Hollywood Reporter Mired in ‘Mervgate’

Ray Richmond, a longtime Hollywood Reporter reporter, devoted his weekly column to Merv Griffin, who died last week after a battle with prostate cancer, noting that the Hollywood legend was a homosexuall — an open secret in the industry.

Then, as film critic David Ehrenstein explains on the Huffington Post, all hell broke loose:

Merv’s people called the Reporter, making all manner of threats and the piece was yanked hours after it went up. It was also yanked from Ray’s Blog. Then Ray called me. He was fearful for his job. So I called Michelangelo Signorile’s SIRIUS OUT Q radio show to inform Mike of this development. He was just talking about Ray’s piece at the time. And in no time at all outraged listeners were deluging the Hollywood Reporter switchboard with demands that the piece be put back up. And in a few hours it was — with a statement of support for Ray to boot.

Full story is here.