Merv Griffin's Final Broadcast

Legendary TV Titan and Hollywood closet case Merv Griffin, who died last August, was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles alongside several other tinseltown legends, and his gravestone has reportedly been attracting plenty of visitors.

You certainly can't say he didn't have a sense of humor.

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Reporter Scribe Discusses Merv Griffin Closet Piece Fallout [tr]
Merv Griffin's Gay Shame Becomes The Hollywood Reporter's [tr]
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Reporter Scribe Discusses Merv Griffin Closet Piece Fallout

Hollywood Reporter scribe Ray Richmond discusses the fallout from his column, "Griffin Never Revealed Man Behind the Curtain," and sets things straight on the timeline of what went down last week after the piece, which lamented Merv Griffin's life as a closeted gay man, was published.

Richmond says that the Hollywood Reporter (whose editor Elizabeth Guider he vigorously defends) "blinked" only briefly, pulling the column but then republishing it. Reuters, on the other hand, completely pulled the column, which they had labeled with a new headline "Merv Griffin Died a Closeted homosexual".

Richmond is surprised that his column was even published in the first place, and says that its publication on the day of Griffin's funeral was an unfortunate coincidence.

Finally, he adds: "I have to wonder if the response in defense of keeping Griffin's secret life a secret post-mortem would have been as acute had he died penniless and forgotten. It would seem there is a direct relationship between the size of one's estate and the level of security guarding his or her heretofore undisclosed sexual preference. It appears that $1.6 billion will buy an awful lot of closet space."

Setting the Record Straight (So to Speak) on My Merv Griffin Uproar [past deadline]

Previously
Merv Griffin's Gay Shame Becomes The Hollywood Reporter's [tr]
Hollywood Reporter: Merv Griffin Was Gay [tr]

Merv Griffin's Gay Shame Becomes The Hollywood Reporter's

Friday's rather stunning pronouncement by the Hollywood Reporter that "Merv Griffin was gay" sent enough shock waves through old Hollywood that Reuters, who syndicated the story internationally, was pressured to pull the story, which it did, in what Michelangelo Signorile calls "the most bizarre case of attempted censorship we've seen in years."

Here's the timeline, via Editor & Publisher...

--Hollywood Reporter publishes story "Merv Griffin was Gay"
--Reporter pulls the story, republishes it titled "Griffin never revealed man behind the curtain."
--Reuters picks up story in its news feed, syndicates it internationally.
--Reuters pulls story, with this explanation: "This was a story from The Hollywood Reporter that ran as part of a Reuters news feed. We have dropped the story from our entertainment news feed as it did not meet our standards for news. GBU Editor."

Signorile reports that Elizabeth Guider, who has been editor of the Reporter for less than a month, pulled the story after pressure from "various Hollywood titans, advertisers and lawyers for one of Griffin's companies."

Writes Signorile: "Specifically, she'd received a legal threat from one of Griffin's companies, but any editor worth his or her salt would know there was no case here: a dead man cannot be libeled, and there was no libel here anyway. Merv Griffin was gay, and many people could attest to that. Apparently some advertisers, specifically one with an ad buy that was a tribute to Griffin, were threatening ads would be pulled. Conceiveably, studios, production companies and others could bear pressure down, pressed by still others."

Ray Richmond, the article's writer, said in an interview over the weekend: "Sure. I’m sure it was taken down because there was fear of litigation, and that the post was libelous and/or defamatory. And I certainly don’t believe that to be the case. I will have discussions with [my bosses at the Reporter, and I will hope at some point we can have it restored online. It seems that scotching the post gives the appearance of liability when there isn’t any. It was simply a factual, very informed discussion of the larger issue of the media’s difficulty in allowing someone to be labeled as gay in the mainstream, as if that is somehow a huge shame. My whole reason for doing the piece for the Reporter was to shine a light on that fact. Unfortunately that appears to be the case...even internally."

The story, as of this morning, was live on the Hollywood Reporter website, with revisions. A detailed analysis of the revisions can be found over at Queer two Cents.

John Aravosis at AmericaBlog sums the situation up nicely: "You'd think the matter of an obit about or reminiscence of a public figure wouldn't generate all this brouhaha, but that's what happens when the world outside of the closet is so frightening to people in Hollywood that all sorts of insane measures are taken to reinforce the message is that there is something inherently wrong with being gay."

Griffin Never Revealed Man Behind the Curtain [hollywood reporter - revised]

Reuters Drops Article About 'Gay' Merv Griffin [editor & publisher]
Mervgate: What Happened at the Hollywood Reporter? [the gist]
Truth About Merv Griffin In 'Jeopardy'? [my queer two cents]
Ray Richmond speaks on Mervgate [kevin allman]
Now That's a Headline [americablog]
Mervgate continues -- article restored, but altered [pams house blend]

Previously
Hollywood Reporter: Merv Griffin Was Gay [tr]

Hollywood Reporter: Merv Griffin Was Gay

The Hollywood Reporter has effectively blown the late Merv Griffin's closet door open for good, on the day he is laid to rest following a celeb-filled invitation-only funeral at Beverly Hills' Church of the Good Shepard:

Writes Ray Richmond for the industry bible: "Merv Griffin was gay. Why should that be so uncomfortable to read? Why is it so difficult to write? Why are we still so jittery even about raising the issue in purportedly liberal-minded Hollywood, in 2007? Griffin, who died of prostate cancer Sunday at 82, stayed in the closet throughout his life. Perhaps he figured it was preferable to remain the object of gossip rather than live openly as 'one of them.' But how tremendously sad it is that a man of Merv's renown, of his gregarious nature and social dexterity, would feel compelled to endure such a stealthy double life even as the gay community's clout, and its levels of acceptance and equality, rose steadily from the ashes of ignorance. What a powerful message Griffin might have sent had he squired his male companions around town rather than Eva Gabor, his longtime good friend and platonic public pal. Imagine the amount of good Merv could have done as a well-respected, hugely successful, beloved and uncloseted gay man in embodying a positive image."

Well, they said it.

Griffin never revealed man behind the curtain [hollywood reporter]
Saying What Merv Griffin Never Felt He Could [past deadline]
The Truth on Merv Griffin Bubbles Up [the gist]

Recently
TV Titan Merv Griffin Dies of Prostate Cancer at 82 [tr]

TV Titan Merv Griffin Dies of Prostate Cancer at 82

Pioneering talk how host and game show innovator Merv Griffin died over the weekend at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The cause was prostate cancer. First treated for the disease in 1996, Griffin was recently hospitalized again, and doctors said the cancer had spread to other organs.

The Merv Griffin Show was among the first to touch on "edgy" topics and became a blueprint for similar shows. It also served as the anchor for a highly successful entertainment empire which grew to include game shows Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune before expanding into hotels and casino.

The New York Times is one of the few papers to touch on his rumored homosexuality: "But he was also dogged by sex scandals and insinuations that he was gay. In 1991, he was sued by Denny Terrio, the host of 'Dance Fever,' another show Mr. Griffin created, alleging sexual harassment. The same year, Brent Plott, a longtime employee who worked as a bodyguard, horse trainer and driver, filed a $200 million palimony lawsuit."

Said Plott at the time: "We lived together, shared the same bed, same house. He told me he loved me."

The Times notes: "Mr. Griffin characterized both lawsuits as extortion; ultimately, both suits were dismissed. Mr. Griffin consistently evaded answering questions about his sexuality. In a 2005 interview with The New York Times, he said: 'I tell everybody that I’m a quartre-sexual. I will do anything with anybody for a quarter.'"

Michelangelo Signorile has much more at The Gist about Griffin's closet, Griffin's friendship with the Reagans and his complicity in their silence during the first years of the AIDS crisis, the sexual harassment lawsuits, launched against him, and the threats he felt from those around him who were openly gay.

Signorile notes: "Merv Griffin accomplished a lot and is, in his death, being held up as a example of a stellar Hollywood businessman. But he should also be held up as man who, like Malcolm Forbes before him, was hugely influential and powerful and yet still allowed the closet and homophobia to manipulate his life, and to cause him to do harm to his own people. That should not be forgotten."