Did we hear that right? Did National Public Radio ( 8/4 ) report that Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts, bane of the liberal press, the one who has conservative pundits & politicians licking their chops in anticipation, THAT J. G. Roberts, do pro-bono legal work for gay-rights groups earlier in his career? Perhaps a chorus of 'The World Turned Up-Side Down' is in order.
Here's 3 from the 'Insinuendo' file:
The NY Times ( 8/1 ) has the obit of the fab & sophisticated night club diva, Hildegarde, 99. Billed as the Incomparable Hildegarde the chanteuse was born Hildegarde Loretta Sell. Liberace called her '... the most famous supper-club entertainer who ever lived' and borrowed one of her numbers, 'I'll Be Seeing You' as his theme. Hildegarde never married, but in the '30s she became friends with her landlady's daugher, Anna Sosenko. Sosenko became the 'architect' of Hildegarde's career and the two 'traveled, lived and collected art together' for many years.
Marlon Brando wrote a never published ( till now ) novel, Fan-Tan, according to The NY Times ( 8/2 ) . Co-authored with filmmaker Donald Cammell, the two were friends '... drawn to each other by a mutual fascination with sexual experimentation and European avante-garde filmmaking.' The editor of the book, film historian David Thomson, said that 'there was a homosexual side to Brando and to Cammell too' ( tho there was no evidence of a sexual relationship between them ) . Brando did apparently enjoy cross-dressing.
A new bio of British actor Alec Guinness ( think Obi-wan Kenobi ) reviewed in the Chicago Sun-Times ( 7/31 ) reports, among other things, that while the actor was married to the former Merula Salaman for 60 years there is a 'good deal of anecdotal reason to believe that he enjoyed the company of homosexuals' altho no one has come forward to claim any gay encounter with him. ( Afraid of that light saber? ) The book is Alec Guinness: the Authorized Biography by Piers Paul Read.
From the 'Old-Gay-And-Artistic' file come Gilbert and George, 62 & 63, who dress alike, do art as a pair, and specialize in being 'naughty' ( in that word's various possibilities ) . Their combination photography and performance works have embraced pornography, scatology ( look it up ) , pandemic diseases, and vaudeville. They are doing a retrospective of their 30-year career in London says The NY Times ( 8/4 ) .
From the same file The New Yorker ( 8/8&15 ) gives news of still-producing gay writer and composer Ned Rorem, 82. Just finished an opera based on Thornton Wilder's Our Town, looks 20 years younger, has a 38-year-old ( male ) companion and once boasted that in his gorgeous prime he'd slept with four Time covers: Leonard Bernstein, Tennessee Williams, Noel Coward, & John Cheever. ( Then he put every detail in his diaries and published them. )
From the 'Keep-Them-Guessing-and-Make-alotta-Money' file, The NY Times ( 8/7 ) reports on author Bret Easton Ellis, who in his latest novel Lunar Park names his main character ( who dates both Christy Turlington & George Michael ) after himself. Ellis has always kept the readers figuring out how much of each character is based on him—a bit of a problem since one was a serial killer. Mr. Ellis 'deflects' questions about his sexual orientation tho his protagonists engage in gay and straight sex.
You'd better watch out all you hair-tangled pets. Here comes the hairdresser with the Lion Cut. The Chicago Sun-Times ( 8/10 ) reports making your Persian or Chow look like a big cat with a ruff-like mane and shaved body has its drawbacks: your pet may sunburn and one detractor, at least, says, 'All the other cats will think he's gay.'