Here's a good question for ...

Question: Here's a good question for you. Now that Neil Patrick Harris has come out as gay, will it affect how his character is written on How I Met Your Mother? Or do you think it will affect how viewers see him? After all, Barney is a player who loves women!

Answer: I don't think it changes a thing, except (I would hope) some people's attitudes and preconceptions about actors and their roles. It's all pretend, dontcha know. Anyone who cares knows, for instance, that Patrick Dempsey has a wife and kids and isn't really chasing Meredith/Ellen Pompeo, but we accept the fantasy. Neil Patrick Harris is a terrific young character actor, and in the years before Mother he was doing some outstanding work in musical theater. He's doing a great job as Barney, who, with his suits, style and attitude, is a fresh twist on the standard womanizer. His being gay shouldn't affect either the roles he gets or the way we see him in those roles. What we may be seeing here is a generational shift where something like this simply doesn't, or shouldn't, matter. Of course some people won't be able to get over it. Their loss.

By sheer coincidence, here comes more on the subject.