From PlanetOut

The Top 10 Gay Urban Legends
 
1) The Rod Stewart rumor

Talk about a "love touch" -- according to this rumor, in the mid-1970s, Rod Stewart was performing onstage at Madison Square Garden when he suddenly collapsed and had to be rushed to the hospital. Speculation about a possible drug overdose quickly arose, but when doctors pumped the rocker's stomach, they found ... not a pint, not a quart, but a gallon of semen! The urban legend quickly took on a life of its own, as the deposit was attributed to everyone from Mick Jagger and David Bowie (see below) to an entire soccer team.

The rumor plagues Stewart to this day. "That story spread all around the fucking world!" he told Rolling Stone in 1991. "It was so laughable, it never really hurt me. What could it have been? A fleet of fucking sailors? Or footballers? I mean, what the hell? Jesus Christ!"

2) Richard Gere's furry friend

The infamous Richard Gere gerbil rumor began in the mid-1980s, right after the actor hit it big in "American Gigolo." Like the Rod Stewart rumor, this story finds Gere being rushed to California's Cedars-Sinai Hospital's emergency room -- where, after finding a dead gerbil lodged in his rectum, doctors performed an emergency rodentectomy.

All of sudden, everyone and his mother were talking about "gerbilling" -- the practice (itself an urban legend traditionally associated with gay men) of inserting a live rodent into one's rectum for erotic pleasure.

The story spread like wildfire, and to this day it's not hard to find someone who knows someone who was "at the hospital" when Gere was admitted. Unfortunately for the actor, this story's got legs (four of them): One cranky critic recently mentioned the rumor in a review of the film "Chicago."

3) Keanu Reeves marries David Geffen

Years ago, after his appearance in "My Own Private Idaho," a reporter asked cute up-and-comer Keanu Reeves if he was gay. "No," said Reeves, who then added, "But ya never know." A Spanish newspaper jumped all over this perfectly ripe opportunity: Not only was Keanu gay, according to a writer, but he was secretly married to music mogul David Geffen.

So many "inside" details of their marriage emerged that it had to be true: Geffen bought Reeves thousands of dollars' worth of clothes; Hollywood heavy-hitters had attended the ceremony; even that the wedding was held at Jack Nicholson's house.

So, did the Matrix star ever unload on Geffen? "I've never met the man," Reeves told Vanity Fair. "It's so ridiculous, I find it funny." Geffen is more precise. "I've never laid eyes on him," he says. "It's a phenomenon: people make this stuff up. I even had a friend say that his trainer said he was at the wedding. You think I could keep something like that secret?" Hey, it wouldn't be the first excellent and secret gay adventure in Tinseltown.
 
4) Jim Nabors' secret husband, Rock Hudson

One of the most talked-about gay rumors of the early '70s involved the secret marriage of Jim Nabors and Rock Hudson. Stories (true) about Hudson's sexuality had been swirling around Hollywood for years, but the strange inclusion of Gomer Pyle into the leading man's secret love life lent the gossip a certain oddball credibility.

Hudson himself offered this explanation of the origin of the rumor: "There appear to be a couple of elderly, or middle-aged, homosexuals who live in Huntington Beach, which is just down the coast from Los Angeles, who every year give a party, a big party, 500 people or so. And they invite everyone they know. It's an engraved invitation, and to make it amusing they will say, 'You're cordially invited to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in Huntington Beach.' One year, the invitation was, 'You are cordially invited to the wedding reception of Rock Hudson and Jim Nabors.' And it went all over the country."

One person who apparently did not find the story amusing was Nabors, who at the time was trying to revive his career as a serious actor and singer. Unfortunately for him, he was branded in our collective unconscious as the simple but lovable Private Pyle -- who, in retrospect, may have been the first theatrical representation of "Don't ask, don't tell."

5) The Jodie/Kelly/Whitney love triangle

Certainly one of the most interesting gay celebrity rumors of all time is the alleged lesbian love triangle between Jodie Foster, Kelly McGillis and Whitney Houston. It goes something like this: McGillis and Houston had been "saving all their love" for each other -- until Kelly got involved with Foster during the filming of "The Accused."

All of a sudden, it was a serious case of "Houston, we have a problem." The diva-in-training supposedly visited the set and threatened to kick Foster's ass. Or was it McGillis' ass? Details were always a bit murky on this story, and while none of the ladies have ever commented on the rumor, numerous "witnesses" claim that catfight involving the three actresses did indeed take place. Sounds pretty hot to us.

6) Cary and Randolph: Gay lovers!

Cary Grant is often looked to as the quintessential leading man -- but just whom he was leading (and where) has always been fodder for the gossip mills. Married five times, Grant lived with handsome actor Randolph Scott off and on for several years. Tongues really started wagging after a movie studio sent a photographer to the Grant/Scott house. The paparazzo published a series of photos of the two chaps playing chess, making dinner, enjoying a nice brandy together while gazing into each other's eyes ... in other words, looking very gay.

No one has ever come up with indisputable proof that the two were lovers, but Grant did address the rumors before his death. Referring to numerous unauthorized biographies of him, the actor said, "They all repeat rumors that I am a tightwad and a homosexual ... Now, I don't believe either of these is an insult, but it just isn't true." Sorry, Cary: Being a tightwad is an insult!

7) Joan Crawford hits on Bette Davis

Hundreds of stories have been written about Joan Crawford's personal life, and we've all seen "Mommie Dearest" enough times to quote it by heart. What the movie didn't show, however, is Crawford's alleged sexual harassment of co-star Bette Davis during the filming of a particular movie. Apparently things got so out of hand that Davis threatened to quit if Crawford didn't back off.

While no one has ever proven Crawford's attraction to Davis, Davis herself certainly came clean about her feelings for Joan, "I wouldn't piss on her if she was on fire She's slept with every male star at MGM, except Lassie." Sounds like love to us!

8) Bowie's wife catches him in bed with Mick!

As leaders of the gender-bending period of '70s rock, glam god Ziggy Stardust and Spandex-clad Mick Jagger must have had some gay experiences along the way ... but with each other?

The story goes like this: David Bowie's wife, Angie, comes home one day and finds her husband in bed -- naked -- with Mick Jagger. Upon seeing them, she says hello, and heads off to the kitchen to make breakfast. Finally, a gay rumor with some truth to it! The official story is that, after the expiration of a gag order from her divorce from her David, Angie Bowie went on Joan Rivers' talk show and said, "I caught him (David) in bed with men several times. In fact, the best time I caught him in bed was with Mick Jagger."

Really? Jagger went on record saying Angie's story was "complete rubbish," and Bowie went further, releasing a statement through his lawyer saying it was just plain false. Still, Angie stuck to her story, and in her 1993 tell-all book "Backstage Passes," she gave a much more descriptive account of what happened. "I went and opened the bedroom door, and there indeed they were in our bed. I asked them if they wanted coffee, they said yes, and that was that."

Rock stars were so much more fun in the '70s.

9) J. Edgar "Call Me Mary" Hoover

It's pretty much a given that famed FBI director/commie-hunter J. Edgar Hoover was gay -- and that he had a 40-year sexual relationship with his constant companion, Clyde Tolson (the two were even buried next to each other). And for half a decade, even the mainstream press has published stories about Hoover's penchant for sporting women's clothing.

But the most intriguing account is also the most incredible: At a party at New York's Plaza Hotel in 1958, Hoover showed up in full drag splendor -- and was introduced to guests as "Mary" by fellow partygoer (and closet homosexual) Roy Cohn. Susan L. Rosenstiel, the ex-wife of Hoover's friend Lewis Rosenstiel, spoke on record about the party to author Anthony Summers. "He was wearing a fluffy black dress with flounces, lace stockings, high heels and a black curly wig," she told the author. She went on to claim that she saw Hoover in a dress several times, and she said photos of him in drag exist.

True? While the thought of the head of the world's largest intelligence agency as an out and proud cross-dresser is appealing, author Ronald Kessler thinks this particular rumor is unlikely. "Hoover was more familiar to Americans than most presidents. The director of the FBI simply could not have engaged in such activity at the Plaza, with a number of witnesses present, without having it leak out," he wrote. Despite that, he concedes, "That Hoover was a cross-dresser is now largely presumed to be fact, even by sophisticated people."

10) Garbo does Baker on the Eiffel Tower!

Though she famously just "vanted to be let alone," cross-dressing screen star Greta Garbo had lesbian liplocks with just about every everyone -- including Marlene Dietrich and Louise Brooks. But the most interesting (and salacious) story is the one involving the beautiful, banana-wearing singer/dancer Josephine Baker. According to legend, the two sultry stars got hot and heavy -- at the foot of the Eiffel Tower itself!

The story's possible, since it's pretty certain they both liked girls (Garbo was written about by several of her lovers including novelist Mercedes da Acosta, while two of Baker's "rainbow tribe" of adopted children have written of her bisexuality). But there's never been any proof that they got hot and heavy with each other.

The juicy story is probably just a twist on Garbo's movie "Ninotchka," where she fell in love with a man at the tower -- which she described in the film as "Such a vaste of electreeeecity!"