He dated women to boost their careers and his career. They were beards. He always dated women in show business. He even admitted that he would ask them to use dildos on him and other weird faggot behaviors. Norton's relationships were just for show. Same with his messing around with female porn stars. It was for his public straight persona to seem more relatable to the O&A fandom who were mostly straight, White, conservative, younger, men.
Anthony did the same thing. So did Howard Stern. And Artie allegedly. Rock Hudson. It's a huge part of show business.