Neil Patrick Harris – despite popular roles in Harold & Kumar and How I Met Your Mother – has always tried hard to shake off his image as That Doogie Howser Kid, and now he has – Neil Patrick Harris is henceforth That Gay Doogie Howser Kid.
After a spectacularly botched round of statements came out last week that left everyone chronically unsure of whether Neil Patrick Harris was gay, straight or merely in possession of one of the most furiously inept publicists you could ever wish for, Neil Patrick Harris has decided to finally tell the truth; Neil Patrick Harris has openly admitted that he's gay. Although he's still not as gay as How I Met Your Mother because, dude, that show is gay.
It's probably fair to assume that every doctor that has ever lived is gay. All the signs are there – pressure one of them for long enough and they'll admit that they first picked up a stethoscope because they had such an unstoppable crush on Gareth Gates that they thought the words to his song Listen To Your Heart were written especially for them, and also looking after other people's well-being is probably the gayest thing ever. We're basing our – fairly unscientific – thesis here on the fact that TV doctors are currently coming out so quickly that it's hard to keep up. OK, two TV doctors have announced that they're gay lately, and one of them isn't even a TV doctor any more. But that's plenty for us to make kneejerk assumptions about all other doctors.
For a while, one of the only openly gay TV doctors was Jeremy Sheffield from the Renault Clio advert and Holby City, but all that changed when TR Knight from Grey's Anatomy said he was gay after the infamous Grey's Anatomy Actor Fight fuelled all kinds of rumours about his sexuality. And now Neil Patrick Harris – known forever to millions of jaded ironic fans of dumb American sitcoms as teenage wunderkid Doogie Howser MD – has decided to do a Lance Bass and admit that he's gay, too. Did Neil Patrick Harris decide to come out as gay because he needed to fully express his feelings and opinions in order to make peace with himself? Nope – he did it because his publicist made a balls-up of a perfectly innocuous story about Neil Patrick Harris helping his boyfriend get a job on How I Met Your Mother, as E! Online reports:
In an interview with People magazine Friday, the How I Met Your Mother star happily confirmed that he is gay, just two days after his rep issued a release saying the actor is "not of that persuasion." Publicist Craig Schneider's probably well-intentioned yet misinformed statement came in response to a Canada.com news brief reporting that Harris had helped his "longtime sweetheart," actor David Burtka, land a role on his hit CBS sitcom.
And when Neil Patrick Harris did announce he was gay, he didn't do it in an awful Savage Garden-style way, but with the sort of nonchalant shrug that instantly renders any criticism useless:
"The public eye has always been kind to me, and until recently I have been able to live a pretty normal life. Now it seems there is speculation and interest in my private life and relationships. So, rather than ignore those who choose to publish their opinions without actually talking to me, I am happy to dispel any rumours or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love."
Incidentally, when we said 'all doctors are gay' earlier, we weren't talking about Dr Octavio Fernando, our technically unlicensed South American physician. Please keep sending the pills in unmarked envelopes, Dr Fernando.
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