Oh, Hugh Jackman. You're Adorable.

I fancy him only slightly less than Tim Gunn:

Despite his obviously close relationship with his wife, whispers have persisted since he played Peter Allen that Jackman himself might be gay. "I'd be happy to go and deny it, because I'm not," he says. "But by denying it, I'm saying there is something shameful about it, and there isn't anything shameful. The questions about sexuality I find more here in America than anywhere else, because it's a big hang-up and defines what people think about themselves and others. It's not a big issue in Australia."

I know he actually denied being gay there while at the same time saying he won't deny it, but, as someone who is routinely "accused" of being gay myself, I can appreciate the impulse to say as a fact rather than as a denial that you're not gay, only because you understand that a straight person saying there's nothing shameful about being gay has a very different meaning (to the homophobes whose minds you'd like to change) than a gay person saying it. So I'll give him some latitude; that can be weird to navigate. The point is, there's a big-name action star in the rather conservative Parade magazine talking about how being gay is hardly shameful—and noting (in an undeservedly polite way) that Americans need to get over their issues about sexuality altogether.

And he decided to do a little feminism while he was at it.

[Deborra-Lee Furness, his wife of 13 years] was the far bigger star in Australia when she met Jackman in 1995 on her hit television series, Correlli. But he has now surpassed her. How do they deal with this reversal?

"The thing I find hard is that a lot of people won't even see her, and they'll obviously be talking to her to get to me," he says. "I've seen Deb literally be knocked out of the way. She just knocks 'em back."

Jackman's eyes brighten when he discusses his wife, who is eight years older than he.

"She's a morning person," he says. "Deb pops up, and it's, 'Come on, baby. Let's go!' Yet at night she falls asleep instantly, sometimes in mid-conversation. She's fallen asleep during every movie I've ever done. At one premiere, this big-time producer—he's known for growling—growled down the row to me, 'Wake your wife up!' She's the most honest person I've ever met. The worst liar. Can't do it. Everything she feels comes out. This is just the long way of saying she's not jealous of my success, no. It's not in her DNA. Every person I've ever worked with has ended up liking Deb more than they like me. I'm a little behind in the wit department, and she's always, 'Come on, Hugh, keep up! Keep up!' She looks a lot like Kim Novak, but she's from the Ethel Merman school with her humor."

Since Jackman had decided to evoke old-time stars to describe his wife, I come up with a few myself to describe him. "You're like a cross between Gary Cooper and Gene Kelly," I tell him. "With just a soupcon of Rosalind Russell."

Jackman throws his head back and roars—not with the animalistic rage of his Wolverine character but with an ironic laugh, that most human of sounds.

"Promise to put that in the story," he says. "Deb'll love that."

Whenever I'm watching any red-carpet event (the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the Emmys), I always find myself intrigued by the mixed-fame couples, where one partner is much less famous or not famous at all (or not famous in America); I watch the "lesser" partner (almost always a woman) and how they are treated, and it's true that they will literally get shoved by interviewers or starfuckers trying to get access to their partner. Jackman and Furness have caught my eye in that situation many times. I've wondered what it's like to be her.

I've always been drawn to Jackman and Furness, because they seem like a really interesting couple, familiar to me in a lot of ways, with the way they tease and harass each other good-naturedly.

(And truth be told, I don't give a flying fuck if he's gay or they're both gay or whatthefuckev, because any marriage is only as strong as its central friendship, anyway. If he is gay, he also loves and respects her enormously. To each hir own.)

So I love this interview with Jackman, and the way he so carefully and lovingly draws a portrait of her as an individual person, forcing us to really see her after he notes that there are people who won't. I love that he gives her time. I love that he describes a strong woman who is clearly his equal, and does it without patronizing her, and dares you not to like her as much as you like him.

And I love that he does all that not for himself, but for her, and for every partner who's been pushed aside.

(Surely someone feels obliged to point out that talking about his wife is just an attempt to undermine rumors he's gay. I'll just note that I've read plenty of interviews designed to do precisely that over the years, and they do not sound anything like this one. They are utterly devoid of respect. That respect is so evident here is pretty much the exact reason I felt inclined to write about it.)