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

Q: Who’s the biggest male star to get naked in a movie?
-- Paul, Akron, OH

A: There are two ways to interpret this question. Alas, I’m told by my editor I have to interpret in the less “fun” way. That said, I will assume you’re talking “full monty,” not bare bum.

Despite Hollywood’s ongoing case of penis-phobia, a few genuinely major stars have bared all on film, though often it’s before they were major stars. I refuse to count sneak peeks and fleeting glimpses, like Bruce Willis in Color of Night (cut for the theatrical release, restored for the DVD), Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain, Tom Cruise in All the Right Moves, Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris, Robert DeNiro in 1800, and Mel Gibson in Gallipoli.

Viggo Mortensen, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard

So that leaves Peter Sarsgaard in Kinsey, Kevin Bacon in Wild Things, Richard Gere in American Gigolo and Breathless, Michael Vartan in One Hour Photo, Daniel Craig in Love is the Devil, Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises, and Ewan McGregor in, well, everything (God love ‘im!).

But the biggest naked star of all? Johnny Depp in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Just kidding. It’s David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Q: With more and more stars coming out, has any star ever come out and then taken it back?
– Elliott, London, U.K.

A: You might be tempted to say AfterElton namesake Elton John, since he came out in a Rolling Stone interview in 1976, but then, in 1984, married a woman (recording engineer Renate Blauel, not “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart"’s Kiki Dee, like everyone thinks).

But John originally came out not as gay, but as bisexual, so his 1984 marriage wasn’t a contradiction at all. However, he did later “take back” his bisexuality, when he finally came out as fully gay.

In May 2006, My So Called Life’s Jared Leto "came out" in an online interview on AOL with this exchange:

ThirtySecondLeto: I’ll give you an exclusive....
TyeinMusic: ooh. lay it on me
ThirtySecondLeto: I’m gay
TyeinMusic: *!*
TyeinMusic: please tell me you're serious
ThirtySecondLeto: as a goose.

AfterElton.com editor Michael Jensen contacted Leto's publicist for confirmation and was told that Leto had just been kidding. The AOL site also later amended the interview with this editor’s note: “After this interview was published, Jared Leto contacted us to say that he was, in fact, not gay, and that his ‘coming out’ should not be taken seriously. What a tease.”

Thus Leto became yet another celebrity to play the "vaguely gay" game.



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