Ask the Flying Monkey (January 21, 2009)

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Ask the Monkey!

Q: Both the men on The New Adventures of Old Christine ping my gaydar (and are really cute, but that’s a different issue). Is either gay? – Randy, Lakewood, CO

Clark Gregg (left) and Hamish Linklater with Julia Louis-Dreyfuss

A: Neither Clark Gregg nor Hamish Linklater are gay. Both are married to women — Dirty Dancing’s Jennifer Grey in the case of Gregg.

Linklater did play a gay man in 2006 opposite Brothers & Sisters’ Luke Macfarlane (also playing gay) in The Busy World Is Hushed, a play at New York’s Playwrights Horizons. Gregg, meanwhile, played a gay guy on a 2003 episode of Will & Grace.

Q: Mickey Rourke????? Puh-leeeeeze! – Tommy, New Haven, CT

Mickey Rourke wins a 2008 best actor Golden Globe for The Wrestler

Photo credit Jason Merritt/Getty Images

A: You make an extremely trenchant point, Tommy. All the Monkey can say about Rourke’s Golden Globe win is that Rourke, who is undeniably talented (see: Diner), is apparently terrific in The Wrestler, the new movie for which he’s getting all the buzz (and unlike Robert Downey, Jr., he hasn’t already had three “comebacks” that he totally messed up, screwing over all the people who previously took a chance on him).

Also, Darren Aronofsky, The Wrestler’s director, has done two excellent movies, Pi (1998) and Requiem for a Dream (2000) (although he also did one horrible one: The Fountain [2006]). And let’s face it: it was pretty clever of Aronofsky to cast Rourke in a role that so closely mirrored the actor’s own life and his “comeback” to acting.

What of Rourke’s alleged homophobia? His being a jerk doesn’t make it any less of a great performance.

Q: I just recently discovered out Israeli singer Yehonathan. I read that he did acting classes in LA, but I haven't heard of anything he has done. Does he do any acting, particularly in English? – Stephen, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

Yehonathan

A: The handsome Israeli star does act, most recently in two Israeli TV series Reviat Ran and Screenz. “I really loved doing these shows,” he tells the Flying Monkey.

But what of plans to do acting in English? “I would love to do some acting in the U.S.,” he says. “Just waiting for some offers!”

Next page! The biggest black gay icon. Plus, queer demons return on CW's Reaper.