Neil Patrick Harris—who is best known for playing teenage doctor Doogie Howser in the 1989-1993 show of the same name—has come out of the closet. Responding to recent ‘speculation and interest in my private life and relationships,’ Harris told People.com that ‘ [I] am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest.’
Earlier in the week Craig Schneider, Harris’s publicist, issued a ‘no comment’ of sorts regarding reports that the actor is gay after an Internet site linked Harris with Broadway actor David Burtka. Supposedly, the Web site Canada.com ‘outed’ Harris, claiming that he helped Burtka, his alleged boyfriend, land a role in his current sitcom How I Met Your Mother.
However, Schneider personally e-mailed Windy City Times in response to an inquiry on Nov. 2, stating that ‘it is not my policy as a publicist to discuss my client’s persuasion, which is entirely different from what is now being perpetuated…. I was quoted in reference to a question that was never actually posed and therefore words were taken out of context, but can just as easily be remedied by perpetuating the truth with this simple explanation.’