Donnie talks to the Boston Herald

OK, we all know what Donnie meant in the Calgary Herald article, but apparently some people mis-understood, so Donnie clarifies what he meant with the Boston Herald

Donnie Wahlberg didn’t out Jonathan Knight – honest!

The Inside Track

New Kid Donnie Wahlberg says he absolutely did not out his best bud Jonathan Knight by comparing Jon to openly gay ’N Syncer Lance Bass in a newspaper interview.

In a sit-down with the Calgary Herald the other day, Wahlberg was asked about the “template” the New Kids set for other boy bands - including ’N Sync.

“You could look at a group like N’Sync and go, ‘Oh my gosh, Lance Bass is the Jon Knight, Justin Timberlake is the Joe McIntyre, JC Chasez is the Jordan Knight - you could go right down the line. But there was no plan with us.”

Donnie said mentioning Jon in the same breath as Lance Bass was not a shot at luring his lifelong pal out of the closet.

“That was an . . . out-of-context manipulation of my answer,” Wahlberg told the Track in an e-mail. “I was referring to ’N Sync’s management trying to copy us - Joe the cute young Justin type, Jordan the dark and handsome JC type; Jon the shy and quiet Lance type.”

So it was a “shy/quiet reference,” Donnie said. “Not a gay reference.”

“The point was that they built that group to look like us and we were not built to look like anyone,” he added.

Point taken. But rumors about Jonathan’s sexuality have been clogging the blogsphere for months now, fueled by none other than the Queen of All Media Perez Hilton. Back in late August the celeblogger wrote that Knight was stepping out to gay L.A. hotspots with actor-turned-personal trainer Harley Rodriguez.

Knight has never confirmed nor denied the rumors. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. As for Donnie, he says “Jon is my good friend. I wouldn’t backhand him.”

File Under: Faulty Gaydar.