According to a friend of mine, “You’re not a real celebrity until the gay rumors start.” And, as ridiculous as that sounds, it’s actually true. Any small-time wannabe can have a sex tape — cause like, how hard is it to bone on camera and act surprised when it “leaks”? — but for the mass media to really be concerned about your sexuality, you’ve got to be pretty popular.

One could argue that Will Smith is a pretty big celebrity. He’s also been rumored to be a pretty big homosexual. Previous claims notwithstanding, he’s most recently accused of having an affinity for picking up male hookers, an act that transcends your general, passive gay rumor, and plunges right into damn-this-shit-might-actually-be-true status. So, in honor of Mr. Smith’s big step up in stardom, here are ten other male celebrities that may or may not have a little pink in their blue… if you believe everything you hear.

In no particular order…

1. EDDIE MURPHY

Before he was Trading Places with Dan Aykroyd, Murphy may or may not have been trading places in the bedroom… with dudes. Amid already-circulating rumors that he’s playing for the other team, in 1997 Murphy was pulled over by the cops with tranny hooker, Atisone Seiuli, chilling out in the front seat. Murphy claimed he was “being a Good Samaritan” by simply giving Seiuli a ride. Though I’m not Eddie’s publicist, I’m going to take a stab at the situation and say it probably isn’t the best idea to ride around with a transsexual hooker when you’re a high-profile celebrity with rumors that you’re in a secret relationship with R&B singer Johnny Gill. My, my, my.

2. SEAN “DIDDY” COMBS

Man, Diddy can’t stop won’t stop living without a gay rumor following close behind. It’s an old tale, but things really started to blow up when loved/hated former Hot 97 gossip girl Wendy Williams claimed the rapper/producer was gay, then later claimed that she had a tape of Puff and rapper Loon bangin’ out. There’s also a website called IndieSent Exposure that has alleged pictures of Diddy doing some pretty gay stuff at some bathing suit party, and though the pictures are crazy blurry, it totally looks like him. So, if it’s true Puff, take that take that take that!

3. RUSSELL SIMMONS

No. This has nothing to do with Russell’s lisp. Or his yoga. These rumors aren’t based on such thin evidence. It’s a long-standing rumor that Mr. Phat Farm is gay and that he and Kimora were really serving as each other’s beards. Rumors like that are usually a load of bullshit. However, in 2006, a mystery woman claimed to have found Simmons’ lost BlackBerry during Fashion Week. According to her, after a little phone investigation, she found that Simmons had been text-sexing some dude. Later on, Caushun “The Gay Rapper” (from Baby Phat and Hot-97-circa-Star-and-Buc Wild fame) tried to expose Simmons’ secret sexuality. During an interview with the Dallas Voice, Simmons responded to the allegation: “Well, being told that I’m gay is nothing new.” I guess if the rumors are true, being gay is nothing new either. Zing!

4. TYLER PERRY

Many actors and notable figures don dresses, wigs and makeup for the sake of comedy. Even Rudy Giuliani! But Tyler Perry’s alter ego Madea is only fodder for the argument that Perry himself might be found among all the oversized dresses in his closet. Until recently, almost all of Perry’s movies have been serious man-hating anthems — like a religious slant of every Lifetime movie ever made, except starring black people. It also didn’t help much that he refuses to address gay rumors in almost every interview that brings up the allegations. Doesn’t mean he’s really gay… but I’m just saying. You can’t be too mad about errant gossip then, ya know?

5. LL COOL J

Apparently, ladies aren’t the only ones who have been loving cool James all these years — that is, if all the rumors are true. Crazy thing is, this is one of those rumors that everyone knows about, but no one knows where it actually started. You’d think this would make it less of a big deal, but all the dude does is talk about how gay he isn’t in all of his interviews, including this one on the Greg Street show:

I’m sayin tho’, LL, maybe if you quit harping on and on about it, people would just let it die. You know. If it isn’t true, like you say. He’s still pretty hot though, so, whatever.

6. NE-YO

Okay, while I’ll admit that one of our publications totally added to the Ne-Yo gay rumors, I’d just like to state for the record that that lip gloss/backbend/kissy face combo was ALL him. Hey man, maybe it IS the lip gloss. Maybe it’s his style. Maybe it’s because he sometimes likes to buy women’s shoes (for women – don’t get ahead of yourselves, readers). Or maybe he hooked up with a dude and that guy told some guy who told someone else and the whole thing just blew up. But what isn’t true is the rumor that he came out to Essence Magazine. So at least one of those stories is debunked. Hey, you gotta start somewhere, right?

7. TYSON BECKFORD

Being a male model is like having an automatic in to the gay rumor mill, but it’s when you’re spotted in a gay strip club that eyebrows really start to be raised. Wendy Williams, forever conducting the juiciest of gossip trains, even tried to out him on the radio. Our dude stayed cool, though, and instructed her to “go shave [her] beard.” He’s also not ashamed to say that he loves and appreciates his gay fans, because they contribute to him bringing in the big bucks, and who can really hate on that? So even though Beckford is known around town as an infamously steady chick-banger-outter, he may or may not be catching some dingleberries on the side. And that’s fine with us, because on a more serious note, who wouldn’t hook up with Tyson Beckford? He may as well just be bi- and spread that sexy around, long as the rumors exist anyway. Amen.

8. REDMAN

Yo. Don’t kill the messenger. But it’s pretty old news (in Dirtygossiprumorville) that Method Man and Redman are secretly lovers. Almost every female hip-hop fan in America refuses to believe it’s true, because almost every female hip-hop fan in America seems to believe that they will one day have the chance to do Meth (pun intended) before they die. They’re constantly on Wendy Williams’ annual bi/gay list on her radio show, as anyone who regularly listens to her show would know, they may or may not be one of the blind items mentioned in her new tell-all book. Many are speculating that they’re one of the aliased characters in Terrence Dean’s new outing novel, Hiding in Hip Hop: Confessions of a Down-Low Brother in the Entertainment Industry. I just hope no one’s pulling a Clinton-Lewinsky with all those blunts they smoke.

9. JOHN LEGEND

Now, this is another one of those situations where being around really gay stuff only adds fuel to a big gay fire. When John Legend broke out, some speculated that he was gay, but there wasn’t much foundation under it. Sometimes people just like pointing a finger to waste time. However, when you’re always taking a moment during interviews to tell people you’re unphased by all the gay rumors being spread, and then you’re taking pictures with a gay porn star that happened to be attending an event by a company called Rockhard Productions, I mean, hey. It might be tough to shake that one off.  Until you get a totally obvious boner during one of your shows:

So maybe he’s bi-? Eh?

10. BUSTA RHYMES

Many like to say that Rhymes is Bussa Bussin’ all over dudes in his spare time. Some even say that his main squeeze is his longtime hypeman Spliff Star. However, the latest in Rhymes’ gay gossip comes yet again from Terrence Dean’s book, excerpted on Necole Bitchie, where z-list celeb Deelishis tells Dean that she dated a rapper. Dean proceeds to inform her that it might not be the woman attached to that big butt that made him hit it. If you really wanna take it there, you could say that the alleged attack on a gay fan and his subsequent homophobic remarks were a way to quell all the gay rumors that have been circulating about him over the years. But then you’d have to get on the asses (again, no pun intended) of all the other rappers who bash gays but are allegedly “on the DL.” So let’s not get too petty here.