Kristin Chenoweth Has Some Words for Newsweek

Kristin Chenoweth Has Some Words for Newsweek Not that we have any beef with Kristin Chenoweth, left, to begin with, but we’d think long and hard about picking a war of words with her after this. On Friday Ms. Chenoweth, the Tony Award-winner and star of “Promises, Promises,” posted a lengthy online rebuttal to a Newsweek article that she called “horrendously homophobic” for contending that gay actors could not play straight characters and citing her “Promises, Promises” co-star Sean Hayes as an example.

In the original Newsweek article, published online in April, Ramin Setoodeh, a Newsweek contributor, wrote: “While it’s OK for straight actors to play gay (as Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger did in ‘Brokeback Mountain’), it’s rare for someone to pull off the trick in reverse.” Of Mr. Hayes’s performance in “Promises, Promises,” Mr. Setoodeh wrote: “Frankly, it’s weird seeing Hayes play straight.

He comes off as wooden and insincere, DVD RIPPER like he’s trying to hide something, which of course he is.” In her response, published on Newsweek.com, Ms. Chenoweth wrote: “This article offends me because I am a human being, a woman and a Christian. For example, there was a time when Jewish actors had to change their names because anti-Semites thought no Jew could convincingly play Gentile.”

She added: “Audiences aren’t giving a darn about who a person is sleeping with or his personal life. Give me a break! We’re actors first, whether we’re playing prostitutes, DVD RIPPER baseball players, or the Lion King.” About her co-star, Ms. Chenoweth said, “I’d put Hayes and his brilliance up there with some of the greatest actors period.”