I heard this story last week, but People Magazine is reporting it now, so we may as well cover it: A gay blogger and playwright is slamming Jay Leno for careless remarks he made when Ryan Phillippe was on his show. Ryan played the first gay teenager on television in his first acting job. He played Billy Douglas in the opera soap opera “One Life to Live,” and said that it caused some controversy with the Baptist church in his small town in Delaware. (Phillippe later told Ellen Degeneres that he received letters from gay teens saying he saved them from suicide, but he didn’t realize the importance of his role at the time, because he was 17 and was just glad to have a job.)

Jay told Ryan to show the camera his “gayest look,” but he was talking about the way that soap operas make everything melodramatic for effect, and how the actors look at the camera with piercing eyes. I took it in that context and not as something he came up with as a stereotype of a gay man:

Apparently attempting to become playful during his interview with guest Ryan Phillippe (whose appearance was keyed to his new movie Stop-Loss), Leno, 57, said to the actor, “Can you give me, like – say that camera is your gay lover …”

Despite Phillippe’s instant discomfort, Leno went on to say, “Can you give me your ‘gayest look’? Say that camera is Billy Bob – Billy Bob has just ridden in shirtless from Wyoming.”

“Wow,” replied Phillippe, 33. “That is so something I don’t want to do. Are you just going to embarrass me tonight, or … ?”

“No,” said Leno. “I got more stuff. This is the least of it.”

Among those in the home audience who quickly took offense, reports USA Today, was Tony-winning Avenue Q librettist Jeff Whitty, 36.

On his personal blog, Whitty flashes Leno what he considers his “gayest look” – which involves a well-known gesture with his middle finger. Whitty also asks, “Would you ask a guest to make their ‘blackest face?’ Their ‘Jewiest face?’ ”

Following suit, others have posted their “gayest looks” for Leno – also involving the same gesture – at the newly created Web site, My Gayest Look.

[From People.com]

I didn’t cover this when I first heard it, because I watched that whole interview carefully and even transcribed some of it, and the comments Leno made did not seem offensive or targeted at gay men to me. Jay was talking about the way that soap operas exaggerate things, from my perspective. Plus I didn’t want to stir up a controversy. Sure Jay Leno made some stupid remarks, but I felt that as a semi-straight woman I’m not the one to say whether it was offensive to gay people or not, and frankly I felt stupid for not recognizing it as potentially offensive in the first place.

Whitty has some valid points that Jay wouldn’t ask someone to make their blackest or Jewiest face, and Leno even seemed uncomfortable when Halle Berry said that a photo of her with her nose photoshopped to look big was her “Jewish cousin.” Producers recognized that Berry’s remark was offensive and removed it prior to the show being aired, but someone has to hit them over the head to see that Jay is doing a similar thing here.

The best thing to come out of this is the website My Gayest Look, which involves tons of people giving Jay the finger. Now that this has some media attention, expect an apology from Jay. Maybe this will make media personalities think twice before making offhand stupid comments about groups of people. Also – I think that Asians are routinely stereotyped and made fun of in the media and that it gets hardly any attention. It’s good that people speak out and let us know when someone is out of line and I feel enlightened in this case, but am kind of humbled that I didn’t see it myself.

Update: Leno has apologized for his comments, saying that he agrees that it was dumb and that is came out wrong. He should have said “most melodramatic look” or “best soap opera stare”

“In talking about Ryan’s first role, I realize that what I said came out wrong,” the host of NBC’s Tonight Show said in a statement to PEOPLE. “I certainly didn’t mean any malice. I agree it was a dumb thing to say, and I apologize.”

[From People.com]

Here’s the video. The “gayest look” comment is about 2 minutes in:

Ted, whose shirt made me lol

They should paginate that Gayest Look site and add advertising, because it’s a lot of fun to look through all the photos of people giving the brid.