Rupert Everett, Richard Chamberlain Bash 'Homophobic' Hollywood

Dec. 30, 2010 — -- Two actors stepped on the soap box this week to say that Hollywood hates gays and Jennifer Aniston is awful.

Well, only one of them made the latter point.

This week, Rupert Everett slammed the actress in an interview with BBC Radio 4 by using her to make the point that some people will always be famous in Hollywood, no matter the quality of their work.

"If you look and analyze the careers of many, many stars, you'll find that they're mostly sustained by the business," Everett said. "You'll find there's lots of women and lots of men in the business that the powers that be decide are right for their business, and they'll stand with them for quite a long time."

"OK, something will go wrong, like Jennifer Aniston will have one too many total flops, but she's still a member of that club," he continued. "And she will still manage to ... like a star forming in the universe, things will swirl around her and it will suddenly solidify into another vital tasteless rom-com, a little glitter next to the Crab Nebula."

Aniston was only part of Everett's larger argument: That Hollywood shuns those outside the mainstream, especially homosexuals and older women.

"I think show business is ideally suited for heterosexuals, it's a very heterosexual business, it's run mostly by heterosexual men, and there's a kind of pecking order," he said. "I think the position of women is a pretty difficult one in show business. If you look at the idea of a drunk woman in show business on the skids at the age of 50, and a drunken man in show business on the skids, the drunken man gets an awful amount of support, and the women is a slut."

Everett, 51, is best known for playing the gay BFF of Julia Roberts' character in 1997's "My Best Friend's Wedding." He landed the role prior to coming out. Now he wishes he hadn't revealed his sexuality.

"I never got a job [in Hollywood] and I never got a job here [in Britain], after [coming out]," he said. "I did a couple of films, I was very lucky at the beginning of my career ... and then, I never had another job here for ten years, probably, and I moved to Europe."

He's not alone. In an interview with The Advocate, Richard Chamberlain, the 1960s teen idol and star of such movies as "The Three Musketeers," urged gay actors not to come out.

"For an actor to be working is a kind of miracle, because most actors aren't, so it's just silly for a working actor to say, 'Oh, I don't care if anybody knows I'm gay' — especially if you're a leading man," he said. "Personally, I wouldn't advise a gay leading man-type actor to come out."

Chamberlain, 76, came out in 2003. Though he's found roles on a number of TV shows since then, including "Desperate Housewives," "Brothers & Sisters" and "Nip/Tuck," he doesn't believe that being openly gay works to any actor's advantage.

"It's complicated. There's still a tremendous amount of homophobia in our culture. It's regrettable, it's stupid, it's heartless, and it's immoral, but there it is," he said. "Despite all the wonderful advances that have been made, it's still dangerous for an actor to talk about that in our extremely misguided culture. Look at what happened in California with Proposition 8. Please, don't pretend that we're suddenly all wonderfully, blissfully accepted."