Barry Diller will not be afraid of placing all of it on the market anymore. The 83-year-old’s new memoir, Who Knew, has been making many a headline nowadays due to Diller popping out as homosexual in it, and dishing about his unbelievable and storied life-slash-career. However that revelation is only one of a number of cups of piping-hot tea within the new ebook — like this new one, which reveals that John Travolta nearly starred in American Gigolo, however give up on the final minute resulting from, as Diller places it, the “considerably homosexual subtext” of the movie.
In line with The Hollywood Reporter, the ebook comprises an anecdote about how Diller believes Travolta “performed” then-Paramount Footage president Michael Eisner as a way to get out of the movie. “He slumped down in a chair in Michael’s workplace, began to cry and mentioned, ‘I can not do American Gigolo. I am too unhappy. I am nonetheless in mourning,” referring to the dying of his mom in 1978 and then-girlfriend Diana Hyland the yr prior. “It is the fallacious factor for me to do. It’s important to let me out of it,'” Diller, who was the CEO of Paramount on the time, writes. “Michael got here right down to my workplace and mentioned, ‘John’s simply left, and we’ve got to let him out of the film as a result of he simply can’t do it.’ I mentioned, ‘He is faking it and utilizing you. It is too late to recast, and he is excellent for it.'”
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Diller, as he places it, “was sure [Travolta] had acted his manner by way of his assembly with Michael,” and that the actor not needed to do Gigolo as a result of “he was afraid of enjoying that character due to its considerably homosexual subtext. For days, I mentioned, ‘I am not even going to listen to of letting him out of the film, full cease, interval.'” However, finally — as everyone knows — he did relent and let Travolta out of his contract, on condition that the position went on to be performed by Richard Gere in a career-defining (and acclaimed) flip.
In some ways, Diller’s phrases are a affirmation of what many already knew, due to American Gigolo director Paul Schrader‘s feedback on the matter. Again in 2024, Schrader informed THR that “three issues” led Travolta to depart that movie: the passing of his mom, “his first mega-flop, a movie known as Second to Second,” and the actor’s “rising anxiousness in regards to the homosexual subtext [of the film].”
Travolta’s anxiousness is, maybe, no shock. The actor has lengthy been dogged by rumors concerning his sexuality. Curious to know extra? Hold studying within the part under.
That Time Carrie Fisher Outed John Travolta (And That Entire Gawker Debacle, Too)
For many who have been dwelling underneath a rock, and/or are too younger to recollect movie star rumors from many years in the past, permit us to fill you in. You see, many individuals consider that John Travolta is homosexual. For so long as the actor has been well-known, rumors have swirled concerning his sexuality, regardless of having been married to fellow actress Kelly Preston from 1991 till her dying in 2020 from breast most cancers. The actor was sued in 2012 by a male therapeutic massage therapist, and in 2016, the entire thing blew up once more when the outdated model of Gawker posted a report on the actor’s alleged proclivities.
However that’s removed from the primary time Travolta — a famous Scientologist, a corporation recognized to allegedly encourage individuals to remain within the closet — again in 2010, Carrie Fisher, a longtime good friend of Travolta’s, had this interplay with a reporter from The Advocate:
Within the September 2009 challenge of ‘Out,’ you participated in its month-to-month “Can I Be Blunt?” column by sharing 10 issues that homosexual males ought to learn about straight girls. A kind of issues was, “We do not actually care that John Travolta is homosexual.” I do know you and Travolta go manner again, so let’s get actually blunt right here: Does his authorized workforce have any enterprise demanding Gawker take away a current publish suggesting that he is given blow jobs?
Wow! I imply, my feeling about John has at all times been that we all know and we do not care. Look, I am sorry that he is uncomfortable with it, and that is all I can say. It solely attracts extra consideration to it once you make that form of authorized fuss. Simply depart or not it’s.
So…there you might have it! Some context as to why Travolta might need been afraid to tackle a job that had him — one of the sought-after intercourse symbols of his heyday — portraying a homosexual and/or queer man. (And I assume it is why he went on to try this near-career-ending movie, Good.) It is a disgrace, actually, that anybody feels the necessity to disguise their sexuality or worry blowback for being who they’re — if these alleged rumors are true, after all — nevertheless it’s not precisely unprecedented, both. Definitely a person like Diller, who himself existed in a glass closet as a homosexual man who was married to a lady (dressmaker Diane von Furstenberg) for many years, can perceive that.
Supply:
The Hollywood Reporter