Oh internet, why do you not smart anymore?
She isn't homophobic. Let's examine this:
- She's in charge of the US IP of one of the greatest (and potentially most lucrative) detective series ever, along with James Bond
- She's overseeing a bunch of artsy-fartsy actor types making a film of this IP, and trying to make sure Hollywood doesn't get too much out of the inevitable compromise between the hollywood director's formula and the original source material
- Said actor types start commenting on relationship between the two main characters, and the rather 'guy-love' nature of it
- She steps in with a definitive 'They aren't gay, they never were, now drop it and just make the films like the books,' then follows it up with 'Yes, we know Downey Jr was probably just joking, but seriously, don't anyway.'
- Suddenly, homophobes, thousands of them!
Goddamn. All buzzwords (as in, pretty much anything ending in 'ist' or 'ism', for a start) should be banned, just to make people think about what they're saying, if only through forcing them to take longer to say it.
Holmes and Watson are not gay in any of the earlier material (at least not in any confirmable fashion) and the only reason to make them so in the new films would be to pander to demographics. The fact that this is brought up after the first film has had widespread acclaim is even better, as now people who liked the first one more for the steampunk detective side of things than the bromance can't not see the second one (because homophobia), even though if a gay subplot were to be introduced it would require enough character development to make the film a romance with an action backdrop, rather than the other way around.
Let me put it in terms you internet gamer people might understand easier.
Take any franchise. Let's say, oh, Assassin's Creed. Now, I'm sure if you looked hard enough (or considering the internet nowadays, not that hard) you'll find a hefty amount of, say, Ezio/Leonardo slashfiction. However, this is not canon, and most fans would acknowledge that. Sometimes quite harshly and angrily, depending on whereabouts in the internet you go.
Plunket is basically doing the same. She's 'word of god'ing that Holmes and Watson are not gay, to stop people messing around with official stuff (like the films), and she has every right to do that as the IP holder.
On a slightly related note; it's not homophobia, it's character consistency. If it made sense for Holmes and Watson to be gay (and was mentioned anywhere at all beforehand, rather than Downey Jr and a handfull of journalists pulling it out of their arses), I'm sure most people would be fine with that. As it is, it would be massively contrived, and pretty obviously a ploy to try to snag a larger audience amongst the gay community.
Instead of getting so up-in-arms when straight characters can't be made ambiguously gay, try tackling the way gay characters are consistently caricatured and stereotyped where they do appear. People get iffy about gay protagonists because of the horrendous mess films have made of gay characters so far. Get some good characters that happen to be gay (in a way that doesn't take up the entire damn storyline, or more of it than straight hollywood romances do), and then we might be able to start on the main characters.
