IAN MCKELLEN - MCKELLEN SLAMS PRODUCERS FOR 'KEEPING STARS IN CLOSET'

SIR IAN MCKELLEN has hit out at Hollywood movie producers for encouraging homosexual actors to remain 'in the closet'. The X-MEN star, who revealed he was gay on British radio in 1988, has in the past criticised actors for not 'coming out'. But the 67-year-old now blames the forces behind the film industry for pressuring homosexual actors to keep their sexuality a secret. MCKellen says, "With all that liberal attitude (in Hollywood), you have a local industry which is saying to local people who live in the area - 'When you come to work, you are not gay.' "And I think to myself, 'Can people whose minds work like that make good films? And if at the heart of Hollywood there is that lie, how many other lies are there?' "And it's the producers who have this problem - God knows what sort of people they are - who think that it's impossible for you and me to fancy the same person. "Well, what dull lives they must have."