Barry Diller claims John Travolta exited 'American Gigolo' because of the "somewhat gay subtext".

John, 71, was originally tapped to take the leading role in the 1980 crime thriller about a male escort who gets framed for the murder of an ex-client, but was replaced by Richard Gere, 75, after he exited the movie.

And now Diller - who was the CEO of Paramount at the time -has claimed in his memoir 'Who Knew' that Travolta's reasons for quitting were not the ones he gave then-Paramount Pictures president Michael Eisner at the time.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Barry, 83, wrote in his book: "He slumped down in a chair in Michael's office, started to cry and said, 'I can't do American Gigolo. I'm too sad. I'm still in mourning [the recent deaths of his mother and then-girlfriend]. It's the wrong thing for me to do. You have to let me out of it'.

"Michael came down to my office and said, 'John's just left, and we have to let him out of the movie because he just can't do it.' I said, 'He's faking it and using you. It's too late to recast and he's perfect for it.'

"I was certain [Travolta] had acted his way through his meeting with Michael and no longer wanted to do 'Gigolo'. He was afraid of playing that character because of its somewhat gay subtext. For days, I said, 'I'm not even going to hear of letting him out of the movie, full stop, period.'"

However, Diller admitted he made the situation worse when he tried to speak to Travolta about it.

He said: "John came to my house one afternoon. I began by saying, 'Right now, you are the biggest star in the world, and you worry you're going to screw it up. You're listening to this twerpy, inexperienced manager of yours, and it's leading you to the wrong decisions. This is a critical time for you, and when you've got a great script and a great part, you don't let anything put you off it.' I went on with various examples of how his management had been mishandling things since his spurt to superstardom.

"He left with a pained and hurt look. A day or two later it became clear that he was not going to show up for the first day of shooting and would take whatever consequences ensued. I had made the situation worse because he'd told his manager about my criticism of him, so they both hated me."