Raoul Bova: Don't Come Out, Think of the Children!

Italian heartthrob Raoul Bova has been the subject of many gay rumors over the years.  There has even been a Facebook petition asking him to "please come out!"  But he refuses.

"If I were gay, I would not say it.  I would not come out.  I hate being labeled."

Any label except heterosexual, that is.

What about these grainy photos of him in a underwear-clad lip-lock with Marco Bocci?  It seemed so real!   He explained that in the upcoming Scusate se esisto (Pardon Me for Existing, 2014), he plays a married heterosexual who has an affair with a gay guy.  You can play gay characters without being gay, you know.

He goes on to explain that he can never come out because of the horrible damage it would do to children.  His kids are  already getting taunted in school: "Your father is sick, your father is gay!"

To quote Helen Lovejoy: Don't come out, think of the children!

Who knew that Italian society was so homophobic? Or maybe it's just Raoul Bova.

The 43-year old Bova got his start as a competitive swimmer, and broke into acting with the sex comedy Mutande pazze (Crazy Underwear, 1992).  He quickly put his amazing physique to use in movies about men who excite uncontrollable passion in women, sometimes comedies, sometimes tragedies (as in La Lupa, 1992, based on the story by Giovanni Verga).

More recently he changed slightly to movies about men who bring romance rather than horniness, as in Under the Tuscan Sun (2003).

But not wanting to be known as just a bicep and bulge, he also sought out fully-clothed roles as police officers, soldiers, and terrorists, which permit some buddy-bonding in spite of his fear of being labeled gay.

Look for Il Quarto Re (The Fourth King, 1997), a German movie about a young bee-keeper who is shanghaied by the Three Kings to help them deliver the gifts to the Christ Child.  He keeps griping about his wife back home, but the other Kings (including a gay-vague Gaspar played by Billy Dee Williams) display n heterosexual interest.

And I cavalieri che fecero l'impresa (The Knights Who Start a Business, 2001), about five Medieval knights (including Raoul Bova, Edward Furlong, and Marco Leonardi) who buddy-bond during their quest to find the sacred Shroud of Turin.