Barbara Walters: "Ricky Martin should have been protected by don't ask, don't tell"

You can feel sympathy for Barbara Walters. If you were forced to try and find something worthwhile to ask Ricky Martin, you'd be hard put to come up with anything other than "so, cock's nice, innit?"

Ten years on, though, and Babs is finding her interview gnawing away at her:

"In 2000, I pushed Ricky Martin very hard to admit if he was gay or not, and the way he refused to do it made everyone decide that he was," Walters said. "A lot of people say that destroyed his career, and when I think back on it now I feel it was an inappropriate question."

Yes, that's right. It was how Ricky Martin answered one of your questions that made people wonder if he might find men sexually attractive. Up until that moment, the thought had never flitted across anyone's mind.

Equally right is the suggestion that a stuttery answer to a nosey question killed his career. The lack of having very much in the way of musical talent really didn't factor in at all. "I'd buy the sixteenth lukewarm rehash of La Vida Loca, but since he didn't give Barbara Walters a straight answer I think 'll pass."