Hot Gossips Of Celebrity

Neil Patrick Harris has come a long way from his days as Doogie Howser.
Between his Emmy-nominated role on "How I Met Your Mother" and his scene-stealing turns in the "Harold and Kumar" flicks, Harris has also been an openly gay actor after coming out to PEOPLE in 2006. For the first time since then, he speaks about his sexuality to Out Magazine.

On being an openly gay public figure: "My job is jester -- not advocate... I'm striving to be an example of normalcy. Because I'm noticed as an actor, people are aware of what's happening in my life, and that I can't change, and if I tried to, it'd be an uphill battle."
On commitment: "I'm a big proponent of monogamous relationships regardless of sexuality, and I'm proud of how the nation is steering toward that."

On public versus private personas: "It is in our capacity to respect the job descriptions that people have separate from the life that they live. And I don't care about the person on the news ... I literally tune in to hear the news. I might find them dreamy, but I don’t really need to know much more about them."

On his Anderson Cooper crush: "Mmm. Anderson. He's dreamy. Just dreamy. I've been a fan of his since season 1 of The Mole. I just thought he was so cool when he talked in this cool, low, secret-agent voice -- 'If you can accomplish this task...'."

On landing a leading man role just before coming "out": "I didn't release a statement to them, but at the first 'How I Met Your Mother' barbecue I brought [my boyfriend] David. I feel like it's important to be proud of who you are, so I didn't feel like, 'I should bring my friend Stephanie to this barbecue, or I'll lose my job.' Thankfully, I live in a time where I don't have to worry about that."

On guest-hosting "Live with Regis and Kelly": "Kelly Ripa is the greatest. She’s got it all. She’s got a great life; she works an hour and a half a day. She's funny, she's sexy, she's savvy, she plays the Kelly Ripa part, and she gets the joke."

On finally addressing his sexuality in PEOPLE magazine: "I'm just glad it wasn't based on scandal. I didn't want there to be some 'we got footage' story where I have to make some sort of statement about some event that happened. I'm not a crazy partier. I don't stay up and rent private jets and go on yachts and whoop it up in Miami. I found a guy that I'm head over heels for and we have similar interests and we spend our time together." via