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Coming out of the closet is a deeply personal journey for a gay individual, often a gradual process involving much soul searching and courage. Sometimes, however, that process is inadvertently helped along by a third party, such as the flappy-lipped TV exec who outed Crumbs creator Marco Pennette to his family on a red carpet:

"I was outed in front of my family on the red carpet of the People's Choice Awards," recalls Pennette, who was there accepting an award for creating Caroline in the City. "A network executive ran up to me and started talking about my boyfriend right in front of them."

Besides shedding some light on the casting of the flaming Malcolm Getz as Caroline's primary love interest for five seasons, the anecdote also serves as an excellent object lesson on the dos and donts of maneuvering a closeted existence through the very gay, chatty world of showbiz. Namely: DO send your boyfriend to your house in Palm Springs the night of the ceremony, and fail to mention him when collecting your award. But DON'T bring your mom as your replacement date instead; things could get awkward when the VP of NBC comedy development rushes up to tell you, "I ran into your husband at the gym! He's ripped, girlfriend!"