Page 3 Profile: Rupert Everett, Actor

A fan of Piers Morgan?

Who knows? But Rupert Everett certainly has Morgan's knack for rubbing people up the wrong way. After being chastised back in 2008 for calling British soldiers "wimps", The Victorian Sex Explorer star has now attracted controversy for comments he made in yesterday's Sunday Times Magazine.

More soldier-bashing?

Not this time. The actor, hailed as a gay role model after coming out as a homosexual 20 years ago, now faces criticism after saying he "can't think of anything worse" than two men bringing up a child together. The comment came after Everett said his mother "still wishes [he] had a wife and kids". "She thinks children need a father and a mother and I agree with her," he went on.

Bet that didn't go down well with gay rights groups.

Not at all. Ben Summerskill of campaign group Stonewall said: "There is absolutely no evidence that the kids of gay parents suffer in the way they are being brought up or in how they develop."

Will he care?

Doubtful. In the same interview the actor shrugged off any idea that he was part of a "gay community", saying, "The only community I belong to is humanity and we've got too many children on the planet, so it's good not to have more."