As you may have read yesterday, Aaron Hicklin, editor of OUT magazine, wrote an open letter to American Idol season 8 runner-up Adam Lambert, accusing the singer and his management team of the following: only agreeing to the OUT cover shoot if it included a straight woman*; demanding they not make Adam look “too gay”; and not agreeing to be on OUT’s cover while the Idol season was going on. (Little known fact: The Gay Mafia bylaws state that any gay celeb who doesn’t immediately agree to an OUT cover request can have his/her membership card** revoked. Fact that somehow seems to have been lost on Hicklin: The folks at Fox don’t cooperate with solo contestant covers/interviews till after the Idol season has wrapped.)
But all that fine print aside, what I don’t get is this: If OUT’s editors are so outraged by Adam Lambert and the actions of his publicity crew, how come he’s still on their cover? Why should Adam be held to Hicklin’s ridiculous standard of how a gay pop star is supposed to conduct his life? The hidden subtext in Hicklin’s letter is this: “Yes, Adam, we’ve slapped your image on our cover, but sorry, we’re also going to have to slap you in the face in a thinly veiled publicity stunt to try to boost sales.”*** Because make no mistake, as terrifically talented and/or fascinating as Wanda Sykes, Cyndi Lauper, Rob Marshall, and Dan Choi are, none of them have the newsstand power of Adam Lambert.
(Heck, Adam himself gave OUT a little more free publicity yesterday with a pair of to-the-point and just-bitchy-enough Tweets: “Dear Aaron, it’s def not that deep. Chill! Guess ya gotta get attention for the magazine. U too are at the mercy of the marketing machine.” AND “Until we have a meaningful conversation, perhaps you should refrain from projecting your publications’ agenda onto my career.”) Oh snap!
But hey, it’s a tough economy. Still, when Hicklin combines his stir-up-shizz-at-all-costs cynicism with faux moral outrage, that’s when I’ve got to reach for the Pepto-Bismol (caplets, not the hideous liquid or chewable versions). READ FULL STORY »
