Mervgate!
Surely the facts are in considerable dispute. Merv Griffin -- band singer, talk show host, game show producer, hotel/casino entrepreneur, and all-round mega-powerful multi-billionaire -- is dead at 82 from prostate cancer diagnosed several years back. The media have gone into full Celebrity-Grief mode, with Entertainment Tonight outdoing itself with retrospective clips of Merv-through-the-years being his cheerful elf self, smiling that smarmily contented smile and cooing over all and sundry in a manner Rick Moranis captured so deliciously on SCTV when he turned Merv's "We'll be right back" into a kind of mantra.
But then THIS happened.
Ray Richmond, longtime Hollywood Reporter scribe and all-round professional journalist, devoted his weekly column to Merv, noting that the mega-mogul was a Big Ol' Gay Homosexual -- a fact that everyone in the industry knew as surely as they knew their own names.
All Hell Broke Loose.
Merv's people called the Reporter, making all manner of threats and the piece was yanked hours after it went up. It was also yanked from Ray's Blog. Then Ray called me. He was fearful for his job. So I called Michelangelo Signorile's SIRIUS OUT Q radio show to inform Mike of this development. He was just talking about Ray's piece at the time. And in no time at all outraged listeners were deluging the Hollywood Reporter switchboard with demands that the piece be put back up. And in a few hours it was -- with a statement of support for Ray to boot.
Meaning, of course, that this is not over
Far from it.
It goes without saying that times have changed in what might well be called Post-Doogie Culture
More and more gays and lesbians in show business are "out" now. Ellen and Portia, resplendent in white, were caught by camera walking hand in hand towards the chapel for Merv's funeral. David Geffen, every bit as rich and successful a mega-mogul as Merv, is "out."
But they're of "a different generation," you say.
Well more than a mere "generational" difference is involved.
Back in the early 1980s the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (of which I'm a member) had one of its annual awards presentations held on The Merv Griffin Show. The studio was turned into a small night club set, and we all dined with Dustin Hoffman (nice but boring) Natassia Kinski ( gorgeous beyond belief) and Peter O'Toole (charming beyond belief) among others. During the untelevised dinner portion of the event we didn't see Merv at all. Rather a surprise, we thought, as while he might not deign to dine with us he surely would drop by before showtime for a greeting or two. But Merv didn't do that. What came by instead were the Mervettes. A gaggle of gorgeous muscle boys in multi-colored Izod shirts running about hither thither and yon they did all sorts of things: showing us to our tables, delivering messages from the stars to an offstage Merv and such.
There's no doubt he hired each and every one of them personally.
The nanosecond airtime arrived, Merv suddenly materialized. He introduced himself as he always does to the TV audience and went about his host duties as the awards program progressed. The nanosecond it was over, Merv was gone.
And so were the Mervettes.
The stars were as gobsmacked as the critics by all of this -- a male harem to rival Hef's Playboy Bunnies in every way. And the message was clear: "Look at what I've got!" IOW, Merv's "common man" pose was just that. A pose. No "common man" - especially "common gay" ones could boast such a bevvy of Babes.
One wonders where the Mervettes are today. Did they survive the AIDS onslaught as Merv (surprisingly) did? Did they don their black Izods for the funeral? Or were they "not on the guest list"? If they were nice, quiet little hustlers then perhaps they were. That was acceptable.
"Out" Mervettes -- or "out" gay men of any sort, weren't.
As Michelangelo shows in his book Queer in America, if you worked for Merv and he found out you were "out" -- you were out the door.
"We don't want your kind here," the secretary/executioner would tell the hapless homo getting the bum's rush.
Of course thanks to a civil rights movement Merv was doubtless utterly hostile to that's all changed.
And everything else has changed too, though as is obvious from this affair the ghost of Mike Connolly still stalks the halls of the Hollywood Reporter
And now some last words from Merv's grandson:
"He was funny, just the nicest grandfather," said Donovan Griffin, who had served as a pallbearer with his father.
"He always remembered everyone's names."
No shit!
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
I think a lot of people knew Merv Griffin was gay, including me, just an ordinary person on the street. He was gay in the way I'd like to think most gay people are or could be some day--just one of many facts about him, not the most or least important, not something to bring up every time you think of him. Just like being straight.
I'd like to ask a BIG favor. Can we please retire -GATE from the English language? It's an outmoded shorthand that drives me to drink!
'Mervgate' is, in fact, doing its best to help '-gate' retire from the language, and that's part of why it's such a funny and perfect name for this.
Frankly, the last time I ever thought of Griffin was when his talk show went off the air, and probably a few years before it finally did. There was Dick Cavett, funny, brainy and erudite, Johnny of course, and then, way down there, Merv in Daytime TV ghetto, with the inane questions and the banal music.
I think someone nailed it before: what kept him in the closet was my former religion. He depended on the blue-haired set, who would have been thoroughly shocked if they had been forced to put two and two together.
I never thought Merv was a good host or very interesting at all. I also did not think he could sing. In fact, I never understood except that he must have been a savvy business person or hired some good people to work for him (not counting the Mervetticles above), why anybody even mentioned him in show business.
I remember watching the Merv Griffin Show when I was a teenager after coming home from school in the afternoon. The show was fun and delightful and so was Merv. It was broadcast from the Little Theater in New York City.
One show featured Lawrence Luckinbill as a guest. Luckinbill, who is married to Lucille Ball's daughter, Lucy Arnez, made a vicious homophobic remark about "homosexuals" as responsible for the downward spiral of Broadway theater. I was shocked at this remark because Luckinbill would have never gotten his foot in the door of an audition if it hadn't been for his starring role in one of the gayest films ever--"Boys In The Band". Merv called him on his remark and defended gays. That also shocked me because this was the early 60's after all but you would have never expected any of the other late night hosts, including Johnny Carson, to defend gays. So it's sad that Merv felt he had to fire those employees who were out of the closet. Yes, he was of a different generation and plenty of that was going on at the time but to have continued this policy up past the 60's and into the 70's etc is inexcusable. The man must have felt an out-of-the-closet gay person threatened his status. Merv even lied to Barbra Walters when she interviewed him on TV and asked him if he were gay; he said no and then started talking about his son. A good friend of Nancy Reagan, it's most likely he was a republican as well.
So with all his fears and homphobic acts, I'd like to remember Merv Griffin as a man who gave this burgeoning out-of-the-closet gay man a day of honor when very few would.
I love threads like this, where everybody crows about common knowledge with the self-assured arrogance of original discovery. Please, a little respect for the recently departed, and a nod to everyone's right to privacy!
I am getting really tired of privacy being used as an excuse to lie.
Actually, that would be hypocritical. If a person chooses to take their innate talent, and use the notoriety that comes with it to promote environments where their innate sexuality is questioned, abhored, or threatened, then there is every reason to call them to the table.
He seemed like a nice enough person, and I'm sure he did good things, but I am discouraged by the press tripping over themselves to make NO mention of his post marriage-post beard relationships, and lot's about his marriage and children.
Journalism has lost it's edge, and leaves no one but us "crows" to caw the truth.
Even so, the fact that Merv Griffin was a prominent Hollywood figure who held not only the airwaves, but the ear of the President and First Lady, at a time when the AIDS epidemic was breaking out in the 1980s... How can anyone forget that?
Merv Griffin fired gay employees for being too gay, while sexually harassing others. Face it, he did abuse his personal power, and he could have steered a dime or two to the community he, frankly, exploited. I understand why gay people aren't mourning him.
Well said, David!
Merv Griffen was a kind and generous man. I was privileged to be a flight attendant on an international flight that he was on. When informed that a lady in coach had a birthday, he went back and sang Happy Birthday to her. He was a delight to have aboard and treated everyone as a friend. Let me tell you..we know when someone is not genuine on an 8 hour flight.
What do these detractors have to gain from bringing out this sort of thing. I could care less. What I care about is what a gentle-man he was. Hopefully, you can learn from him.
Of course, we could see this as a great thing. I refer to the fact that Merv was a gay performer loved and admired by many, none of whom cared whether or not he was gay. They knew he probably was, and they loved him anyway. And continue to love him.
That’s progress of the best and most reassuring kind. That is something to rejoice in.
Merv truly represents something important. Let’s find joy in that.
Or... let’s use the opportunity beat up on the dead.
I feel for those who go with the latter option, I really do.
I know many men and women of Griffin's generation who negotiated surreptitiously gay relationships while living, if you will, stifling lives in the closet. Some are still out only to their friends, despite the change in climate.
At the risk of offending those of my friends who equate outedness and outing with moral rectitude, I note respectfully that Mr. Griffith's wealth, power and respect were his only protection, and his implicit fear of losing some of that protection was justified.
Right he was mostly gay. So was the motorcyclist who founded an important business magazine and whose son has considered, quixotically, an occasional political adventure. And the list could go on to, maybe, ten percent of the greatest generation, most of whom did not find a bulletproof not-so-secret life.
To me, an American Tragedy lurks not far in the shadows behind these men. I have in mind a writer of political/
Rest in peace.
SO true!
Oh, hell!! Just leave the dead old gay guy alone. What difference does any of this crap make in the greater scheme of things?? Not a damned thing!
He was gay, he was rich, he is now dead. Move along; nothing to see here.
Not me, I want to hear all the boy toy stories!
There is a simple explanation for Merv's reticence in proclaiming his homosexuality (not his "gayness" - he was never "gay," he just liked men "that way"): Roman Catholicism. End of story.
Not end of story. Let's not forget he was a biiiiiiiig Republican donor, the hypocritical homo-hating party.
money trumps everything.
The man was a glutton for life in every sense of the word. It can be encouraging to us all that you can survive to such ripeness while checkmarking so many sins on God's list o'sins.
It's the stories about the boys that they don't want coming out, obviously.
The ones I've heard are not for family viewing—at least not in the usual sense.
The evil that men do lives after them; the gay is oft interred with the bones.
Judging from comments on related stories, many Merv fans would prefer that "Mervgate" be bolted shut for eternity-- that it's offensive and in bad taste to mention his personal and private, um... affairs. Of course, the same was true of "Liberacegate".
So much for setting the record straight..
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
