During my thirty years as a movie watcher, my relationship with the Oscars has been through three distinct phases. The first, love and respect, involved passionate interest and rooting - in those days, when my picks didn't win I was befuddled, and would spend days talking to friends, sincerely trying to sort out the reasoning behind each disputed decision. When Dances with Wolves wiped the floor with Goodfellas, for example, I figured I must have missed something. What angle was I not getting that those wise members of the Academy had seen?

Eventually, though, I wised up and entered phased two: desperate hatred. The passion remained, but the respect was completely gone. During this period, I was actually thrilled when Forrest Gump won best picture, because it confirmed how stupid all of the voters were, and allowed me to triumphantly unload whatever projectiles were nearby at the television (eventually I armed myself with a hamper full of balled up socks - too many things were getting broken).

Openly gay actor Sir Ian McKellen, in his speech accepting a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin Film Festival, told movie fans that although his own mainstream movie career opened up after he came out of the closet, it's still very difficult for gay actors to be open about their sexuality, and even harder for lesbian actresses. McKellen spoke of Hollywoods "old fashioned attitudes", very different from the attitude in theater, where actors are "at ease with being open and honest".

McKellen makes a good point. How many openly gay or lesbian actors can you think of off the top of your head? In spite of efforts of groups like Focus in the Family to highlight the supposed homosexual agenda in Hollywood, I'll bet you can't think of more than five current A-List (heck, I'll even take B-List) actors who are both gay and out of the closet.  Rock Hudson, Raymond Burr, and Montgomery Clift don't count; I'm talking actors or actresses you're likely to see in current People's 50 Most Beautiful or Sexiest Flavor of the Month Alive issues.