Ta has been reading - and enjoying all the comments on her entry "Is Zac Efron Gay?" Havin' spent nearly 20 years marketing music celebrities Ah am continually surprised at how little things have changed when it comes to marketing celebrities.
All the little girls screamin' that Zac is not gay may be right ... but we'll never know ... not while he is young and marketable to screamin' little girls who will buy ANYTHING with his face on it or has anything to do with him. In fact, Zac Efron has been on more magazine covers in 2007 than any other single star out there. (Angelina Jolie is a close second.)
Because of his good looks and modicum of talent all of his handlers will do everything possible to keep the marketing machine running at top speed. It all has to do with MONEY. You see the studio makes money when his movies make money. But, he has a lawyer (10%), an agent (15%), a manager (10%) and various hangers-on (22%) not to mention the government (33%) {unless he has a good tax accountant who gets 10%} who all get a piece of his income.
Let's also remember all the photographers, papparazzi and magazines that make money because of Zac's marketability. The numbers are enormous, kids.
So, if Zac was gay and if Zac came out of the closet ALL of those millions of dollars would be in jeopardy.
Why? Firstly, just read the comments on the blog post "Is Zac Efron Gay?" No multiply that closed-mindedness and hatred and prejudice by hundreds of thousands.
But, let's look at something even more insiduous.
If there was a young, gay teen on the verge of stardom who refused to be "seen" with female stars to help build that rumor mill and press coverage ... but he wanted to be "seen" with boyfriends. Every agent, manager, handler would absolutely refuse. Not because it isn't right. Not because it's not what the star wants. Not because it's impossible. But because every single one of them would be attacked for "perverting" a young gay man. They would be attacked for "promoting homosexuality." Jobs would be lost. Companies would close. And the young man's career would end before it started.
Let's look at another perspective ... money. When Zac Efron is on the cover of TEEN Magazine - they sell an additional 10,000 copies than any other month. Why? Because there are hundreds of thousands of little teen girls swooning over him. That's a HUGE sack of money. If Zac Efron was gay and, in our fantasy, everyone backed his decision, the potential market ... the potential sack of money would be less than 10%.
Why? Let's say the number of teen girls and teen boys is the same, 10 million each gender. If, say 10% of the population is gay (I believe it's higher), then there would only be 1 million gay teen boys. Of those 1 million gay teen boys, less than a third of them would be in a position to express their passion for Zac - some would be in the closet to their families and friends, most would simply still be repressing themselves.
So ... if you were Zac's entourage, would you rather market him to 10 million teen girls? Or 300,000 gay teen boys?
So ... if you were a gay teen building a career in the movies would you stay closeted for another 6 - 8 - 10 years so you could become the actor/director you have always dreamed you wanted to be?
