The Hollywood mogul Merv Griffin died at the age of 82 over the weekend after a battle with cancer, and The New York Times actually discuss his sexual orientation, the palimony lawsuit and the male-on-male sexual harassment lawsuit.

Merv Griffin was an example of how dangerous the closet can be -- and how the closet and power are a combustible combination that adversely affects so many other lives.


Griffin never acknowledged he was gay, though it became widely known in Hollywood, even as Eva Gabor played his beard.


Griffin's closet kept him shockingly silent while he had access to the president of the United States as his own people were dying.


He also stayed silent about the epidemic in the media even though he was a man very much at the center of the media industry and in shaping communications and television in this country. He could have made a huge difference!


Griffin's closet had him firing gay men who'd actually made it up through the ranks of his own company, simply because they were openly gay.


Merv Griffin accomplished a lot and being held up as a example of a stellar Hollywood businessman. But he should also be held up as man who was hugely influential and powerful and yet still allowed the closet and homophobia to manipulate his life. That should not be forgotten.