The other day we were discussing in class the politics of outing, and how hapa studies also theorizes outing — a similar epistemology of the closet, as it were. The premise here is that mixed-race Asians who may look phenotypically Caucasian may experience a kind of coming-out process as well. The conversation naturally turned to hapa celebrities who hadn’t “come out” — not that this was necessarily a required thing, and not that their “silence” meant that they were somehow ashamed, or in denial, or afraid that they would be typecast in Asian roles — and I think the talk winded down with “Well, it would be nice if Keanu Reeves acknowledged his Asian origins once in a while” or something like that. (We also discussed Asian men in gay porn, but my student Jesse has already blogged about it.)

Anyway, much of this was still on my mind a couple of days later when I went into my anthropology class and was talking about that comic genius, Rob Schneider, who is part-Filipino. Schneider, in his movies, routinely sneaks in some joke or reference to something only other Filipinos would understand. (I once had the privilege of interviewing Pilar Schneider, Rob’s mom, who was running for re-election to the Pacifica, California school board. Her husband came too, and showed me photographs. Man, I’d never seen such prouder parents! “He doesn’t behave that badly,” she said, referring to the then upcoming premiere of Men Behaving Badly.)

So here are a few current celebs, off the top of my head, who some of you readers may not know are indeed part-Filipino or of Filipino descent or are people who are probably Filipino but whose identity I can’t be quite sure:

- Tia Carrere.
- Lou Diamond Phillips. (Both of them, as well as Schneider, are quite active in the campaign for Filipino veterans’ equity rights.)
- Kirk Hammett, from Metallica.
- Shannyn Sossamon (I have no idea who she is, but my students mentioned her, and I can’t be bothered to IMDB her right now)
- Joey Santiago, from the Pixies, one of the greatest bands in the world. (I thought he was Latino, given their sometimes Spanish lyrics, but he’s Filipino.)
- the Baluyut brothers from Versus.
- I think David Pajo from Slint and Tortoise and Aerial M and Zwan is Filipino, but I’m not sure either.
- and of course you know DJ QBert (and a good number of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz) are Filipino.
- um, Enrique Iglesias is part Filipino.
- Phoebe Cates isn’t, but everyone in my high school thought she was. (A Burmese friend of mine claimed that everyone in Burma thought she was part-Burmese.)
- Prince (I swear, I’d claim him as one of my people in a heartbeat if I had positive, documented proof. But as far as I’m concerned it’s all completely unsubstantiated, even though Filipinos say “I think I read it in a magazine somewhere,” kind of like people’s responses when asked for proof of the Saddam-bin Laden connection. In any case, just because Prince is short and horny doesn’t mean he’s Filipino.)

And finally my students mentioned some other name I wasn’t familiar with: “Cris Judd,” someone said. “Who?” I asked and the class laughed.

So I looked him up:

Oh, okay. I guess he’s a celeb now.

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While I do not necessarily condone nudity to spice up a film, album cover, magazine cover, or, um, a blog, here’s the naked truth (on the cover of Entertainment Weekly:

And here’s Bruce Springsteen — I was actually wondering whether he was the “famous rock and roller” that Tim Robbins was referring to — on the Dixie Chicks, where he calls the radio boycott against them “un-American”:

The pressure coming from the government and big business to enforce conformity of thought concerning the war and politics goes against everything that this country is about — namely freedom. Right now, we are supposedly fighting to create freedom in Iraq, at the same time that some are trying to intimidate and punish people for using that same freedom here at home.

Read his short statement on his website.

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