Don't panic! Jodie Foster is not retiring

Don't panic! Jodie Foster is not retiring

Paul Drinkwater/AP

Jodie Foster, recipient of the Cecil B. Demille Award, had her fellow A-listers crying during an emotional speech at 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

Jodie Foster came out at the Golden Globes â€" but now the question is, what, exactly, did she come out of?

The veteran actress â€" who received a lifetime achievement award for her work from "Taxi Driver" to "The Brave One" and everything in between â€" gave an odd, messy speech seemingly designed to get her out of the closet and the acting business at the same time.

"I'm just going to put it out there, right? Loud and proud, right? So I'm going to need your support on this," she said, building up suspense â€" only to declare herself “single.”

“No, I'm kidding â€" but I mean I'm not really kidding, but I'm kind of kidding," she giggled.

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She then said her true "coming out" to family and friends happened "about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age" and sealed the deal by calling gal pal Cydney Bernard her "heroic co-parent" and "ex-partner in love."

Foster, 50, also mystified viewers by suggesting she was quitting acting.

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"I may never be up on this stage again, on any stage for that matter," she said. "From now on, I may be holding a different talking stick. And maybe it won't be as sparkly, maybe it won't open on 3,000 screens, maybe it will be so quiet and delicate that only dogs can hear it whistle."

The speech put her publicist into damage control Monday, with Foster’s team putting out a statement that the star is "definitely not retiring from acting."

The actress had begun backtracking from her acceptance speech hours earlier.

"I could never stop acting,” she clarified in the press room. “You'd have to drag me behind a team of horses. Change is important. And, you know, hopefully I'll be doing different things than I did when I was 3 years old and 6 years old and 10 years old and 20 years old. ... My work is evolving."

The discussion of Foster’s closely guarded sexuality prompted swift reactions across Hollywood Monday, with some members of the gay community call her speech less than ideal.

"It was still very cryptic and a little defensive. She was obviously very nervous," Diane Anderson-Minshall, executive editor The Advocate told the Daily News. "She certainly could have done it better, but I'm glad it's done."

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Foster, who previously came out at a Hollywood breakfast in 2007, said her hunger for privacy has kept her in the so-called closet.

"Every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance and a prime-time reality show. You know, you guys might be surprised, but I am not Honey Boo Boo Child," she said after accepting the honor from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Gay screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis, whose novels include "American Psycho" and “Less Than Zero," jumped on Twitter to bash Foster as a hypocrite who appeared "drunk."

"The Hollywood hypocrisy is complete," he tweeted about her plea for privacy. "Jody Foster says 'I want all the good stuff and none of the bad stuff!' What is she? A 3-year-old lesbian?"

ndillon@nydailynews.com

With Joe Neumaier and Ginger Adams Otis