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The Outing of Marcia Cross
Sarah Warn, February 8, 2005

It started with a single post on popular gay gossip forum Datalounge.com on February 1st, from an anonymous poster who signed his name simply "Your Friendly Spy at ABC":

All those who assumed it was one of the husbands that was going to come out of the closet on [Desperate Housewives] (as promised by creator Marc Cherry) are off-track. The gay character is actually going to be Bree’s son, the pot-smoking problem teen who was behind the wheel of the car that put Carlos’s mother into a coma earlier this season. Expect to see more of him next season when all will be revealed re his sexuality, with Bree of course worried that her overbearing nature is the cause of it.

In other Desperate Housewives news, another cast member is going to come out of the closet in real life with the help of an upcoming cover of The Advocate and a string of talk show appearances. Just in time for May sweeps. Yes, I do know which cast member (it’s the talk of the set thanks to the fact said cast member wants to give The Advocate the exclusive – the editor is a close friend of the star - before announcing it to the rest of the media and so the coming out process is as complicated as the plans for a war) but I will keep mom on who exactly it is other than to say that it won’t be much of a surprise to those on DL. Oh, and the gay cast member will also announce a relationship with the lead of another TV series.

The thread quickly became one of the more popular ones on the forum, as posters quickly identified Marcia Cross as the lesbian Housewive's star based on a process of elimination (discarding those housewives currently married, like Felicity Huffman), clues like the Spy's use of the word "mom" in the "I will keep mom on who exactly it is," and the fact that Marcia Cross (also known as Kimberly on Melrose Place) has been rumored to be a lesbian for years.

Then speculation turned to who Cross was in a relationship with, and further hints by the ABC Spy that the woman was a brunette and a lead on a WB series prompted names like Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls), Lori Loughlin and Merrin Dunghey (Summerland), and even 23-year-old Jessica Pare (Jack and Bobby)--with just as many posters arguing the WB clue was a red herring and it was really Kristin Davis (Sex and the City).

Meanwhile, blogs like QueerDay.com began linking to the thread later in the week, and by the weekend, it was the gossip talk of the internet.

Then on Sunday, a few tabloids like The New York Daily News and UK tabloid The Sun went public with the rumor--with headlines like "Housewives Star: 'I'm Gay'"--and on Monday, more traditional news outlets had jumped on the bandwagon. L.A.'s Good Morning Live mentioned it on their Monday morning show:

"Well listen up everybody, there is word today that one of the characters on Desperate Housewives will come out of the closet, and he's expected to be joined by one of the stars coming out in real-life. So listen up. A source says that Bree Van De Kamp's son, Andrew, will be revealed as a gay character. He's the one who's been smoking pot and who ran down Gabrielle's mother-in-law. Now the bigger rumor is that the actress who plays Bree, Marcia Cross, is going to reveal that she's gay in real-life. Word is that she's gonna be on the cover of The Advocate magazine and she's also going to tour all the talk shows and talk about it. Now expect all of this to happen around the time of May sweeps."

News anchor Heidi Colls had this to say on the CNN show American Morning:

And it is one of the hottest shows on television, but will it hook even more viewers now with its latest plot twist? Reports that someone on ABC's "Desperate Housewives" is about to come out of the closet on the show and in real life. Word is the son of Marcia Cross, character Bree, will admit to be being gay. The rumor mill is also swirling that Marcia Cross will come out herself in the gay magazine "The Advocate." The magazine says it has nothing is planned. The plot thickens.

Monday night's broadcast of TV celebrity gossip show Inside Edition showed a clip of the host asking the Desparate Housewives stars at the SAG awards about a rumor that one of the cast members is going to come out of the closet. They just laughed it off, and Doug Savant joked, "Not unless it's Eva coming out of the closet with a new wardrobe."

E! Online's TV and gossip columnist Kristin was asked in her weekly chat on Monday about the rumor that a cast member of Desperate Housewives was going to come out, and she responded "I hadn't heard that, but I wouldn't be surprised." Later, when the transcript of the chat was posted, her response was changed to "I hadn't heard that, but I'm not outing anyone."

By Tuesday morning, it was the topic everyone was talking about.

Internet and tabloid gossip about the personal life of stars is nothing new, but this appears to be the first time that a rumor started solely by an anonymous internet poster on a message board has generated an avalanche of response that has spilled over into traditional news outlets.

Traditional news or entertainment shows on channels like CNN have increasingly referenced or reporting on internet gossip over the last few years, but usually in vague terms. The fact that CNN's American Morning and Good Morning Live actually named Cross, rather than simply raising the question of whether someone on Desperate Housewives is coming out, is surprising. It also lends credibility to the rumor, since their phalanx of lawyers would be unlikely to allow them to name Cross on-air unless they had sources who privately confirmed the information.

Stars and their publicists have a long history of using the press to "leak" information like this, and they're increasingly using the internet as an even faster method of testing the potential impact of the information, building buzz about their client, and keeping the client at arm's length should the information prove too damaging.

Last year's Cynthia Nixon outing is a great example of this: Nixon's revelation was old news before she ever spoke a word about it directly.

But regardless of whether the news is a plant by Cross's PR team to test the waters, this incident speaks to a broader sea change in the way news is made and reported. Nothing highlights the way the internet has changed the landscape of American pop culture than when anonymous message board posts have the ability to make or break news.

It also speaks to the increasingly vulnerability of closeted stars, since anonymous message board posters are not bound by the same rules as journalists, nor are they as willing to play by the publicist's rules. Closeted celebrities can take comfort in the fact that there have been rumors about the sexuality of various celebrities for years, however--even more so now that message boards have made it so easy to disseminate that information--and most of it never goes beyond gossip to become news.

The gossip about Marcia Cross became news because it combines very detailed, specific information (not just the fact that Cross is gay, but that she's coming out in May in The Advocate) about a woman long rumored to be gay who stars on the most popular show on television, and because there are sources willing to confirm the information to newspapers and TV shows.

If indeed Cross does come out in May (or sooner, given the frenzy surrounding this story), it will be a big win for lesbian visibility--and a testament to the increasing power of the internet in entertainment journalism.

Marcia Cross is set to host ABC's The View on Wednesday.

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