Entertainment Weekly's Michael Slezak interviews Howard Bragman about the show he's developing with A&E about helping celebrities go public with their homosexuality.
Asks Slezak: "Are you envisioning this as a live show, where people pop out from behind a curtain and say 'Hey, I'm gay!'?"
Says Bragman:
"It's going to be very documentary-esque. We're going to be telling people's stories, and you have to do that with a certain amount of sensitivity. You know as well as I do, none of us gets out unscathed from coming out and growing up gay. I don't care if you're the best looking kid in the world and go to the most liberal school and have the best parents: It still screws your head up to some extent, and we all get a little damaged as a result of it. And hence we get stronger and more creative, and lots of good comes out of it, but it's not easy…Every person who comes out is a unique and beautiful creature, who does it for whatever reason they want, and God bless ‘em. I have to say there are “wows” and “duhs.” Meredith Baxter probably qualifies as a “wow.” Clay Aiken might've been more of a “duh.” But they're all important, and they're all courageous. Because realistically, the cumulative number [of major celebs who've come out] ain't that big. We're talking a couple dozen people, not hundreds. It'll be interesting when the show's not needed, and everybody's out, but we're certainly not at that day."
The show is scheduled to premiere on A&E in the fourth quarter of 2010.
