Actor T.R. Knight (Grey’s Anatomy), age 35, has been dating Mark Cornelsen, age 19, for more than a year. Discuss.

69 replies on “Intergenerational Romance”

  2. Dan, you presume that there’s something to “discuss” here. Unless young Mark was underage if/when they did the nasty for the first time – this is no big deal.

  5. Who cares? TR night isn’t an elected official playing grabass with a seventeen year old. That is your point right, Dan? To expose us as hypocrites since we don’t agree with you?

  6. 1) Who gives a shit?

    2) You actually think this is worth posting?

    3) I mean, with all that’s going on in the world, you write about a couple of actors that 99 percent of the world hasn’t heard of?

    4) Don’t you have better things to do?

    5) Where is Mr. Poe?

  7. Part of what people are screaming about, vis-a-vis Adams, is the fact that a middle-aged man would even want to touch an 18 year-old. That, all by itself, is disgusting, according to the Oregonian, and scummy, according to, um, me.

    No lies, no elected office. But still… some overlap with Adams that’s worthy of discussion.

  8. How lovely that this celebrity, holding no public office, having taken no oath suggesting he agreed to be honest in his public statements, nonetheless never lied, covered up his lie, asked his paramour to lie, disclosed his lie once the press came to him with evidence of his lie, hired Tanya Harding’s defense lawyer, told public officials Saturday that nothing more had been hidden, learned his paramour publicly disclosed more that had been hidden Sunday, or had his out gay press spokesman Wade Nkrumah quit on the spot Monday.

    This T.R. Knight you speak of seems like a decent fella.

  12. Ummm…I still think it’s odd. I see a partnership as a meeting and merging of equals. It would be interesting to hear from them in what ways they have any sort of relational equality.

    If they’re fucking, that’s one thing. But dating???

    But far be it from me to judge. You see, unlike Sam Adams, TR didn’t lie about it for years. To voters who elected him.

    Weak, Dan.

  13. I see a long long happy relationship for these two. They will raise two wonderful children and become patrons of the arts. They will be leaders in the Gay Civil Rights movement, PAWS, and Clean Air legislation.

  14. I married my husband who was 31 when I was 19 years old. 15 years later it’s still on. (And there is NO FUCKING WAY that Ted Haggard’s wife is getting laid more often than I am.)

    It can work.

  15. Is this any different than a 40 or 50 year old man going through his “midlife crisis” divorcing his simelarly aged wife and scoring some hot 20 year old woman? My ONLY question for TR Night is, did you get a porche too?

    I feel sorry for all the people ‘widowed’ by midlife crisis (yet excited about all the sports cars). It goes in all directions. Men do it. Women do it. Men do it to women, women do it to men and same gender applies too. it’s all the same shit…

  17. I love the bending over backwards and caveats that people have post here when comparing T.R. Knight to Sam Adams. Very entertaining.

  18. T.R. Knight is an actor, and doesn’t have to count on the the will and support of the electorate to elect him to a role. (He only had to give a few casting agents, directors, producers and network executives a few blow-jobs.)

    Not the same thing.

    Also, you’re not supposed to be typing…do you want D.J. to have a one-armed dad?

  21. Dan – the difference is that TR Knight is not an elected official and did not lie about the relationship when asked about it with a reporter. The issue is not that people of different ages are attracted to each other – the issue is that the elected official lied about it, encoruaged another person to lie about it and then got caught.

  23. When I first saw them together, I thought it was kind of icky. But then I thought about how fucking hot they both are, and how if I were either of them I’d be all up on the other, and I got over it. Large age differences may squick me out in theory, but it totally depends on who is involved – as far as personal opinion is concerned. Of course legally it doesn’t matter at all. 18 is fair game.

  24. I am an impregnable female. and I personally had the best fling of my life with a 31 year old when I was 19. we met through a common interest, and our attraction was extremely intense and mutual. at 24, looking back, I have zero regrets about our relationship. he taught me a ton about good sex and how a partner should act when they respect you. and I fail to see how the power dynamic would have been different if he’d been 10 years older, seeing as how I was a sophomore in college and he was all established and shit. he was single, never married, so, like adams, there was no wife to be concerned about (UNlike, say, spitzer.)

    Dan said people who want to fuck teenagers are *almost* always scum. not are always. And sometimes it matters how old you think each other is when you meet- my 31 year old thought I was in grad school, because I was talking about my research, and I thought he was younger because he was so fucking fit. but it’s not a blanket condemnation. and quite frankly, as in Adams’s case, if you wait till your partner is of legal age, that shows respect. the lag between the initial flirtation and the consummation gives the younger party a chance to walk away.

    I really don’t see a problem with him lying to attempt to avoid getting crucified. what did he have to lose? he admits it, he gets crucified, legality be damned. he lies, and he doesnt get found out, he wins. lies and does get found out, crucified, same consequences as admitting it in the first place. his response was eminently logical.

  26. @ 24 … Best comment yet on this entire subject (including Dan and ECBs other posts on the topic). I agree with you 100 percent.

    I have a similar personal story that I was reluctant to share in such a public forum, and I give you big, big props for putting your story out there. Many thanks.

  31. So many people allegedly hurt by the Mayor not sharing the identity of his past sexual partners when asked by a reporter. What type of freaks are you all anyway. There was nothing illegal about the two kisses when he was 17, and nothing illegal about elevating it to sexual relations when he was 18. And of course he lied, anyone should when the press asks them about their sexual partners.

  36. How many calories do I have to ingest to make me care? either about Grey’s Anatomy gofer or Portland’s gayor. Age – like calendar measurement – is totally subjective – time to switch to right brain usage and Get Over It.

  40. the fact that a middle-aged man would even want to touch an 18 year-old…is disgusting

    You say tom-A-to, I say tom-ah-to. 18 year olds are hot, and if I were a successful actor, I’d be banging one too.

    word.

  41. I do not see any “scumyness” at all. When your kid get to 19 years old he can date any consenting adult of his choice. I wish Knight and Cornelsen well and I hope more people validate their relationship.

  42. Somewhat OT, but I remember reading that the delectable Mr. Cornelson is from some town north of Seattle–Ferndale maybe–and grew up in an uber-Christian family that basically rejected him once he came out. Every time I see news (if you can call it that) about him and TR Knight it makes me happy that he/they are leading an out and happy life. I hope his parents see that too.

  44. Besides not caring about the actors’ or mayor’s sex lives in any way (is he a bad mayor? Is he distracted from council meetings by the city hall pages/interns? Does he leer at high school awards ceremonies? No? Well then.), I gotta stand up for the age difference bashing. I know such things are weird, but they’re not always flings and by no means always unequal. My husband’s 45, I’m 26, and it’s our 10th year. I don’t exactly recommend that sort of thing to the general public (and yes, I would probably be horrified and have to get over it if it were my teenager, but we’re all hypocrites to an extent), but every circumstance is different and there’s not always a daddy thing going on.

  45. How’s this for not following the good-camper rule of leaving th kid better off than you found him?:
    The military actively recruits (grooms?) high-schoolers to join the military as soon as they turn 18, and after they do so they are left to deal with PTSD and perhaps permanent disabilities all on their own when they finish their tours of duty.

    I just can’t get worked up about a person of legal age deciding to become physically and emotionally involved with someone older. It’s their bodies, their lives and their minds.

    I dated older men when I was 18 and I feel I am better for it. If one of them wasn’t good for me, I DTMF. Let’s face it, people whose personalities put them at risk to be screwed up by a lover are at risk with everybody they date, not just older guys.

    For the record, I am not a chicken hawk now and never have been, nor am I hung up on gray-hairs.

  49. Different people are different.

    When I was 18, the idea of having sex with anyone over 25 totally grossed me out, never mind someone in their 30s or 40s. That feeling was shared by a vast majority of my friends. But there were one or two who totally got into older guys. Yes, it’s rare, but I’ve met a few young people over the years who were seriously into older guys. Not in any sort of creepy dependent kind of way. Just in a harmless kink sort of way. For whatever reason, grey hair and wrinkles appealed to them. Whatever.

    Even against Hollywood odds, it can sometimes work out. Demi and Ashton are still going strong.

  50. No erudite commentary here, I’m just going to be childish.

    “Cornelsen”? “Corn-hole-sen”? Get it? Get it? “Corn-hole-sen”? Get it? Huh?

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