Michael Ausiello reports it was Dekker's management that de-gayed Zach

Michael Ausiello, of TVGuide.com's Ask Ausiello, just reported that it was Thomas Dekker's management which put Zach back in the closet. Said Ausiello about the whole fiasco:

Somebody objected to the plot, and my sources tell me it was not NBC, but rather Dekker's camp that came down with a severe case of gay panic syndrome. In fact, there's speculation that Dekker's manager threatened to pull her client from the show unless the story was changed.

Hmm, somebody has got some explaining to do. Ausiello adds that Dekker's manager promised to get back to him with a comment but never did. Gee, there is a surprise. Given Dekker's manager's initial refusal to let him do an interview with us for our original story on Heroes (a general article about Zach's seemingly gay character) none of this comes as a surprise to us. But we didn't have any confirmation of the fact so couldn't say so. Obviously there are still questions to be answered. Does one manager really have enough clout to make an entire network do their bidding? Did NBC push back and how hard? In 2006, why on earth should a manager be so afraid of a client playing a gay role. Hello? Brokeback Mountain? As promised, we're working to get these answers and will post more as soon as possible.