Mean Girls star Daniel Franzese announces his engagement
The Looking actor shared his exciting news on Twitter.
Mean Girls alumni Daniel Franzese announced his engagement to his boyfriend Joseph Bradley Phillips on Monday (July 18).
Franzese – who played Damian in the 2004 Lindsay Lohan comedy – confirmed the news on Instagram, writing: “You guys! @joeylovesthat and I are getting married!”
He added ‘Starbucks’ as a location – after the pair met for the first time in the coffee shop two years ago.
The 38-year-old star came out in 2014 in a letter to his former character, writing that he was “terrified” to play a gay teen before accepting his own sexuality.
“When I was cast in the role of ‘Damian’ in Mean Girls, I was TERRIFIED to play this part. But this was a natural and true representation of a gay teenager – a character we laughed with instead of at,” he wrote at the time.
“However, I did turn down many offers to play flamboyant, feather-boa-slinging stereotypes that always seemed to be laughed at BECAUSE they were gay.
“How could I go from playing an inspirational, progressive gay youth to the embarrassing, cliched butt-of-a-joke?”
Franzese later claimed that gay characters have become better-written since he appeared in the cult classic over a decade ago.
“The [gay] roles that are being written now are different than they were 10 years ago. They’re complex, intriguing people, whether gay or not.”
“What got me over my nervousness of playing Damian was that it wasn’t cliché and it was forward-moving,” he added.
The actor also recently recorded a viral parody of a Sam Smith song, racking up over 1 million views with a ballad about trying to get a gay one-night-stand to leave.
