Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman's
coming out gay reality series will premiere in December on A&E.
Bragman is the man behind the celebrity
self-outings of Chaz Bono, Chely Wright and Meredith Baxter.
The series, appropriately titled Coming
Out, has been under development since July.
Bragman told the Globe that
finding stars to come out gay on a reality series has been difficult.
“It is a difficult series to cast and
produce, but celebrities have been approaching me,” he said.
“The idea is people tune in each week
to find out who is coming out – and the response will be either
'Duh!' or 'Wow!' We will have 'Wows!'”
“But it is not about how big the
celebrity is,” he added. “It's really about the storytelling.
I'll never force somebody out.”
Bragman is considered the go-to PR man
on coming out gay for celebrities. His first client was actor Dick
Sergeant in 1991. Bragman is also behind the recent self-outing of
Chaz Bono as transgender. And he helped country singer Chely Wright
and actress Meredith Baxter come out gay.
During a panel on the subject at
Outfest, Los Angeles' gay & lesbian film festival, Bragman called
a multi-million-dollar closeted celebrity “sad.”
“If there are superstar male actors
who are in the closet and they are worth $100 million and they have
this whole fake life, there's just nothing sadder,” he told the
crowd.
Bragman, who's openly gay and married
to Chuck O'Donnell in California, runs the Los Angeles-based PR firm
Fifteen Minutes.