The late Anne Heche couldn’t love who she wanted to love in Hollywood.
This wasn’t the ’20s, ’30s, or even ’70s, mind you.
Heche’s ’90s-era relationship with comedienne Ellen DeGeneres caused shock waves throughout Hollywood.
The romance began in 1997, and Heche claimed 20th Century Fox threatened to cancel her contract with her if she appeared in public with DeGeneres at the premiere of her film “Volcano.”
She went all the same, later adding it cost her a decade’s worth of work in studio films.
“I took Ellen to the premiere and I was ushered out before the movie even ended and was told I was not allowed to go to my own after-party for fear that they would get pictures of me with a woman,” Heche said.
Next month, openly gay actress Kristen Stewart appears in a lesbian romance/thriller “Love Lies Bleeding.”
Stewart plays a gym manager named Lou who falls in love with a female bodybuilder (Katy M. O’Brian, “Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”). Their romance is threatened by Lou’s father (Ed Harris), a criminal whose schemes endanger the main characters.
The film opens wide March 15.
Stewart promoted the film with a cover story in the far-Left Rolling Stone magazine. The “Twilight” alum vowed to make the cover shoot the “gayest thing you’ve ever seen,” posing in a jock strap.
The magazine tried to antagonize allegedly bigoted conservatives with an accompanying article entitled, “Right-Wingers Are Terrified of Our Gay Kristen Stewart Cover.” The small sampling of conservatives referenced in the article recoiled at how unhappy Stewart appears in the photographs and how sexually explicit they are for shock value’s sake.
It hardly suggested any sort of rebellion or attempt to silence her and her romantic life. None appear “terrified” by any rational definition.
Kristen Stewart, Rolling Stone and Progress
Stewart will continue to make movies, say whatever she wants to say and share her sexual appetites with the world. No censorship. No contracts going up in smoke. No professional retribution.
Good.
It’s an unmistakable sign of cultural progress within progressive Hollywood. Heche couldn’t even appear with a woman on the red carpet without jeopardizing her career 27 years ago. Now, lesbian stars trumpet their relationships and push sexual boundaries without a whiff of scandal or retribution.
Stewart admitted as much in the interview.
“Jodie [Foster] had such a hard time and I’m not speaking for her — I am objectively analyzing the time and place in which she was being her, and that is not easy — I would say f—ing near-impossible if you wanted to continue doing what you love,” the actress said.
The Oscar-winning Foster kept her romantic life private for much of her career.
Stewart acknowledges cultural progress on gay rights but adds a caveat.
“For me, it wasn’t a problem. But that’s probably because of the sort of space that I inhabit and the parts that I’m attracted to and the filmmakers that are attracted to me and the audience that exists for those movies.”
She’s wrong.
Stewart appeared in the mainstream reboot “Charlie’s Angels” without anyone complaining about her sexuality. The film tanked at the box office, but that had far more to do with the film’s quality than any animus against her.
Her 2020 romance “Happiest Season” scored far better with Hulu viewers, and few studios would blink at adding her to future projects. She’s an Oscar-nominated actress. Period.
Stewart may not have meant to promote the cultural progress made for LGBTQ+ members, but her cover article did just that.