Did The Verizon Guy Just Come Out?

[Newsjock]

Source: Instinct

Paul Marcarelli, the actor known either as "The Verizon Guy" or "The 'Can You Hear Me Now?' Guy', surreptiously reveals that he is gay in an interview with The Atlantic.

Speaking with the publication, Paul reveals that he kept the closet door shut for a decade because of self-imposed pressure that stems from such an iconic, recognizable role.

Marcarelli has a home in Guilford, Connecticut, and five summers ago, kids in an SUV began driving past at night, yelling, “Can you hear me now?” Later, says Marcarelli, “they started screaming ‘faggot’ up at my house. It got progressively more profane as the years went by.” One night, it happened while some friends were over, and he decided to call the police. “As soon as I hung up the phone,” he says, “I realized that in order for them to do anything about it, it would have to become a report that would go into a police log.” Worried about the publicity—and the questions that might ensue if it came out that the actor playing Test Man was gay—he declined to file a report.

Read more: http://instinctmagazine.com/blog/did-the-verizon-guy-just-come-out

[hedgehog]

1. Well, it's nothing new. I've thought for years that Mr. Clean and Mr. Peanut are gay.

[physioex]

2. And I've long suspected....

Mr. Brawney.

[hedgehog]

3. Which raises the question - I think Mr. Clean and Mr. Peanut have always been

out of the closet, but I'm not sure about Mr. Brawney!

[RKP5637]

4. Horrors, I wonder if my phone is gay? n/t

[JohnnyRingo]

5. If he didn't, it was the most obvious hint since the TV game show scandals of the '50s

It wasn't quite as impactive as Cher's daughter introducing herself as Kennilworth model Chas, but mention of his boyfriend and derisive hecklers driving past his house should take it beyond the whisper stage.

I'm glad he's ditching the glasses and hope he can escape the role to see other work. I could think of a million reasons to use the tagline if I were his friend, but I imagine for that reason he's pretty sick of it by now.

I admit I probably would have snickered myself into a coughing fit if I were at that funeral when they were dropping the casket into the ground and someone said "can you here me now?". I wonder if he has the sense of humor that allows him to inscribe his own headsone with "No I can't fucking hear you now".

Good luck to him, and as for his hope of crawling out of a stereotyped role with a stupid catchphrase to find better acting jobs, I have seven words of inspiration for him: "up your nose with a rubber hose".

[daggahead]

6. I always thought Captain Crunch was gay, too.

No big deal. I love that cereal!

[Kurovski]

7. He came out the day he produced crunchberries.

That was the "tell".