Actors who played gay roles

At this point, Sean Penn ranks high among probable Best Actor Oscar nominees. The dynamic Penn stars as assassinated gay politico Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant’s Milk, which opened nationwide Nov. 26. There was a time, though, when such a role would have been considered risky. Among those who proved otherwise: Hugh Jackman. What’s this, People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive once played gay? Yes, and he was heaped with praise for it. Although Jackman’s buff performance in Australia, not to mention X-Man Wolverine, helped make him People’s cover boy, he won a Tony as gay entertainer Peter Allen in The Boy from Oz. That musical hasn’t made it to the screen yet, but if it does, you can be sure Jackman will be cast. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. Probably the movie world’s most famous onscreen gay couple, they moved critics and moviegoers in Brokeback Mountain(Watch) . But when Brokeback surprisingly lost the 2005 Best Picture Oscar to Crash, Academy homophobia was blamed. Maybe Oscar voters will anoint this year’s Penn as means of erasing that label. Russell Crowe. Six years before Gladiator, Crowe played a good-natured gay in 1994’s The Sum of Us. He and his widowed father bond while searching for appropriate Significant Others. However, Crowe was reportedly offended when he and his rock band 30 Odd Foot of Grunts played San Francisco and gays threw their underwear onstage. Meryl Streep. In 2002’s The Hours, Madame Meryl played a plain-spoken lesbian who vainly tries to keep AIDS-ridden friend Ed Harris from suicide. And near the beginning of her movie career, when handlers discourage such role choices, she played Woody Allen’s ex-wife in Manhattan. When she writes a book explaining how her same-sex relationship had been much more nurturing than her marriage, Woody’s character was not amused. Didn’t hurt Meryl’s career at all.

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