Midweek Mancandy: Sean Maher

This week, we're going topical with our Midweek Mancandy and featuring a tasty actor who just made a big announcement: He's gay. And yet, still as hot as before he came out!

(Photo from Wikipedia)

That's right: This week, we're featuring Sean Maher!

Maher is most well-known by geek girls everywhere as adorable Dr. Simon Tam on the short-lived sci-fi series "Firefly." Now, he's on the soon-to-be short-lived series "The Playboy Club." He's extremely cute on "Firefly," especially because he always seems sort of lost and confused and innocent. However, Simon is also fiercely protective of his sister, River, and, later, other members of the crew of the ship, Serenity, and that makes him all the more wonderful. He's sweet and innocent, but also can be tough when he needs to protect someone he loves. Plus, Simon is really smart, and guys with brains are sexy!

"The Playboy Club" is such a steaming pile of crap that not even the adorableness of Sean Maher can really save it, but Kel, who called the show "bad" and said, "What I don't like (about the show) is everything," also said "I almost want to watch more 'Playboy Club' just because he's in it. And that show did not strike me as something I'd enjoy." So there's that. Hopefully after "Playboy Club" gets canceled (which is likely to be soon), he will have a nice long run on a show that is awesome! He totally deserves it.

Oh, yeah, and about the whole "I'm gay!" issue. Maher came out to "Entertainment Weekly" on Monday, telling the magazine: 

It was so exhausting, and I was so miserable. I didn’t really have any life other than work and this façade I was putting on. So I kept my friends from college [where he was out] separate from my work friends, and that was very confusing. I just kept going on and on painting this picture of somebody I wasn’t. I didn’t have time for a personal relationship anyway. And you just don’t realize that it’s eating away at your soul.

It turns out that when he came to Hollywood in 1997, he didn't feel like he could come out and, in fact, had pressure from a manager and agent to stay in the closet out of concern that he wouldn't be able to book leading-man roles. Meanwhile, he has a partner and two children at home who he, basically, had to hide.

We'd like, first of all, to say that the whole situation really freakin' sucks for him, and anyone else who has to hide who they are! We're both super glad that Maher felt like he could come out finally, but it is bizarre that there is a fear that a gay guy couldn't play a straight guy and vice versa. I mean, hello, it's called acting! Maher isn't a doctor from the year 2517 living in a spaceship with a bunch of space pirates and his crazy sister, either, but he played a pretty convincing Simon Tam. The whole culture is weird that anybody even cares about the sexuality of Sean Maher, or any other actor or actress for that matter! Who gives a shit? Not The Pop Tarts, that's for sure! Both of us reacted in much the same way: "Huh. OK. Glad he's happier now! Oooh, I should rewatch 'Firefly' because he's hot, and that show's awesome. And I'm pretty sure Sean Maher takes off his shirt! Nice." Neither of us had even given any thought to his sexuality before, and other than the fact that his sexuality was in the news this week, we probably won't think about it again.

But when we see him, we will think, "Oooh, Sean Maher." Because he's a hot morsel of mancandy!