In P. J. Hogan’s Unconditional Love (2001), Everett plays a British valet, "a really bitter queen," searching for the murderer of his lover, a rock star, with the help of a woman (Kathy Bates) who fanatically adored the singer. Despite a stellar cast that includes Julie Andrews, Lynn Redgrave, Jonathan Price, and Dan Ackroyd, the film was never released theatrically, and premiered in 2003 on cable television.

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Recently, Everett has reassessed the impact of coming out on his career. Although he does not regret coming out, he told television host Tina Brown that in Hollywood "Gay actors could only go a certain distance," and charged that his sexual preference cost him roles such as the lead in Chris and Paul Weitz’s About a Boy (2002). He also told her that he was denied a role in Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction (2005) when an MGM executive told him "I was a pervert and would never be accepted by the American public in this role."

In 2004, Everett lashed out at the homophobia in Hollywood executive suites, lambasting Hollywood as "a trophy business," adding that "it’s not a trophy thing to be gay." Although playwright and screenwriter Paul Rudnick has declared that Everett is "universal crush material," appealing to both men and women, the actor now feels that his openness has caused studio executives to stereotype him.

Perhaps not surprisingly, most of Everett’s recent films have been produced outside the United States, in Britain, Germany, and even Russia. The most acclaimed of these recent roles is his flamboyant portrayal of Charles II in Richard Eyre’s Stage Beauty (2004).

Everett is also a novelist. He published Hello Darling, Are You Working in 1994 and The Hairdressers of St. Tropez in 1995.

The history of gays and lesbians in film is well documented, but bisexuality, in both characters and performers, has been less examined.

Although few gay actors have been permitted the luxury of openness, many of them have challenged and helped reconfigure notions of masculinity and, to a lesser extent, of homosexuality.

Out American playwright, novelist, and screenwriter Paul Rudnick brings a gently subversive wit to all of his projects.

British director John Schlesinger has been a significant force in introducing homosexual themes into mainstream British and American films.

Oscar Wilde is important both as an accomplished writer and as a symbolic figure who exemplified a way of being homosexual at a pivotal moment in the emergence of gay consciousness.