A sizzling turn in this summer's "Magic Mike" may have helped Matt Bomer earn a spot on the short list for the much-anticipated movie adaptation of "Fifty Shades of Grey," but one bestselling author isn't backing it.
"American Psycho" scribe Bret Easton Ellis slammed the possible casting of Bomer as Christian Grey as "absolutely ludicrous" because the actor is openly gay, tweeting:
The author, who recently announced that he was out of the running as a possible screenwriter for the film, didn't stop there:
The 34-year-old Bomer has been hotly linked to the movie version of E. L. James's bestseller, although Ryan Gosling and "Vampire Diaries" star Ian Somerhalder are also said to be fan favorites for the male lead. The "White Collar" star has been praised in both the media and the blogosphere for acknowledging his sexuality, which had been the subject of rampant media speculation, in a surprisingly subtle way when he thanked his partner and children at an awards ceremony in February.
"I never really endeavored to hide anything," Bomer told E! Online host Marc Malkin earlier this summer. "But there were times I chose not to relegate my history to the back page of a magazine, which to me is sort of akin to putting your biography on a bathroom wall."
Ellis' opposition to Bomer's casting may come as a surprise to some fans, given that the author has frequently declined to label his own sexuality in interviews. "I definitely don't identify as gay," he told Metro Weekly in 2002. "So I can't commit an answer."
Still, earlier this year, Ellis told The Paris Review, via Out magazine: "I was fairly bisexual in college -- I had girlfriends, I had boyfriends."
Read Ellis' full Twitter rant over Bomer in "Fifty Shades" below: