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And the younger gays now have Sorority Row, so the campy cycle continues.
Oh, I know! And that was a gay director [Stewart Hendler] too, and I got along great with him.

When The Advocate last spoke to you, we discussed your 2004 novel The Best Awful, a fictionalized account of your husband, CAA superagent Bryan Lourd, leaving you for another man. You continued to explore that particular subject in Wishful Drinking on a much more personal level. Is that something you continue to work through, or, after talking about the subject for so many years, have you finally made peace with it?
Yeah, I mean, initially I obviously wasn’t thrilled, but I’m mostly at peace with it now. From the beginning, we coparented our daughter, Billie, and took our vacations together. Fairly recently, we all went to Costa Rica together. So I’m in constant contact with Bryan. It’s been dealt with well, so we’ve gotten through most of the mess.

Considering all of the salacious stuff you talk about in Wishful Drinking — the Hollywood family gossip, the drug abuse, the mental health issues — it’s interesting that your failed marriage to a gay man seems to get so much attention.
Maybe it’s because Bryan’s in the paper sometimes now. It’s a funny anecdote, but I don’t really think people care that much about that kind of thing anymore, do you?

Well, Fran Drescher made headlines earlier this year when she revealed that her ex-husband was gay.
Oh, has Fran Drescher come out and said that? You know, sometimes, after a certain age, you marry your friend. Frequently, gay men are much better friends to women than other women.

You must’ve gotten this all the time: “How did you not know?” Is that a fair question or an ignorant one?

Both. But I didn’t know because I didn’t want to know. I wanted to believe whatever he told me, and I didn’t want to question it. I was in love with him.

When explaining that your ex-husband once blamed your codeine abuse on pushing him toward other men, you joke in Wishful Drinking that you have the power to turn men gay. These are funny quips, but they’ve also turned into headlines that some readers may
take seriously. So just to clarify for those who believe that being gay is a choice, do you and Bryan know that he was always gay and that you had nothing to do with it?
Well, we don’t talk about it much, but yes, I should think that he was always gay and probably always knew it. I can only really talk about my part of it, up to a point, but he’s been a very good father — and mother — to Billie.

All joking aside, was there a time when you truly thought that his being gay was your fault?

Yes, I did. [Laughs] Yes, I did.