Patti Stanger apologizes for her homophobic remarks on Bravo show

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As you may remember, I watch The Millionaire Matchmaker. I don’t consider it a good show or anything, and it’s not like I wait around to watch new episodes or anything, but if Bravo is showing a marathon, I’ll totally get caught up in it and end up watching several episodes in a row. My take on Patti Stanger is that she’s not the best matchmaker, AT ALL, but she is the queen of conventional dating wisdom, stereotyping, temper tantrums and drama. In Patti’s defense, most of the dudes who hire her are pretty awful people, and they haven’t “found love” because they’re just terrible, the end. Patti does what she can, and yes, I’m defending her a little bit. I watch the show because I think the dudes are hilarious – more often than not, they’re rich and middle-aged and they have huge, glaring personality flaws that drive sane, normal women away, which is good news because most of the guys don’t want sane, normal women anyway – most want a 22-year-old stripper who will soothe their damaged, immature ego.

So, with that caveat in place, here’s the latest Patti-controversy. A few nights ago she was on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, with host Andy Cohen. This show is notorious for getting the guests sauced up, but I’m not sure if liquor was the problem here. Throughout the evening, Patti made some comments that have upset… well, they’ve upset almost everybody. Here are some video clips of the most awful comments (courtesy of Gawker’s Matt Cherette):

Tough love or total bigotry? Millionaire Matchmaker’s Patti Stanger appears to be practicing the latter. On Sunday night’s premiere of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on Bravo, Stanger made sweeping, stereotypical generalizations about gay men looking for love.

When a caller named Dustin asked the reality star what she thought about “open relationships,” she told him: “In the gay world, there’s always going to be open [relationships]. Are you straight or gay?”

He answered gay, to which she said: “Ok, well then you’re ok. There’s Grindr [the online site that connects gay/bisexual men in the same area] for you. Go on Grindr. You’ll have a great time.”

Cohen, 43, looked appalled at Stanger’s remarks. “Hold on,” he said. “So wait, the gays can have open relationships?” (Stanger’s dating policy across the board calls for monogamous relationships only, but this apparently only applies to heterosexual couples.)

“There’s no curbing the gay,” Stanger snapped. “I’ve tried to curb you people and you just don’t [change]. I’ve decided to throw in the towel and just say, ‘Do what you want. But when you find the right person, you will know.'”

When Cohen told Stanger, “I am a gay and I’m down for the monogamy,” she burst out laughing in his face and asked, “When was the last time you had a [serious] boyfriend?” He answered that it’d been six years, and then became “uncomfortable” and moved the conversation along.

When Tyler, a self-proclaimed “gay man from Los Angeles” Skyped in to ask a question about finding “a long-term relationship” and whether he’d have luck outside of the city, Stanger, 50, gave some more offensive advice.

“First of all, you’re very handsome. I thought you were straight,” she said. “That’s a compliment!” (Cohen cocked his head quizzically and made a disgusted face at Stanger’s seemingly bigoted remark.)

“Why is being straight a compliment?” he asked.

“Because he’s not queeny,” Stanger said. “Like you want a queen. Alright, I don’t think so.”

Stanger tweeted Monday: “It’s true. L.A. guys [are] toughest nuts to crack to monogamy,” then added: “Attention male gays: I support you and my comment on [Watch What Happens Live] was to an L.A. guy who can’t find commitment.”

Following intense criticism, Stanger issued a statement to Us Weekly Monday: “I am so sorry. I did not mean to offend anyone with my comments last night on Watch What Happens Live.”

A Bravo spokesperson added that the network “regrets the comments expressed by Patti Stanger on Watch What Happens Live last night. Her comments are not representative of the network’s beliefs and opinions. We apologize for the offense it caused.”

[From Us Weekly]

Okay, if you listen to Patti’s whole argument about open relationships amongst the gays, I don’t think it’s that offensive, it’s just her conventional dating wisdom – she’s saying that gay dudes are always going to be more into “open” relationships, but once they find “the one” that will all disappear. As for her comment that it’s a “compliment” to think that a gay dude appears to be straight… yeah, that one is just dumb. Whatever. She apologized, and you know what you’re getting with Patti.

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Photos courtesy of WENN.

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