50 Cent’s two cents cause a flap

Rapper 50 Cent, whose benefactor and mentor Eminem weathered similar accusations earlier in his career, is taking heat for comments about gays that appear in the April issue of Playboy magazine. After using a common pejorative for gays, 50 Cent adds, “I don’t like gay people around me, because I’m not comfortable with what their thoughts are. I’m not prejudiced. I just don’t go with gay people and kick it -- we don’t have that much in common.”

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) issued a statement expressing concern over the comments, saying that the use of such epithets “can be dangerous ... when talking about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.” The statement added, “GLAAD encourages 50 Cent to get to know the LGBT community, and we are fully confident that in doing so he will find that he has more in common with us than he thinks.”

The rapper’s record company, Interscope Records, had no comment.