In Piers Morgan's mind, there's no way James Bond could ever be convincingly played as a gay character.
In a column for the Daily Mail, the outspoken media personality argued that the current debate over whether or not the womanizing 007 could be re-cast as, well, a man's man was politically correct "nonsense."
"If James Bond’s gay, then the whole tone of the franchise has to go gay too," he wrote. "His lovers would be gay men, Bond Girls would become Bond Boys."
Although "nothing" would be wrong with swapping the gender of Bond's love interests, "I wouldn’t want to watch that, and nor I suspect would the vast majority of Bond movie fans," Morgan wrote. "So the film would tank, and the franchise would die."
He pointed to the career of 1980s pop star George Michael, who saw his album sales dip after he came out as a gay man in 1998. (Never mind, of course, that Michael had been arrested for engaging in a lewd act in a Los Angeles park restroom shortly beforehand.)
"He had a brilliant pop career, right up to the moment where he came out as gay," he wrote. "It wasn’t his sexuality that was the problem. It was the fact that he’d misled millions of adoring female fans for years into thinking he was a straight guy who wanted to bed them."
Arguing that Sir Ian Fleming's iconic character was "built on a clear, definable platform of him being a ruthless, womanizing assassin," Morgan wrote, "James Bond can't be gay. It just wouldn't work."
Morgan, of course, is just the latest in a number of high-profile personalities to chime in on whether or not Bond could be a gay man or a woman.
Roger Moore, who played 007 in seven films, argued that a gay Bond would contradict the way he was portrayed by Fleming in novels and short stories. Although Pierce Brosnan didn't have any personal qualms about a gay Bond, the "Die Another Day" star told Details magazine in August that he wasn't sure it would be a plausible move.
"I don't think Barbara [Broccoli, the James Bond producer] would allow a gay Bond to happen in her lifetime," Brosnan said. "But it would certainly make for interesting viewing."
However, the character's sexuality doesn't seem to be an issue for the current Bond.
"You can do anything as long as it’s credible and it works," Daniel Craig told Sky News, via Pink News. "It doesn’t matter."
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