What kind of a hospital would employ a 16 year old surgeon? Teenagers are notoriously clumsy and show poor judgement at times. Can you believe such a high risk surgeon would even be insurable to a public healthcare provider? And if so, imagine the premiums a hospital would have to pay in professional liability insurance just to to have a teenage surgeon?Yet from 1989-1993 ABC tried to get us to believe that a boy genius could pass through high school in 9 weeks, graduate from med school at age 14 and take on the full duties of a doctor who handles everything from selecting organ transplant candidates to plastic surgery consultation to removing his girlfriend's appendix. And it worked! The country bought it hook, line and sinker and we never again questioned the realities of the teen doctor. And the reason it worked was Neil Patrick Harris, the man who can do anything.
Neil Patrick Harris has been able to cross two barriers in his career. The first was overcoming his teen image as Doogie Howser, M.D - going on to play roles in film, TV and Broadway. The second is his ability to live as an openly gay man, but still be able to portray a wild, womanizing playboy in TV and movies and nobody thinks twice about it.
Unlike Anne Heche, who's lesbian relationship with Ellen Degeneres, couldn't get the public to believe that even she could have a romance with "Sexiest Man Alive" Harrison Ford, NPH has erased any concerns or doubts that being gay and being a playboy on screen would create a problem.
Whether he's playing himself as a whoremongering drug addict in the two Harold and Kumar movies or as popular ladies man Barney Stinson on CBS's "How I Met Your Mother," NPH has shown superhuman agility at bagging women. In fact NPH was nominated for an Emmy last year for 'Mother,' showing that gay actors can flourish in straight roles.
So whether he was trying to pass his driver's test the same day he has to perform open heart surgery, or kissing dudes and dudettes on and off camera, NPH can do it all.
So here's to Neil Patrick Harris - the straightest gay guy I know.
-jordan
