Daniel Franzese, who is best-known for playing Damian in 'Mean Girls' came out of the closet. He did so by writing a letter to his character.
“After the countless number of fans who have come up to me over the years telling me what an inspiration ‘Damian’ had been to them in their coming out process, I thought it was time I honored them and myself with the truth,” Franzese told EW about the decision to write the letter.
In the piece, Franzese discusses what a great role model the character of Damian is for gay youth, and how he wishes the character existed when he was that age. “When I was cast in the role of ‘Damian’ in Mean Girls, I was TERRIFIED to play this part,” he wrote. “But this was a natural and true representation of a gay teenager — a character we laughed with instead of at. (You can thank Tina Fey and [director] Mark Waters for that. I can only take partial credit.)”
There's more text from the letter in the link below.
A wonderful letter. It's great to see that he's come to a place of self-acceptance, and a reminder that coming out is a personal, individual journey.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
I assumed this was about Jonathan Bennett (did he ever "officially" come out, either?) But yeah, no big shock here. Good for him, and it's a nice letter (although, perhaps catty of me, I always wish these people would acknowledge that everyone knew :P )
And he attempted to play straight as one of the perverted rapists in the remake of "I Spit on Your Grave", where he met his tragic fate by having his eyeball plucked out by a blackbird...
I don't know if Jonathan Bennett every did a press release coming out, but he's certainly not living in the closet. I admit that I kind of assumed it was the same with Daniel.
A Chorus Line revival played its final Broadway performance on August 17, 2008. The tour played its final performance on August 21, 2011. A new non-equity tour started in October 2012 played its final performance on March 23, 2013. Another non-equity tour launched on January 20, 2018. The tour ended its US run in Kansas City and then toured throughout Japan August & September 2018.
I know. He wasn't even the star of Mean Girls, so the OP's subject headline is wrong. My pet peeve is when people are called "stars," but they're just regional celebrities or have a minor role in a movie or TV series.
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia