The rumor mill ran abuzz this week when Terrell Carter, a star in Tyler Perry's stage plays and featured actor in the famed Madea movie blockbusters, was outed this past weekend by an alleged ex-boyfriend who posted photos on the Internet featuring Carter and him together. Alex Cortez, the boyfriend, began posting pictures on networking web sites and on his profile pages at Twitter and MySpace while also writing about the scorn of the aforementioned relationship going wrong. In his words, Cortez wrote "Hell yeah i’m angry!…there are fucked up ppl out there no matter how nice they seem to be & it’s their fault, ppl they harm are bitter!"
Since the outing, black gossip blogs, gay news sources and other media outlets including MediaTakeOut, Rod 2.0, Sandra Rose, Advocate and PerezHilton have been lit up with hundreds of comments from Carter's supporters and some of Perry's hardcore fans. Sandra Rose, who reported last year that Carter was suspect, didn't help much when she wrote that "99 percent of the actors in Tyler's movies are gay."
The actor is also an indie soul artist who has released three albums, according to CDBaby. Along with his background in Tyler Perry gospel plays like Meet the Browns and Madea's Class Reunion, Carter was a background singer for Fred Hammond and Yolanda Adams.
No correspondence or a press statement from Carter's camp has surfaced since the rumored allegations hit the fan. Maybe he's hoping all of this will die down until the next Madea movie announces casting calls.
J MATT'S COMMENTS:
Since I have been heavily criticized for running a rumor mill at my gospel e-zine and blog (Keish, hope you're reading this), I wanted it to go on record that this blog entry was only submitted because no other gospel web site won't touch it. I was also questioned by the media about the immediate reaction from the faith community. I personally felt it was newsworthy because other news outlets have covered it and it also raises a lot of questions.
Will Carter press charges against Cortez for defamation of character?
When a gospel-related star is in trouble, why do the gospel web sites choke up?
And when issues of homosexuality arise, why is it the church gets louder and the gospel community goes silent?
These and other issues are bound to make you wonder if we are really being effective in our outreach of Christian evangelism. I hate that Carter is now the victim of a bitter, heartbroken drama-king, but the popular, yet paranoia-like proverb remains a careful reminder to our decision-making. It is also a title to one of Perry's stage plays in which Carter was also cast: "What's done in the dark...shall come to light."
1 comment:
I blog about PR, but I love the Lord more than anything.
And I will state this publicly: We must remember why we seek the public eye. This goes for Terrell, you, me, anybody.
It is about representing Christ and doing good works that will bless others. Anytime we forget about that- things like this will happen.
I was shocked that he didn't release a press statement-but with a picture like that-there's not much to say.
I just wish him the best.
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