Melville House Books

Terry McMillan is on tour trying to support her new novel, The Interruption of Everything, but she keeps running into the question: “how could she not know through six years of marriage that the inspiration for How Stella Got Her Groove Back, her best-selling novel turned into a popular movie, was gay?” As Cassandra Spratling of the Detroit Free Press notes, McMillan’s husband, Jonathan Plummer, is “trying to get out of a prenuptial agreement and get a big chunk of her money,” after waiting “until the book was coming out to reveal he was gay.” In an interview with Spratling, McMillan says, “I was devastated at first because I couldn’t believe the level and extent of the betrayal. This feels like I’ve been raped. I’ve been violated.” Referring to men who hide their homosexuality from their wives or girlfriends, McMillan says, “I’m going to make sure, do whatever I can, to make this down-low thing a crime. Men who have girlfriends or wives and have sex with men without the girlfriends’ or wives’ consent, it should be a crime.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.