After what some are calling a racy performance on the American Music Awards Sunday night, in which he kissed another man and pushed a man’s head into his crotch, American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert had his appearance on tomorrow’s “Good Morning America” canceled.
Hot to pick up the flavor of the week guest, the CBS “Early Show” added Lambert to tomorrow’s line up. Who will face the bigger PR storm, ABC or Lambert?
“I feel like Adam’s performance was in keeping with other moments from awards shows, and he is being treated very unfairly just because he is gay,” Dowd Agency CEO Jim Dowd told PRNewser today. “It’s a double edged sword to have these other moments [i.e. Britney kissing Madonna] be treated on a different level than his moment just because he happens to be making out with a guy.” Dowd’s clients include MTV, A&E, Animal Planet and IFC.
Another entertainment industry publicist, speaking on the condition of anonymity as to not damage his relationship with GMA, said, “it’s complete crap. CBS can do it and ABC can’t? I can’t imagine the corporate playbook on what’s acceptable on TV is that different [between the two networks]. It’s a total double standard. Most people don’t care about this. This is news, this is really a big deal? 15 million watched and 1,500 people called to complain. That is like .001%. It’s silly.”
Not everyone completely agrees.
Hollywood PR vet Howard Bragman, founder of agency Fifteen Minutes, is openly gay and told PRNewser, “I do feel there is a different standard.” However, Bragman was quick to point out that he was at GMA last week with Chaz Bono, the only child of Sonny and Cher, who spoke about his female-to-male gender transition.
“There may be a lot of things but I don’t think homophobic is among them. GMA has always been pretty good,” he said.