What began as a casual press comment quickly snowballed into one of the internet’s most talked-about pop-culture moments this month. Jordan Firstman, star of 'I Love LA,' sparked a viral debate after weighing in on HBO Max’s hit hockey romance 'Heated Rivalry,' igniting a discussion about queer storytelling and the representation of intimacy on screen.
In a candid interview with Vulture, Firstman criticized the series’s intimate scenes, claiming the show doesn’t reflect how gay people actually have sex and instead caters to viewers who want to see two straight hockey players "pretending to be gay.”
Fans of the series were quick to push back, accusing Firstman of policing queer narratives and missing the larger intent of the show. Two of Heated Rivalry’s stars entered the fray.
François Arnaud asked pointedly on social media. “Is there only one way to have ‘authentic’ gay sex on TV? Should the sex that closeted hockey players have look like the sex that sceney LA gay guys have?” Hudson Williams amplified François’s comment with a cheeky repost, urging followers to check out 'I Love LA,' fanning the flames instead of cooling them.
Almost instantly, the internet treated HBO’s PR team as if it were in crisis mode. Yet the tension appeared short-lived. Hudson shared an Instagram Story selfie with Firstman, smoking together in a casual, friendly pose, hinting that the feud might be more playful than personal. François even dropped a fire emoji on a repost of the photo, signaling that the rivalry may have been largely performative.
The narrative reached peak crossover the very next day. HBO Max posted a video featuring Jordan and Hudson alongside 'I Love LA' co-stars Rachel Sennott and True Whitaker, surprising shoppers at a Westfield Century City gift-wrapping pop-up in Los Angeles.
Even as the internet debated, Heated Rivalry creator Jacob Tierney offered a bigger-picture perspective in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:
“We as queer people need to check our messaging. The things that we decide women can or can't do can be really exhausting. Women are allowed to write about men. They're allowed to write about gay men.”
Tierney emphasized empathy over gatekeeping. “The question should be, how are they writing about us? Is it with empathy? Is it with allyship? Is it with kindness? Why are we looking for enemies here instead of looking for allies?”
Firstman later walked back his comments. Tierney told THR that the actor had been “sending my cast apology messages, and other castmembers of [I Love LA] have reached out to us and apologized on his behalf.”
Despite, or perhaps because of, the controversy, 'Heated Rivalry' has quietly captivated audiences worldwide, particularly women. The phenomenon is part of a long tradition of female interest in male-to-male romance and erotica, stretching back to 1970s Japan.