It was in 1997 that Ellen DeGeneres caused a national wave of publicity and debate when she was featured on the cover of TIME magazine with this headline: 'Yep, I'm Gay.'
Twenty-two years earlier, that cover could have been Lily Tomlin's.
Now 73, one of the stars of new movie Admission a cast member of the ABC sitcom Malibu Country, Tomlin did not publicly discuss being a lesbian until 2001 although it had long been an open secret.
'TIME magazine offered me the cover in 1975 if I would come out,' Tomlin tells Entertainment Weekly.