November 9, 2007 | Celeb Watch

NHL player: "I'm not gay."

A gossip site in Canada, Is This Happening, posted a picture this week of a young man jokingly licking another guy. The man with the tongue is 19 year old Toronto Maple Leaf Jiri Tlusty, and the site's editors decided the pic was enough to prove Jiri was gay.

Jiri later contacted Is This Happening and informed them of their mistake. "It's funny," he said, "but I don't care. ... I am not gay or bi nothing." It was all a bit of birthday fun, he said. Besides, their tongues didn't even touch.

The site then went on to publish photos the young hockey player reportedly took of himself for a girl he met on the Internet. And yes, those photos show the poor boy's hockey stick. Is This Happening sounds just a little too mean to be Canadian.

Here's an interesting aside: were Jiri to come out he'd be on the perfect team for the announcement. The Maple Leaf's okayed the use of its uniforms and logos for the gay-themed film, "Breakfast with Scot," the first major sports franchise to do so for a homo-centered movie. Now that sounds more like the Canadians we know and love!