Kevin Spacey: Hollywood Unreported

The move to the U.K. allowed him to remain out of the Hollywood spotlight at a time when celebrities' offscreen lives became as newsworthy as their onscreen ones. Spacey, whose only permanent home is in London, fiercely guards his private life. In fact, his affable demeanor shuts off the moment he is asked about it. This might date back to a 1997 Esquire profile that infamously suggested Spacey was gay. He later denied the characterization, and his agency at the time, William Morris, vehemently discouraged its clients from cooperating with the publication."Let's let people live their lives and do it the way they want to do it," he says now. "All the chips will fall in the end, and we'll all be judged by a much higher power than Entertainment Weekly can."

Hollywood Reporter.

Thanks for clearing that up...

Television: Making Gay The New Normal?

Shows with gay characters, like Glee, Modern Family, and The New Normal, are helping drive voters to historically unprecedented support of gay marriage, an Oct. 29 THR poll conducted in conjunction with partner Penn Schoen Berland has found. Though gay TV also makes some voters more intensely opposed to gay marriage, they are outnumbered by voters who become more supportive of gay marriage, influenced by what they see on TV...
In the past 10 years, the THR poll of likely voters across the nation found, about three times as many voters have become more pro-gay marriage as have become more anti-gay marriage -- 31 percent pro, 10 percent anti.
Asked about how the shows influenced them, 27 percent said gay TV made them more pro-gay marriage, and six percent more anti. Obama voters watched and 30 percent got more supportive, 2 percent less supportive. Surprisingly, the shows made almost as many Romney voters more in favor of gay marriage: 13 percent got more pro-gay-marriage, 12 percent got more anti. (This trend toward gay acceptance squares with other polls: the 2011 Gallup poll was the first ever to show a majority, 53 percent, in favor of legalizing gay marriage...)
Obama voters are twice as likely to watch Modern Family as Romney voters are, twice as likely to watch Glee, and three times more likely to watch The New Normal...  *

Hollywood Reporter.

Interesting, but reductive as it implies television is the main driver behind changes in social attitudes.
Turn tellybox on, watch tellybox, mind changed, problem solved...
Of course popular culture matters - I don't think I'd bother writing about it if I didn't think it did. 
But what happens in the cultural, political and social spheres all interact and overlap, and it's surely the latter - our interactions with real people - that has really transformed our world.
Mind you, what kind of a freak wants to be "normal"?

• So maybe Catholic Online et al are onto something with their 'Fightback against gay TV in your home'?

* This contradicts the oft-quoted line that Republicans are more likely to watch Modern Family. Thus scientifically proving that at least 50% of surveys about The Gays must be bollocks.