Who kept "Design Star"'s Mikey V in the closet?

It's nothing new in the world of reality television: behind-the-scenes backstabbing, dismissing your competitors as talentless hacks, and of course, vicious rumors. People whisper, speculate, and blog about who's really gay and hiding it, who has a past in the adult film industry, who has kids out of wedlock – just about anything anyone's ever conceivably done, there's a rumor about it somewhere. That's doubly true online.

But on HGTV, the very gay-inclusive, gay-friendly home and garden network? And especially on Design Star, turf of the nicest folks in reality TV-land, like first season winner and all-round good guy David Bromstad – himself an out gay man? Not so much.

But all that changed this year, when sexy cop-by-day, designer-by-night Michael Verdugo caught the attention of fans in the third season of HGTV's reality competition design series. And those fans quickly found out that Mikey V, along with designers Matt Locke and Michael Stribling, was also a member of Season 3's "Team Gay", even though Verdugo wasn't among the contestants introduced to the gay press by publicists for the show.

And that seemed odd. I've interviewed all the out gay Design Star, contestants since the series' first season, and each of them told me the same story: they were never asked about their sexual orientation by HGTV. They all volunteered the information to the network, and the decision to work with the gay press, or to be publicly out, was left up to them.

David Bromstad, Michael Stribling, Josh Johson, Matt Locke
(All photos courtesy of Getty Images)

But Mikey V is in a registered domestic partnership with a man he's been with for four years now. He'd also filed an internal affairs complaint against another cop on the force, alleging he'd harassed Verdugo for being gay, in 2006. The other cop got off with just a warning to be more "sensitive and professional" with his co-workers, but the story got plenty of local media attention. Verdugo was quoted in one newspaper article as saying, "I think it's important for me to stand up to anti-gay discrimination so that other gay and lesbian officers know that they can come out at work without fear of reprisal."

All of these facts are easily accessible to anyone who knows how to use Google. Clearly, Mikey V was out.

Design Star publicist Leslie Gwinn was adamant that HGTV didn't prevent Mikey from working with the gay press. The network gave us a statement saying, "HGTV highly values its editorial relationship with AfterElton and the network always forwards on every request that is made to the talent. At the time the AfterElton interview request was made, Mikey V. decided to decline the opportunity."

"I have no answer for that," he said. "I even asked her. I said, 'Why aren't I doing it? I’m gay, I’m open. Everybody knows about me.' But I guess she didn’t want to go that route with me."

Although HGTV had no further comment, one possible reason Mikey might have been steered away from the press could have been rumors about his alleged appearance in a gay bondage adult film called Rope Rituals, filmed in 1996 in San Francisco. The film's producer told the Miami Herald they had "the wrong guy," and said the actor, who was billed as "Jeremy Wess," was not Verdugo. But they do look very much alike, and have similar tattoos.

Mikey confirmed that he's on a paid administrative leave from his job with the Hollywood police department, but said he couldn't discuss the film at all, for legal reasons. His attorney, Alberto Milian, told Miami reporter Steve Rothaus, "My client has done absolutely nothing wrong. Nothing unethical. Nothing to bring discredit upon his police department, except serve his community.''

Although HGTV isn't talking, even to Verdugo, legal issues are probably why Mikey was the only contestant not present at the season three finale that was shot and aired just two weeks ago.