George Clooney has said it doesn't
bother him if people think that he is gay.
The 50-year-old Clooney will play lead
attorney David Boies in the Los Angeles reading of the play 8.
8, which was written by Milk
screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, is based on the trial over the
constitutionality of California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8.
Joining Clooney at the March 3 reading
will be Jamie Lee Curtis, Matt Bomer, Martin Sheen, Jane Lynch and
George Takei, to name a few.
In a wide-ranging interview with gay
glossy The
Advocate, Clooney discussed why he became involved in the
play.
“I felt that it was important to
again bring focus to an issue that, in the very near future, we'll
look back on and laugh at the fact that it was ever an issue. It's
the right thing to do,” he said.
“One day the marriage equality fight
will look as archaic as George Wallace standing on the University of
Alabama steps keeping James Hood from attending college because he
was black. People will be embarrassed to have been on the wrong
side. … There are even a lot of young conservative today for whom
marriage equality isn't an issue.”
And on those ever-present rumors that
he's gay, Clooney said: “I think it's funny, but the last thing
you'll ever see me do is jump up and down, saying, 'These are lies!'
That would be unfair and unkind to my good friends in the gay
community. I'm not going to let anyone make it seem like being gay
is a bad thing. My private life is private, and I'm very happy in
it. Who does it hurt if someone thinks I'm gay? I'll be long dead
and there will still be people who say I was gay. I don't give a
shit.”