Recently I had a very intelligent lunch conversation with peers about the MTV show Punk'd. For those of you who don't know, Punk'd is a show that Ashton Kutcher started that is kind of similar to Candid Camera, but with celebrities. Kutcher hires actors to put celebrities in really ridiculous situations and usually worries them or makes them very angry and then walks out and laughs at them.

Anyway, our conversation began because someone had recently seen an episode in which Ellen Pompeo (Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy) was punked and said some pretty weird things. The episode involved a waitress (actress) hitting on Pompeo's fiance while serving them lunch. Pompeo goes on to say some pretty malicious stuff about stabbing the woman and watching her bleed everywhere. Pretty weird. The link to that on YouTube is here:

It seems that over the past few months, we’ve seen a string of celebrities and public figures being (pretty much) dragged out the closet by the media. From Lance Bass, to Neil Patrick Harris, to various members of the Republican party, it seems that people are being outed left and right (pun intended). Although the speculation comes out (god, I can’t stop with the puns) from different sources (i.e. Bill Maher’s comments on CNN), much of it seems to be fueled by internet gossip (i.e. Neil Patrick Harris being outed on Perez Hilton’s blog).

I find the whole thing to be really fascinating, and I also find that I have mixed feelings about it, and was left with more questions than answers. Although I will admit to deriving a sense of glee when homophobic Republicans are outed as gay themselves (and in turn as hypocrites), I also think that coming out is a very personal decision and shouldn’t be forced on someone. But then again, there is a need for more gay visibility in the public eye, but at what cost? It seems that with internet gossip, no aspect of a public figure’s private life is off limits. Is a total lack of privacy now hand in hand with celebrity in our culture? Should these people be forced out of the closet? As public figures, do they owe it to the queer community to be out? Also, why are all of the recently outed people males?