One actress moved the audience to tears as she accepted the Cecil B DeMille award at the 70th annual prize giving in Los Angeles, by using the opportunity to discuss her sexuality for the first time.
Panic Room star Jodie Foster said: “A big coming out speech tonight… I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago, back in the stone age.
“In those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends, and family, coworkers and then gradually, proudly, to everyone who knew her.
“To everyone she actually met. But now, apparently I’m told, that every celebrity is expected to honour the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance and a primetime reality show…
“I’m sorry, that’s just not me and it never will be.
“But please support me because my reality show would be so boring. I would have to make out with Marion Cotillard, and spank Daniel Craig’s bottom just to stay on the air.”
The 50-year-old actress, who began her career at the age of three, has never confirmed that she is gay.
She added: “But seriously, if you had been a public figure since the time you were a toddler.
“If you had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal, then maybe then too you’d value privacy about all else.
“Someday in the future, people will look back and remember how beautiful it once was. I have given everything up there since the time that I was three years old and that’s a reality show enough, don’t you think.”
Jodie speaks out for the first time.
And she went on to praise her former lover, Cydney Bernard, with whom she shares two sons, Charlie, 14, and Kit, 11.
She said: “Love people and stay beside them. There is no way I could stand here tonight without acknowledging one of the greatest loves of my life.
“My ex-partner in love but righteous soul sister in life, my most beloved BFF (best friend) of 20 years, Cydney Bernard. I am so proud of our modern family.”
Although she has always kept her love life private, Jodie did pay tribute to her former after winning a Women in Entertainment Award in 2007.
She thanked “my beautiful Cydney, who sticks with me through all the rotten and the bliss”.
