Alan Carr has slammed gay activists for accusing him of being too camp.
The openly gay 'Chatty Man' host insists he is just being himself on his Channel 4 chat show and doesn't feel the need to change his ways purely because he is homosexual, insisting he would never land any big-name star guests if he was an "a******e" on the programme.
He said: "I think they have a problem with camp, I read something the other day saying that all these gays on the telly are too friendly and I thought, 'Ant and Dec? Davina? Jonathan Ross? Why am I supposed to be an a******e? If you're an a******e, no one will come on your show.'
"So am I meant to appease all the gays? 'Oh he's being an a******e - now that's proper gay.'
"Funny is funny. Nice is nice. It's not about who you're having sex with - isn't that what they all bang on about?"
The 37-year-old star also hit out at his guests for being too reserved nowadays and insists the last real "character" in the industry was late singer Amy Winehouse, who tragically died in 2011 aged just 27.
Speaking to ES Magazine, he added: "People don't open up as much as they used to, do they?
"You don't get those Parkinson ones any more where they say, 'The man touched me here' or 'I've got a drug problem,' so I don't get people crying, but I might get Rihanna in hysterics or One Direction talking about chlamydia.
"Listen, it ain't 'QI' and I never said it was. But I do think we get something out of them. I mean I see the old interviews with Bette Davis or Joan Crawford. These characters who clawed their way up -- what stories!
"But I am told, 'You even mention this person's alcoholism and they are walking off.' Where are the characters now? The last one was probably Amy Winehouse. I had dinner with her once and she was really lovely and generous."
Alan Carr is interviewed in this week's ES Magazine, available today (16.08.13) free with London Evening Standard - http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine
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