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I'm sure plenty of you know this already, but there are a ton of stars in Hollywood who identify as gay, lesbian, and bi. It shouldn't be a shock. But to some of the celebrities who came out, it was a shock. Most don't expect to be outed. And it doesn't just happen thanks to the paparazzi. Often times other stars in the business accidentally or very purposefully out their fellow celebs.

It's a pretty common but very strange occurrence. It might seem like a strange and difficult thing to understand why stars would want to out their colleagues. But let's be honest, Hollywood has never really been a legitimate place for business. Everyone is backstabbing everyone else. Even when they don't mean to.

So, that's why you have Sir Ian McKellen accidentally outing one of his Hobbit co-stars. Or Rosie O'Donnell accidentally outing Clay Aiken. Or you'll just have someone like Grey's Anatomy actor Isiah Washington outing T.R. Knight by calling him a homophobic slur on set. All sorts of awesome people in Hollywood, not to mention all the assholes who run the paparazzi and out people sometimes with little to no evidence.

The Paparazzi - VS - Portia De Rossi

Portia De Rossi is one of the hottest parts of Scream 2 (if anyone remembers that movie). She plays a real good sorority girl. I mean...damn. Some tabloid journalists figured it would be a good idea to follow her around a bunch. I guess you can't really call them journalists. All they do is start rumors and make them worse. Anyway, one of the paparazzi photographers who had been following her around managed to get some interesting photos of De Rossi and her girlfriend at the time. Well, the tabloid photo spread sort of forced De Rossi to come out of the closet. And I think Ellen Degeneres ended up scoring big time, managing to eventually marry Portia De Rossi. I'm sure there are plenty of readers here who are very sad to know this.

Isaiah Washington - VS - T.R. Knight

For those of you who don't watch Grey's Anatomy, both the actor who outed the guy and the guy who was outed are actors on that ridiculous show. Well, Knight was until, I think, his character was hit by a bus. The turn over of doctors on that show is just ridiculous. Anyway, Isaiah Washington was on set with Knight, and they got into a bit of an argument which ended with Washington calling Knight a f*g. Not sure if you know this, but that word is a bit offensive to many people in the gay community. It was not an officially known thing at the time, but Washington calling Knight out on set had sparked something in Knight that wasn't just anger. He told Ellen Degeneres on her show "I've never actually been called that to my face. So I think when that happened, something shifted, and it became bigger than myself."

The Paparazzi - VS - Zachary Quinto

This is something pretty ridiculous. There's no problem with being gay but everyone makes such a big deal of it in Hollywood. It just goes to show how homophobic the industry has been historically. Which is crazy because actors in theatre really don't have this same problem. Either way, Zachary Quinto (the most recent Spock actor in Star Trek) was outed because of a magazine editor. But it wasn't because of a write-up that the editor had done. At least not a write-up in anything longer than 140 characters. This particular magazine editor, very professionally, tweeted out about the knowledge he had of Zachary Quinto being gay. This is how silly it can get in Hollywood. Of course, as we know from Trump, a tweet might not mean much of anything, but it says a lot about the person tweeting...covfefe.

Gene Simmons - VS - Adam Lambert

Alright, so Gene Simmons didn't officially out Adam Lambert but he drew a ton of attention to the outing. Adam Lambert came out on his own after he kicked ass in American Idol. Gene Simmons said “He’s enormously talented, best talent American Idol has had, but I think he killed his career because now the conversation is not about his talent but about his sexual preference. You’re forcing people to deal with issues they may not be interested in. Life is unfair, and the masses don’t all live in L.A. They live in Wisconsin and Nebraska, and you’re on crack if you think the same rules apply there.” But I think Gene Simmons is a bit of a hack now. And I think everyone knows that too. I mean...sure, he was a member of KISS. But Adam Lambert is now the lead singer of Queen.

The Paparazzi - VS - Michelle Rodriguez

Those of you who love the Fast & Furious movies will definitely know Rodriquez. And you'll remember seeing a lot of her body too. I'm not sure about what many or any of you thought about the constant look of irritation or discomfort she had on her face, but you definitely wouldn't fault her body much at all. Not so far as I can see. But you guys reading this may be sad to hear that she may not be interested in you. True, she did once say "I'm not a lesbian... Michi likes sausage." But that was a little misleading. She goes both ways. But she wasn't the first to say it. She was probably one of the more surprised people to find herself outed in a gay magazine that really didn't have much evidence to go on. I guess that seemed like the right time to her to detail her preferences a little.

Rosie O'Donnell - VS - Anne Heche

So, here's the interesting thing about Anne Heche... she's actually married to a man now. She once spoke fondly of her relationship with Ellen DeGeneres. They even made mention of getting a civil union if/when it became legal. Of course, by the time same-sex union was legalized, they were long since broken up. There was a relationship with Rosie O'Donnell that was also a big deal at one point. It was mentioned in an interview with Barbara Walters that there was a two-year stint that Heche had with O'Donnell. That seems like pretty solid evidence for coming out of the closet. But it appears to be that Anne Heche is in more of a grey area now that she has a husband. So, she never specifically came out to say she was gay or bi, but Ellen and Rosie talking about their relationships with her kind of hit the nail on the head.

The Paparazzi - VS - Kristen Stewart

I'm sure there are many men who will find this a very sad thing, for sure. I mean...Twilight was a sh*t series of movies, but there are a lot of guys out there who at least found Kristen Stewart very attractive, even if she's a terrible actor. There are all sorts of stories and a decent amount of evidence to support that Stewart is pretty straight. She's had her fair share of stories covering her with men. But all it took was one series of photos in Hawaii with Stewart and a "very close female friend" and there was the outing. Eventually, she did confirm the rumors and even commented on the whole situation with this statement, “I didn’t talk about my first relationships that went public because I wanted things that are mine to be mine,” Stewart said. “I hated it that details of my life were being turned into a commodity and peddled around the world.”

Sir Ian McKellen - VS - Lee Pace

Anyone who has seen the Hobbit films will know that Lee Pace is perhaps one of the better actors in the unfortunate film series. He's hilarious when he wants to be but is wonderfully corrupted and serious as Thranduil. For anyone who doesn't know, he really doesn't look like his elven character in real life. I almost didn't recognize photos of him out of his outfit. Anyway, Pace was accidentally outed by his friend and fellow actor Sir Ian McKellen. "Just look at how many openly gay actors in the 'Hobbit' there were: two of the dwarves, to Luke Evans, Stephen Fry, Lee Pace. In 'The Lord of the Rings' I was the only one, next to it there was my make-up artist and one from the wardrobe team." I don't think Sir Ian realized that, up to that point, Pace hadn't actually publicly come out of the closet.

The Paparazzi - VS - Kevin Spacey

So, here's the thing. Not everyone assumed that Kevin Spacey was gay. I know many people who were more shocked about him being gay than about the fact that he assaulted a teenage boy. But around set, and in the Hollywood news circuit, everyone knew that he was gay. It was no surprise. Apparently, it wasn't even a surprise that he was being naughty with men and boys around clubs and different film sets. Everyone just seemed to have some sort of strange respect for him that made them keep their mouths shut. I guess he was kind of a big deal until very recently, but I don't understand why the paparazzi didn't go bigger with their original knowledge of him being gay, considering how crazy they go about most other big stars.

Rosie O'Donnell - VS - Clay Aiken

Rosie O'Donnell seems to have a knack for outing people. even if she didn't mean to. But given how many times she has, I have a feeling that she does do it on purpose. It's like some sort of mischievous way of getting more stars out of the closet. Either way, Someone was making a few jokes about Clay Aiken on Rosie O'Donnell's show and she took them as being homophobic. She happened to say out loud that the jokes were homophobic. And that, right there, was when suddenly everyone knew that O'Donnell had accidentally outed Clay Aiken. He admitted to it eventually, but imagine what Trump would've said if he knew that Aiken was gay when they met!? It probably would've been just as bad as his latest speech about Pocahontas.

The Paparazzi - VS - Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris is hard not to love. Whether you're male or female. He's a pretty fantastic performer. But it wasn't until a huge amount of rumors were passed through the tabloid mill that he finally came out on the cover of People Magazine. And he had a very confident and direct statement to make so that no one could question his preferences anymore. "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 rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man..."

Brian May - VS - Freddie Mercury

Alright, so this might be a bit of a cheat here. Everyone really assumed that Freddie Mercury was gay. I mean, people assumed he was even before he was diagnosed with AIDS. But it was co-band member Brian May who confirmed it all about his former lead singer after Mercury's death. The Daily Mail reported that "He said that Freddie had told him he was gay 'years after it was obvious', saying: 'It was fairly obvious when the visitors to Freddie's dressing room started to change from hot chicks to hot men. It didn't matter to us, why should it?'" And that's very fair. Why should he care? And ultimately, it's not like Brian May was doing anything untoward admitting to the press that Freddie was gay. Everyone assumed so. He may as well confirm.

The Paparazzi - VS - Jodie Foster

Jodie Foster didn't seem to ever really have plans to come out of the closet. At least not at any specific point in time. She was doing too well in the business to concern herself with some sort of social issue like coming out in Hollywood. But she didn't have to do anything. It seems like after Anderson Cooper had come out, Out Magazine ran a story with photos of both Cooper and Jodie Foster (apparently there had been rumors) called The Glass Closet. Nothing really big came of her being outed, but she did suddenly slip away from the big screen. Was there some sort of connection between her being outed and her popularity on the big screen? It's a worthwhile question. Who remembers the last Jodie Foster film they saw that wasn't Silence of the Lambs.

William Shatner - VS - George Takei

I just want to start out here by saying that this is just rumor and is not anything that has been confirmed. Anyone who knows anything about the original Star Trek will know that actors George Takei and William Shatner did not get along very well on set. Shatner was kind of an ass. Actually, Shatner is pretty well an ass to anyone on any set it seems. No Sulu, the character Takei played, was always seen as a little flamboyant, and rumors were started about Takei being gay. It's assumed that these all started because of Shatner who would love nothing more than to humiliate the actor he didn't get along with. He didn't come out officially until decades later. But that being said he came out in the best named gay magazine for a Star Trek actor to come out in. Frontiers!

The Paparazzi - VS - George Michael

Realistically, this should actually be titled the law - vs - George Michael. There were probably rumors beforehand but once Michael was caught in a men's bathroom doing something rather naughty, there was no question about it. And the paparazzi took that one incident and ran with it everywhere. The number of tabloids that featured photos of Michael with any man and all manner of statements about him being gay were pretty crazy. So, it's no shock that he was forced to address the issue directly and come out officially. It shouldn't be a thing that matters all that much. I mean, people should be upset about what he did in that public men's room. But it shouldn't matter if he was into men or women.

Elisabeth Shue - VS - Joseph Gordon-Levitt

If people don't recall who Elisabeth Shue is...she was once an actor in Back To The Future. But she was replaced for this reason or that. And you probably haven't seen her too much since. And probably wouldn't recognize her anyway. But the point is that rumors could very well have started with this actor who wished she had a higher profile when she and Joseph Gordon-Levitt worked on the film Mysterious Skin (where JGL plays a gay man). Rumours kept going round and round until people began asking Levitt outright. When asked about being gay, he didn't answer and said,  "That would be really tacky -- they would win if I had to clarify." So, it seems that he's not quite ready to come out officially yet, but it's often the case that evasive celebrities just aren't comfortable enough yet.