5/25/23, 9:59 AM Ian McKellen, biblical vandal - Los Angeles Times

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ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS

Ian McKellen, biblical vandal

BY MIKE BOEHM
AUG. 28, 2007 12 AM PT

Sir Ian’s coming! Hide the hotel Bible!

In a profile by John Lahr in the Aug. 27 edition of the New Yorker, Ian McKellen,
who may be occupying a Los Angeles hotel room while he leads the Royal
Shakespeare Company in “King Lear” and Chekhov’s “The Seagull” at UCLA’s Royce
Hall, Oct. 19-28, confesses that part of his agenda as an openly gay famous person is
ripping the page with Leviticus 20:13 out of the Bible whenever his hotel room comes
Scripture-equipped.

“It’s the one thing I find difficult to defend but do go on doing,” confesses the
distinguished Shakespearean actor, most widely seen in his Moses-like turn as the
warrior-wizard Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings” film trilogy.

In the King James Version, the verse McKellen excises reads: “If a man also lie with
mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination:
they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them.”

The actor has campaigned for gay rights since coming out publicly on BBC radio in
1988.

-- Mike Boehm

Mike Boehm

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5/25/23, 9:59 AM Ian McKellen, biblical vandal - Los Angeles Times

Mike Boehm is a former arts reporter and pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times.

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