Ask the Flying Monkey: Gay Typecasting Woes and a Simon Rex Sex Tape Scandal Primer!

Real-life gay couples who both act, and whether Mark Indelicato and Chris Colfer will end up bitter and typecast like Sean Hayes! Plus, a Simon Rex sex-tape scandal primer!

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Contact me here (and be sure and include your city and state and/or country!)

Q: I have always had a massive movie crush on the ever-darling Simon Rex. I was not of the generation that lived through his rise to stardom and/or the revelation of pre-stardom past. How did he survive it? How did the gay community go through it? It seems stunning to me that the news of his past is not more widely discussed. Was it well discussed in the past, or simply a notch on a tabloid page? Did he ever fend off allegations of him being gay? – Maharajah, West Palm Beach, FL

A: I appreciate your interest in gay history, Maharajah, but this is what gets your attention?! Young man, all I can say is that you better know every frickin’ thing there is to know about the Stonewall Inn Riots and the Goddamn AIDS Quilt!

The truth is, the Simon Rex J/O videotape scandal was quite huge in its day. This was way back when people got their news from something called a “newspaper,” and if you wanted to see an adult video, you had to actually rent a cassette from a store.

Simon Rex, then (left) and now. No, he doesn't always photograph well.

But Rex’s exploits definitely made the newspaper and all the television shows at the time. Rex’s management did damage control by (1) on one hand, semi-embracing the videos (I remember his female rep saying, “He looks great!”), and (2) repeatedly and emphatically emphasizing that, despite the fact that the videos were aimed at gay men, they were solo videos and that Rex himself was definitely straight (which turned out to be true! Who knew! Like most people, I simply assumed this was a lie).

How did the gay community survive it? Well, the first thing we all did to cope with the trauma was to go to the video store and check out all three videos.

The reason why it’s not more widely discussed now is because – how do I put this delicately? Despite his reinvention as a rapper, Rex doesn’t have much of a career.

There are two schools of thought on why this is: the first says that Simon Rex had a promising career as an actor unfairly cut short due to the emergence of those videos (and that they were real reason he was let go as an MTV VJ, which is how he got his start). This school of thought says that there was homophobia/heterosexism at work, because when a female star has a sex tape emerge from her past, she usually ends up more popular than before (judgmental hypocrites like Carrie Prejean aside).

The second school of thought says that Rex was always a relatively minor talent and would probably have soon faded away anyway.

I know you’re a fan, Maharajah, but I’m afraid I put myself in the second school.

BTW, last summer Rex rather cleverly tried to turn his adult past to his advantage with a comedy pilot called Rex. The pilot, which featured Lance Bass, had Rex claiming his videos had all been a publicity stunt meant to generate, well, publicity. As I've heard nothing more about it, I'm guessing it didn't work.

Q: Dear High-Flying Mystical Simian: Last week I watched the classic film Norman...Is That You? and was wondering if it was the first appearance/representation of a gay person of color in popular culture, film, or television. I asked friends and we all racked our brains but couldn't think of any others. – DaisyViolet, Norman, OK

The cast of Norman, including Michael Warren (far left) and Dennis Dugan (far right)

A: The (terrible) 1976 movie Norman ... Is That You? is noteworthy for a couple of reasons. First, it’s based on a (failed) 1971 Broadway play (and later a very successful dinner theater production) that was the first major play to take a comic look at homosexuality. Second, while the movie is about African American parents (Redd Foxx and Pearl Bailey) coming to terms with their gay son, the play is about Jewish parents making the same journey.

Plus, it's the only title that I can think of that uses both "..." and a question mark!

But Michael Warren, who played the movie's gay “husband” to Dennis Dugan’s very gay “wife,” wasn’t quite the first gay African American character on-screen. There's a 1914 film, A Florida Enchantment, that sort of counts in that it features a woman and her female African American maid who take magical seeds that turn them into men – during which they romance other women.

Then, of course, there’s Bernard, played by Reuben Greene, in the 1970 film The Boys in the Band.

And there were also two gay roles the same year as Norman, both played by Antonio Fargas: Next Stop, Greenwich Village, which came out six months before Norman…Is That You? and Car Wash, which was released one month after.

A couple of gay fun facts: one of the two authors of Norman, Sam Brobrick, would go on to create the camp teen classic Saved by the Bell. And Norman actor Dennis Dugan (who was once married to Joyce Van Patten!) would go on to direct I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.

Maharajah of West Palm Beach, Florida, you’ve heard of Saved by the Bell, right?

Next Page! Will Chris Colfer and Mark Indelicato end up bitter and typecast like Sean Hayes?