Kristin Chenoweth Sean Hayes Talk Newsweek on View

Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes appeared on The View Thursday to promote their Broadway show, Promises, Promises, but as expected, the conversation quickly turned to the article in Newsweek questioning the believability of gay actors in straight roles.

"He's young, he's inexperienced, and he doesn't know what it means to be an artist," Hayes said in response to the article by Ramin Setoodeh, one of the first times he's spoken out about it publicly.

Chenoweth was the first celebrity to respond to the article after it ran on Newsweek's website. She said on The View that the article completely missed the mark.

"God bless him, he didn't do his research," she said. " I think... you know how important it is to say things well, and I don't think he said it well."

View cohost Joy Behar said she was playing devil's advocate when she suggested Setoodeh might have been trying to suggest that it's harder for female viewers to fantasize about leading men if they know they're gay.

"Yeah, but he went off the cliff with that," Whoopi Goldberg offered.

In the middle of their segment, Goldberg interrupted to tell the crowd that Rue McClanahan had passed away.

Hayes said she had been one of the inspirations for the new show he's producing, Hot in Cleveland, which costars Betty White and casts Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Wendie Malick as three women starting their lives over at 50.