Clay is gay: Aiken comes out of the closet

New York – Clay Aiken is finally confirming what many people already knew: He’s gay.

The cover of the latest People magazine shows Aiken holding his infant son, Parker Foster Aiken, with the headline: “Yes, I’m Gay.” The cover also has the quote: “I cannot raise a child to lie or hide things.”

The magazine has an interview with Aiken and confirmed that he was on the cover but refused to release the article to The Associated Press until Tuesday.

The baby’s mother is Aiken’s friend and record producer Jaymes Foster.

Aiken, who gained fame as the runner-up on “American Idol” in 2003, rarely addressed the frequent rumors about his sexuality. In an interview with The Associated Press two years ago, he said: “I don’t really feel like I have anybody to answer to but myself and God and the people I love.”

The multiplatinum singer recently released the CD “On My Way Here” and made his Broadway debut this spring in “Monty Python’s Spamalot.”

Spielberg donates in support of gay marriage

Los Angeles – Steven Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw, are the latest celebrity donors to the fight against California’s November ballot initiative that would overturn the state Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.

Spielberg and Capshaw have donated $100,000 to fight Proposition 8, they announced in a statement Monday.

“By writing discrimination into our state constitution, Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of each and every citizen in our state to marry regardless of sexual orientation,” the statement said. “Such discrimination has NO place in California’s constitution, or any other.”

Also known as the Marriage Protection Act, Proposition 8 would amend the state constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman. If passed, it would overturn the court decision that made the state only the second in the U.S. to legalize same-sex marriage.

Brad Pitt gave the same amount to the cause last week.

Lohan, Ronson confirmed as lovers

In an extraordinary chat broadcast Monday night on Dr. Drew Pinsky’s radio show, “Loveline,” actress Lindsay Lohan, 22, confirmed – and acknowledged and embraced – that she and her 31-year-old gal pal Samantha Ronson are lovers.

Lohan, who called in to chat about the recent plane crash of her friend DJ AM, was caught off guard by cohost Ted Stryker, who asked how long she’d been going steady with Ronson. “A long … a very long time,” Lohan said.

USAToday.com says After Ellen.com notes that Lamantha is the nation’s youngest out lesbian celeb couple.

McMahon’s suit against hospital goes forward

Los Angeles – Ed McMahon’s lawsuit against a hospital and doctors he claims failed to properly diagnose and repair his broken neck has passed a key legal hurdle.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled last week that McMahon’s lawsuit against Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and two physicians lays out adequate legal ground to pursue claims that include negligence, elder abuse, battery, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Attorneys for Cedars-Sinai had challenged the legal basis for six of the claims.

But Judge John P. Sook disagreed, and his ruling also allows McMahon to seek punitive damages.

McMahon, 85, filed suit in July and is seeking an unspecified amount for injuries he sustained after a fall last March at a Los Angeles socialite’s home.

According to his lawsuit, doctors at Cedars-Sinai failed to perform an X-ray and determine that he had a broken neck when he was brought into the emergency room. The suit also claims that a doctor at the hospital’s spinal-care center improperly performed two surgeries.

Robert Wagner reveals love affair

New York – Robert Wagner’s marriage to Natalie Wood was known to all. His love affair with Barbara Stanwyck was a secret – until now.

In his new memoir “Pieces of My Heart,” Wagner writes of his four-year romance with the star of such classics as “Stella Dallas” and “Double Indemnity.” They met on the set of “Titanic,” released in 1953, when he was 22 and she 45 and divorced from actor Robert Taylor.

The press knew nothing about their relationship and neither did most of Hollywood, except for such friends as Nancy Sinatra, the first wife of Frank Sinatra; and Spencer Tracy, whose bond with Katharine Hepburn was the ultimate show business secret.

“I would say she gave me self-esteem,” writes the actor whose successful TV series included “It Takes a Thief” and “Hart to Hart,” but the relationship didn’t hold. They were both too busy working and the age difference was too great. Stanwyck eventually broke it off.

“I would always have been Mr. Stanwyck,” Wagner, now 78, writes, “and we both knew it.”