He’s not the first person to say it, but Sir Ian McKellen has backed the idea that William Shakespeare was gay or bisexual, telling the New York Post that, “Shakespeare obviously enjoyed sex with men as well as women.”
Although it’s difficult to prove 400 years after the fact (especially when the historical Shakespeare is rather enigmatic), McKellen is convinced, saying “No doubt Shakespeare was gay. His predilection was evident from his works. An unmistakenly feminine portrait of his patron Henry Wriothesley adds evidence that early sonnets to ‘fair youth’ were probably meant for males.” For many years critics have noted that many of his poems to seem to have been written to or about a man (while others insist this doesn’t mean he’s gay, just that he referred to things using male pronouns, or was talking about abstract ideas of love rather than an actual man).
McKellen adds, “Married, with children, he left his wife in Stratford to live in London. I’d say he slept with men. The Merchant of Venice, centering on how the world treats gays as well as Jews, has a love triangle between an older man, younger man and a woman. And complexity in his comedies with cross-dressing and disguises is immense. Shakespeare obviously enjoyed sex with men as well as women.”
Personally I’m not sure we can really say much about Shakespeare’s sexuality now, especially as ‘being gay’ in the way we’d understand it (culturally as well as sexually) didn’t exist back then. However there is a fair amount of evidence that the writer appreciated the masculine as much as the feminine.
David O’Russell is known for being difficult to work with (his argument with Lily Tomlin on the set of I Heart Huckabees is legendary), but now the director of The Fighter and Three Kings is having issues of a different kind after being accused of groping a transgender relative.
It’s just over a month until the BAFTA Film Awards are handed out on Sunday February 12th, and a couple weeks until the nominations are announced on January 17th. Ahead of that, BAFTA has released the longlist of potential nominees in each category.
A couple of days ago
Meryl Streep is an icon to a lot of people, but it appears she hadn’t realised that she was a gay icon as well. The actress, who’s won massive plaudits for playing Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (out Jan 6th), says “I just recently found out I’m a gay icon from a show where they do little arias from all my movies.”
While there have been plenty of people gnashing their teeth at the idea of remaking Carrie, getting a director onboard who could do something interesting with the material would certainly help. It seems MGM & Screen Gems want to do just that, as they’re currently in talks with Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry, Stop Loss) to direct the film, according to 
Several months ago it was revealed that Elton John was working on a film biopic of his life and had hired Billy Elliot screenwriter Lee Hall to come up with the script. Not much has been heard about it since then, but now the 64-year-old singer has been talking to the 
Critically acclaimed Hollywood actor Robin Williams has said he is the proud owner of a gay dog.
Gay Twilight fans might have got a little excited over the last couple of days, as a cover of US magazine People, dated Jan. 7th, has been doing the viral internet rounds. It appears to be for a special issue in which Lautner gives an interview in which, ‘Tired of rumors, the 19-year-old Twilight star opens up about his decision to finaly come out. ‘I’m more liberated, and happier than I’ve ever been.”