CNN news anchor Heidi Collins joined in the fray with this mention on the CNN show American Morning:

Monday night's broadcast of syndicated TV celebrity gossip show Inside Edition showed a clip of the host asking the Desperate Housewives stars at the SAG awards about a rumor that one of the cast members is going to come out of the closet. They just laughed it off, and Housewives co-star Doug Savant joked, "Not unless it's Eva coming out of the closet with a new wardrobe."

E! Online's TV and gossip columnist Kristin was asked in her weekly chat on Monday about the rumor that a cast member of Desperate Housewives was going to come out, and she responded "I hadn't heard that, but I wouldn't be surprised." Later, when the transcript of the chat was posted, her response was changed to "I hadn't heard that, but I'm not outing anyone."

By this morning, it was the topic everyone was talking about, on and off the internet.

Internet and tabloid gossip about the personal life of stars is nothing new, but this appears to be the first time that a rumor started solely by an anonymous internet poster on a message board has become a "source" for traditional news outlets.

News and entertainment shows on channels like CNN have increasingly referenced or reported on internet gossip over the last few years, but usually in vague terms. The fact that CNN's American Morning and Good Morning Live actually named Cross, rather than simply raising the question of whether someone on Desperate Housewives is coming out, is surprising. It also lends credibility to the rumor, since their phalanx of lawyers would be unlikely to allow them to name Cross on-air unless they had sources who privately confirmed the information.

It's possible that Cross's publicists are behind the rumor in the first place. Stars and their publicists have a long history of using the press to "leak" information like this, and they're increasingly using the internet as an even faster method of testing the potential impact of the information, building buzz about their client, and keeping the client at arm's length should the information prove too damaging.

Last year's Cynthia Nixon outing is a great example of this: Nixon's revelation was almost old news by the time she spoke a word about it directly.

On the other hand, virtually all subsequent coverage of the "news" about Cross coming out stems from a single anonymous message board post--which hardly gives the rumor a high degree of credibility.

This fact speaks to the larger lesson of this incident: regardless of whether the gossip is true, there has clearly been a sea change in the way news is made and reported in this country. Nothing highlights the way the internet has changed the landscape of American pop culture more than when anonymous message board posts have the ability to make or break news.

It also speaks to the increasingly vulnerability of closeted stars, since anonymous message board posters are not bound by the same rules as journalists, nor are they as willing to play by the publicists' rules.

Closeted celebrities, however, can take some comfort in the fact that there have been rumors about various celebrities' sexuality for years, and most of it never goes beyond gossip to become news. It only happened this time because the gossip combined very specific information about an impending event (not just the fact that Cross is gay, but that she's coming out in May in The Advocate) involving a woman long rumored to be gay who stars on the most popular show on television.

If Cross does come out, it will be a big win for lesbian visibility. But regardless of her sexual orientation, this story is a testament to the increasingly prominent role of the internet in journalism, and the increasing difficulty public figures face in controlling the flow of information.