The most cynical conspiracy-theorizing critics of the entertainment industry have long accused the business for being incestuous.  They believe the rapid ascension of many of the industry’s top stars was a byproduct produced in the wake of sexual favors.  Most recently those accusations have turned to a deeper darker belief a homosexual secret society linked to many entertainment and sports industry power brokers, many with hip hop ties.  But homosexuality is no longer taboo.  Its no longer a scarlet letter from which to hide and in as we’ve seen some have actually forged their sexuality in the reverse to get ahead.

So its not surprising that more and more celebrities are essentially coming out of the closet or being exposed by scorned former associates.  The effects are far less damaging to a career. Take the all but discredited and obviously desperate Bobby Brown.  The former New Addition band member now claims that his ex-wife Whitney Houston made the decision to marry him in part to then rumors that she was a lesbian.

“(The marriage) was doomed from the very beginning,” Brown writes in his new tell-all book “Bobby Brown: The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But…” “I think we got married for all the wrong reasons. Now, I realize Whitney had a different agenda than I did when we got married… I believe her agenda was to clean up her image, while mine was to be loved and have children.”

“The media was accusing her of having a bisexual relationship with her assistant, Robin Crawford. Since she was the American Sweetheart and all, that didn’t go too well with her image… In Whitney’s situation, the only solution was to get married and have kids. That would kill all speculation, whether it was true or not.”

Its been two years since Brown divorced Houston after a 14 year tumultuous relationship riddled with drugs and drama. Recently Houston revealed some of the damage done by the Brown during an exclusive interview with Oprah.  While the speculation then some 15 years ago would have been damaging for her career, such a rumor would simply be a byline.

Another 80′s era icon,  NBA star,  Earvin “Magic” Johnson faced many viscious homosexual rumors after he announced he was HIV+.   was homosexual or bisexual .

In his new book, “When The Game Was Ours” about the Lakers-Celtics-Pistons rivalry of the late 1980s and early ’90s, Magic is finally admitting he was crushed by the rumors especially those spread by those he called friends. 

“Isiah [Thomas] kept questioning people about it. … The one guy I thought I could count on had all these doubts. It was like he kicked me in the stomach,” Magic says in the book, which will be released Nov. 4 and is co-written with Larry Bird and author Jackie MacMullan.

Isiah Thomas denies the charge, telling SI.com, “I’m really hurt, and I really feel taken advantage of for all these years. I’m totally blindsided by this. Every time that I’ve seen Magic, he has been friendly with me.”

  Thomas added, “I didn’t know he felt this way.” But now that he knows, is such a rumor wrong OR RIGHT damage an individual celebrity’s career?  What do you think?  Is homosexuality still a bad word?   Its ironic that of the two given examples both Thomas and Brown have both themselves been linked to homosexuality and/or bisexuality.