyalty. It must have been both Big and Important if she's still talking about it... and yet not really talking about it.

Maybe he's some kind of freelance Substance Abuse counselor? Like a more effective version of this guy?

I Was Trying To Think of Any Casting Kindness Gibson Had Shown for Foster... But couldn't. But after Googling I did hit upon "Maverick" -- she co-starred there. Maybe Gibson "fought for her," as they say.

posted by Ace at 04:56 PM

| Access Comments