Morgan Spurlock

"I'm not gay, but my mustache is flaming," said Morgan Spurlock on receiving a 2006 GLAAD Media Award for an episode of his F/X reality series 30 Days--and his career's been equally red-hot since his 2004 Oscar-nominated documentary Super Size Me, in which he jeopardized his health by eating McDonald's food exclusively for a month. Having risked life and limb again while pursuing the "queen of aI-Qaeda" for his latest doc, Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? the 37-year-old new dad explores the cinematic appeal of coming out and his balletdancing alter ego.

I'm much more Bravo than CNN, but I really enjoyed your new film. Did you purposely try to make it accessible for people like me? It's important to make anything that deals with really dense, hard-to-swallow subjects interesting. Every time you turn on the TV, there's some gloom and doom, so if you can do it with some sort of humor or levity, it helps.

Have you gotten any flak for abandoning your pregnant wife, Alexandra, to go find Osama bin Laden in the Middle East? Oh, my gosh, are you kidding me? It really upsets women. There are countless women who are like, "How could you do that? You are a terrible husband!" I'm like, "You're all suddenly realizing what my wife already knows." But Alex really understood why I wanted to make this film-especially once she got pregnant.

Isn't Osama really just a big closet case who happens to have the deepest, most hidden closet in history? [Laughs] He could be! Or is he even real? I think Osama's become almost like [The Usual Suspects character] Keyser Soze--he's this guy who's everywhere and nowhere.

How do you explain Osama's alleged obsession with Whitney Houston? Hey, don't we all want to dance with somebody?

Did you meet any gays along your travels? We met some incredible gay people. There were two bloggers that we spoke to in Saudi Arabia, and one of them is a gay guy. He says there's a huge gay scene in Saudi Arabia, but it's all underground--like, there's a Starbucks where you go meet other guys at a certain time on a certain day. You just can't put all of it in the movie, but there's a book that's coming out the same time as the film that expands on a lot of the stuff that I experienced on my trip. And the DVD extras are going to be amazing.

How did your experiences overseas affect your opinion on gays in the military? We did a great show on 30 Days about a straight guy who was in the military who goes to live with a gay man in San Francisco, and it's one of my favorite episodes. The guy in the show walks away saying, "I would serve side by side with you as a soldier." I feel the same way.

That episode won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Reality Program. How was the awards ceremony? Oh, I was stoked I got to meet the guys from Heatherette, which was fantastic.

You beat out fellow nominee America's Next Top Model. Did you receive any backlash? No, Tyra didn't call and scream at me.

Does that "flaming mustache" to which you referred in your acceptance speech ever invite unwanted come-ons? Most people know that I'm in a relationship, but I think if I was single, maybe it might get me into trouble.

In another episode of 30 Days, you spent some time in jail. Did you witness any homosexual acts behind bars? It was all pretty low-key, and most guys don't talk about it if there's anything going on. There was a transvestite named Monica that you don't see in the show, and every time I would go to the shower she'd say, "Morgan, let me know if you want me to wash your back for you." And I was like, "I think I'm all right." I guess she wanted to make sure I was clean.

Might you ever make a feature-length documentary about gay issues? We've been knocking it around for a while, so maybe. I have a lot of friends who have come out over the course of knowing them, and there is a fantastic movie in there about coming out.

How will you react if your son comes out one day? You know what? He's my son, and I'm going to love him no matter what. He can do whatever he wants. Right now he's 14 months old, so I don't think he's thinking about it. And he likes trucks, but who knows? [Laughs]

How gay-friendly was your hometown of Beckley, W.Va.? There were a couple bars about which people would be like, "Oh, that's one of those bars where those people go." You'd hear that a lot. And I grew up in a family of ballet-dancing brothers! I was the youngest of three brothers; the older two went on to dance professionally, and I took ballet for eight years, from 5 to 13. Both my brothers are also straight, both married now with kids, but believe me: A ballet dancer was not the coolest thing to be as a young man in West Virginia.

Attending New York University's Tisch School of the Arts must've been quite a culture shock. And I went to the University of Southern California before I transferred to NYU. Once you get into college, all bets are off. That's when you're hanging out with your first gay friend, and everybody's very liberated--now I can go to college and be gay!