Is Barry Manilow gay? (article)

[Marcio**]

Barry/Elton/Donna :D





Is Barry Manilow gay?


I mean...when he was popular in the late 70s, all the jocks in school went around saying "Barry Manilow's gay!"


I thought they meant "He's uncool."


Which would, of course, make me shove his Greatest Hits album underneath my books and say "Yeah! He's so unhip!"


But I saw a commercial for tonight's "Will and Grace" last night and he's on it and he just looks ... so ... gay.


Honestly, I've never given the concept any thought.


And it's not like it's going to make me like him any less.


I have his boxed set of CDs.


Haven't ever listened to it in one sitting. Probably never will.


I like the guy. I respect the guy.


I just ... you know ... his sexuality has never been an issue for me.


I was wondering if I could tap into my gay community of friends and see if they have any inside scoop on the Manilow.


If you know for a fact he's gay or not gay, leave a message in my Comments thing at the end of this entry.


I just ... I like to know who all's gay and who's not. It doesn't influence my opinion of them one way or another.


But when I hear Barry singing "Mandy" I can either think to myself "Awww, how sweet!" or "Hey. He's singing to MAN-dy."




from
http://unclebob.diaryland.com/031211_87.html

[remicks]

****

Is Barry Manilow gay?


I mean...when he was popular in the late 70s, all the jocks in school went around saying "Barry Manilow's gay!"

"

That never happened ..... in the late '70s ??
Obviously some militant gay with an agenda trying to rewrite history ..... :P

*****

[markydefad]

Uh, let's review.

He started as a piano player for Bette Midler at the HOMOSEXUAL Continental Baths. :roll:

He's seated next to Elton John in that photo. 8) (note that Elton has his hand on Barry's shoulder--not on Donna's....)

He's NEVER MARRIED or been linked with any WOMAN EVER. :roll: :roll: :roll:

Grandmas and homely unmarried women worship him. :oops:

Get the picture? :o

Say...'Yes we see." :roll: :oops: :o

[RetroRuss]

He's not gay - just a nice Jewish boy who has never met the right girl to take home to Mama. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[markydefad]

he's affectionately know as "Fairy Manilow"..to those in the know. A modern day Liberace--another "straight" guy who just couldn't find the right gal.

[markydefad]

off topic, but doesn't HRH Donna Summer look wonderfully elegant and refined in that photo? How long ago was this taken?

:-? :o :-?

oh, it says 2003...in the caption. Wow, Donna you look great!!!!

[Muscl59]

One of his first gigs was performing at the Continental Baths in New York with Bette Midler.
Hmm... wonder if he "put on a towel" after his show? :o

[remicks]

Wow, Donna you look great!!!!

Ya, I noticed that too
....... besides a good surgeon or two ..... ( but they all three had that ...)

It helps that she :

wore black and fades into the darkness
remained seated
and sat furthest from the camera !!! :lol: :P :lol:


*****

[Sparky]

Barry Manilow gay? Hello?????

As for Donna, I was lucky to meet her last year at a book signing in London and I was amazed at how well and still quite stunningly beautiful she was looking. Considering she's in her late 50's now and lost it a bit in the 90's she really has got herself together again. Singing live on TV her voice is still as strong as ever too. The duet with Westlife on "Enough is Enough" is amazing. Why it was never released as a single I'll never know. If Diana Ross can get a N0 2 single again after doing a Westlife duet someone in the Summer camp needs a good kicking for missing that opportunity!!...in a nice way of course!!

[SandraDee]

I was amazed at how well and still quite stunningly beautiful she was looking.

To quote Marky, 'black don't crack!' :lol:

[SandraDee]

& as for Barry being a bender, he's completely straight just like Sir Cliff Richard. :-?

[bgs3]

markydefad wrote:
<<He's NEVER MARRIED or been linked with any WOMAN EVER. :roll: :roll: :roll: >>

I have no idea whether he's gay or not, but you might want to get your facts straight before you post in such an emphatically confident manner. He WAS married once, and he HAS been romantically linked with women since then (no one famous, which is probably why you never heard about it).

[markydefad]

bgs--you are right. Barry married his high school sweetheart in 1964 at the age of 20/21--divorced by Jan. 1966...........and 41 years later--is still single.

According to Wikipedia--HE asked for the divorce....if I was a bettin' man, I'd say, he's "A CONFIRMED BACHELOR"

Wikepedia says:
In 1964, Manilow married high school sweetheart Susan Deixler. In 1965, at the age of 22 years old, he sought advice about whether to take up music full-time from a column in Playboy magazine, which published his letter in its December, 1965 issue and recommended that he go "sow your notes".[7] On January 6, 1966, Manilow and Deixler signed the annulment decree she had filed after he had asked for a divorce.[8]

[bgs3]

Thanks ... and now I guess I'm the one who needs to get MY facts straight ... according to Wikipedia he dated Lorna Luft in the 1970s .... I guess she qualifies as "someone famous." :icon_mrgreen: Other than that, he lived for awhile with someone named Linda Allen, who is now married to someone else. But, I do realize that's not proof he's not gay.

[markydefad]

bgs3--ummm.... Manilow dating a daughter of Judy Garland seems more like an indictment than a reprieve. Just an observation. :icon_lol::icon_lol::icon_lol:

[Thereza bizarre]

Who cares if he is pink with yellow spots!.
but if he isnt gay then i am donna summer heheheheheh.

[forgetful_one]

I've always assumed he's gay. But at the same time it's always amazed me that it never has been a major issue.. not that it ever should, but other celebrities' sexualities are brought into question all the time.

I don't care either way, but I think if he'd come out long ago it might've had some impact on tolerance towards gays. Think of all the mothers who were/are nuts for Manilow and how they might change their views/treat their gay sons better if their musical God was openly gay :icon_biggrin:

BTW I love Manilow, especially his 1970s work. That double Greatest Hits was one of the first albums I ever owned and I still escape to Manilowland occasionally when I need to. :icon_mrgreen:

[KoolChris]

I found this article, which certainly points toward a confused boy, probably married more to please his parents and integrate as a "normal" person, than to really fulfill his natural impetuous tendencies. Maybe also just to try it out before definitely rejecting it (heterosexuality).


SINGER Barry Manilow has been a lifelong confirmed bachelor, as far as his adoring fans are concerned.


But a Gossip Magazine investigation has uncovered a woman from his long forgotten past: Barry's ex- wife, Susan Deixler, the high school sweetheart he married and then callously dumped when the bright lights of stardom beckoned.

"I never remarried," she says wistfully, 34 years later. "I've gotten on with my life. I wish him well and he wishes me well."

Today Susan, 55, is a holistic healer, who drives an old Subaru and treats patients with acupressure and chiropractic methods at her modest home with peeling paint outside Point Reyes, Calif. Her daughter by another man, Pauline, 26, lives nearby. She also has a son Danny.

And for decades Manilow, 53, has kept her whereabouts a secret from all except his closest confidants. As the singer's fame, wealth and legions of fans grew, Susan became a forgotten footnote on a marriage clerk's dusty ledger.

But in the early 1960s they were just two kids from Brooklyn who fell in love at Eastern District High.

Manilow makes a fleeting reference to Susan in his 1987 autobiography "Sweet Life," but doesn't name her. He remembers Susan as "adorable, small with great legs and a voluptuous figure."

Then a shy, poor boy from a rough neighborhood, Manilow longed to be a singer. But the one thing he wanted more was for Susan, with "jet-black hair, dark brown eyes and a smile that lit up the room" to love him as he loved her.

After many awkward dates and late-night strolls along the East river, just across from the romantic lights of Manhattan where Manilow hoped to be a star one day, they fell in love, he reveals in his book, published by McGraw-Hill.

"I couldn't believe it when she seemed to fall for me as hard as I fell for her."

The two were married first before a justice of the peace and then, at their parent's insistence, before a rabbi. Susan chose Joan De Santis, who had been her best friend since grade school, to be her bridesmaid.

Sadly, Joan has since passed away. But her mother Anne De Santis remembers the happy event like it was yesterday.

"Susan asked Joan to be her bridesmaid because they were such good friends," she says. "They were incredibly excited because it was to be the first wedding in their group of friends.

"They were giggly and so full of life and hope for the future. It was a wonderful time.

"They went to Lord & Taylor's on Fifth Avenue together to get dresses and spent just about every penny they had saved. I remember Joan bought a lovely green velvet dress. She was so pretty and so excited.

"Susan was such a pretty bride. She had beautiful jet-black hair and was so happy. When I think back, it's doubly sad that Barry walked out on Susan and broke her heart. I don't think she ever recovered from the blow."

But Manilow says the marriage was doomed from the start. "Even my (boy)friends thought I was rushing into it," he later admitted.

Less than a year after tying the knot, Manilow grew restless. He was getting work in small off-Broadway theaters.

He decided he was miserable being tied down at age 21 and couldn't bear the thought of an ordinary life "with a picket fence on Long Island," says a source.

So he abruptly left Susan, telling her he was going on "this wondrous musical adventure that I saw within my reach."

With those words, Manilow walked out on the "perfect wife" while she cried in disbelief.

"She reacted badly, of course," he said. Angry and hurt, Susan filed for an annulment, which would basically mean the marriage never happened.

When Manilow came back the next day with a pal's truck to clear out the apartment, he discovered Susan had changed the locks on the door.

When he called from a phone booth Susan was "a very distant and hurt woman." She said he could have his clothes, but nothing else, not even his precious piano. Though in the end she did relent and let him have it.

"Joan and Susan talked on the phone all the time during that period," De Santis says. "Susan told Joan that she was very happy. She had gotten on with her life."

On Jan. 6, 1966, the annulment decree was signed and they were both single again.

In the 1970s, Barry's star began to rise after he got a job playing piano in a gay bathhouse in New York with Bette Midler.

Things used to get so wild during performances at the Continental Baths that Manilow once stripped nude and jumped into the pool with a cavorting crowd of gay men in their birthday suits.

"Have you ever seen a thousand naked men with party hats on?" asked Manilow, recalling his hungry years.

"All during the show, people kept passing drinks and joints up to me."

As the party roared into the night, the spectators beckoned the singer to join them in the pool.

"I was thinking: 'I'd love to lose my inhibitions and jump in with the rest of them, but it goes against everything in me.'" ("but it goes against everything in me" can probably be read "it goes against my education, religion, and will to not get whacked by papa" as opposed to "against my natural inclinations")

But he finally gave in, stripped off his tux and jumped in.

He went on to top the charts with songs such as "Mandy," "Copacabana" and "I Write The Songs."

Although he's been linked with women, he never remarried.

These days he owns several homes and leads an elegant (fancy boy?) lifestyle made up of only the finest foods, clothes, cars and furnishings.

"He's Mister Smoking Jacket and Velvet Slippers," says a friend.

"Barry loves to entertain with small dinner parties in his gorgeous mansion in Woodland Hills, always elegantly catered and served meticulously by his longtime staff on the finest china, crystal and silver."

But even though Susan lives a much more modest lifestyle than the one she could have had as Mrs. Manilow, she doesn't begrudge him and doesn't have a bad word to say about her first love.

"I bear him no animosity," she says. "It's a wonderful gift that he has, and he's sharing it with the world."

[eeuropean2000]

I'm surprised at the question. I've never had any doubts about Barry Manilow being gay. I mean, come on -- what else could the song "All the Time" be about? He's a great singer and songwriter, and I agree with the poster who compared him to Liberace -- "just didn't find the right girl.' :icon_biggrin:

[pepper1dancer]

Clay Aiken now joins the rank of Barry, Cliff Richard, Lance Bass, Gary Coleman, Tom Cruise and Dolly Parton. Also Whitney Houston, Ryan Seacrest and Krisy McNichol.

[drlove]

Hmmm ...... other than Clay Aiken and Lance Bass, have any of the listed names come out openly ??? If not, I (personally) hesitate to place those twenty-somethings in the same category as any closeted peeps. Living your life openly/honestly takes much, much more courage than pretending-you-something-you-ain't.

[MrsAndyQ]

He's NEVER MARRIED or been linked with any WOMAN EVER. :roll: :roll: :roll:

Barry was married to his highschool sweetheart, Susan, when he was younger. He left her to pursue his musical career.

He lived with Linda Allen for 20+ years...

Guess you need to research a little more before you post...

[tmob]

Barry was married to his highschool sweetheart, Susan, when he was younger. He left her to pursue his musical career.

Guess you need to research a little more before you post...

The marriage was discussed earlier in this very same thread.

Guess you need to research a little more before you post... :icon_razz:

[Dayna]

Thanks ... and now I guess I'm the one who needs to get MY facts straight ... according to Wikipedia he dated Lorna Luft in the 1970s .... I guess she qualifies as "someone famous." :icon_mrgreen: Other than that, he lived for awhile with someone named Linda Allen, who is now married to someone else. But, I do realize that's not proof he's not gay.

ROTF~!!
Lorna is one of the biggest fag Hags in hollywood
and "don't get me wrong" I love me some Barry but he's so gay if rainbows could drive they would put bumper stickers of HIM on their cars:icon_lol:..
and who really cares?

[kdavid13]

I thought the term "lifelong confirmed bachelor" said it all ???

As for the title of this thread - all I really wanna say is...
Duh ????????????