Born On This Day- July 11th... Dreamboat Tab Hunter

Arthur Andrew Kelm Gelien was an equestrian & figure skater before his agent, Henry Wilson turned him into Tab Hunter (the same agent that came up with the name Rock Hudson). Tab Hunter has appeared in over 40 films & has worked on stage & television. I find his best role to be Joe Hardy in the1958 film version of Damn Yankees. He was the only one in the film version who had not been in the original Broadway cast.

In the year of my birth-1954, Hunter, then 23, blond & blue eyed, the perfect product of a popular perceptibility, as free from cynicism & care as a sky can be cloudless & clear, was #1 at the box office with the film- Battle Cry. By 1957 he was also #1 on the pop charts with Young Love, topping Elvis Presley.

By 1959 his ride was ending. Troy Donahue was invented & he became the next Tab Hunter, & Hunter at 28 was more or less done. Hunter began a 46 year descent into actor hell: spaghetti westerns (Hunter describes them as - "short on the meat sauce"), TV guest shots, dinner theater, infomercial, & Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood.

Then, in the 1980s, after the long trip through drek & a heart attack, Hunter was rediscovered by John Waters. In Polyester (1981), Waters used Hunter, who had starred opposite John Wayne as well as Natalie Wood, Sophia Loren & a bevy of beauties, to play opposite Divine as Francine Fishpaw. Polyester reinvented Hunter as an ironic illustration of his own Hollywood iconography.

Hunter said Hollywood in the 1950s had its version of "Don't ask, don't tell": "Don't complain, don't explain." Let the studio take care of the actors, & let the public draw its conclusions.

Hunter: "Hollywood will just take you, chew you up, spit you out, dump you on the side & go on to the next, & it's kind of tragic."In 2005, Hunter released his terrific & very readable biography- Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star where he finally publicly came out. Hunter: "life was difficult for me, because I was living two lives at that time. A private life of my own, which I never discussed, never talked about to anyone. Then my Hollywood life, which was just trying to learn my craft and succeed..." the word 'gay' wasn't even around in those days, & if anyone ever confronted me with it, I'd just kinda freak out. I was in total denial. I was just not comfortable in that Hollywood scene, other than the work process.There was a lot written about my sexuality, & the press was pretty darn cruel."

Hunter had long term relationships with actor Anthony Perkins & champion figure skater Ronnie Robertson before settling down with his partner of 29 years, Allan Glaser, a producer 25 years. The pair live in Montecito, California.

He was one of my first crushes. I think Tab Hunter was & is a blond bombshell. I don't hate his being a Republican, but I do hate his Republicanism.

Born On This Day- June 21st... Actor/Writer David Marshall Grant

22 years ago I saw something brand new & rather shocking on my TV screen. I was viewing a favorite TV show- Thirtysomething & there was a scene with 2 men in bed together, with more than a vague suggestion that they had just had sex, as if this was an everyday occurrence. The sight of 2 men in the same bed on a prime time series caused me to rejoice, advertisers to pull their ads & yet the network stuck with the scene & it made TV history, even if it was cut in the re-runs.

David Marshall Grant, played Russell on ABC’s drama Thirtysomething & he was a part of history in the making. Grant stills acts on occasion; he was a writer & Executive Producer/show runner on the recently canceled ABC show Brothers & Sisters, created by openly gay Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Jon Robin Baitz & features several gay characters in major plotlines.

Grant was born in Westport, Connecticut. Immediately after graduating from Yale & Julliard, his first paying job was as Richard Gere's lover in the Broadway play Bent.

Grant played Joe Pitt in the first Broadway productionof Angels in America. That role earned him a 1994 Tony Award nomination. Grant has had many TV & Film roles including CSI:Miami, & Law & Order. His most recent film appearance was in the The Devil Wears Prada as the father of Anne Hathaway's character. His last appearance on TV was in Alias.

In 1998 he began a career as a writer. His first play, Snakebit, was nominated for the 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play & was also nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award. His second play, Current Events, was produced in 2000. His most recent play, Pen, opened in 2006. Up next is Smash, about the mounting of a Broadway Musical, on NBC this fall.

I have always admired his talent & good looks.

Considering Walt Whitman On His 192nd Birthday

When I write about individuals from history that were homosexual, I avoid using the term- GAY, because for me, there was no GAY before the 20^th century, until I consider Walt Whitman on this, the day of his birth. Whitman was GAY, using the 20^th/21^st century definition.

Has there ever been a poet so thoroughly a man of this nation than Walt Whitman?  Whitman’s book of poetry- Leaves of Grass, holds the essence of being an American. It also reflects the ways in which America ideals have been sacrificed. Walt Whitman's personal life suffered much at the hands of the American taboo against sex.

Whitman is this country’s greatest embarrassment, if what he says about democracy is true, the American ideal of universal equality must embrace homosexuals, & same sex love. Whitman is a subversive & radical poet & American school children for the past 50 years have been carefully protected from exposure to America's greatest poet. I have always been an avid reader, & I did not read Whitman until I was finished with college, when my mother, of all people, gave me a volume of Leaves Of Grass as a gift.

A leaf for hand in hand;

You natural persons old and young!

You on the Mississippi and on all the branches & bayous of the Mississippi!

You friendly boatmen and mechanics! You roughs!

You twain! & all processions moving along the streets!

I wish to infuse myself among you till I see it common for you to walk hand in hand.

Walt Whitman was a true bohemian. He never gave into having a regular job occupation, & he was a singularly solitary man, probably not by choice. In 1819, Whitman was born in Long Island, NY. He did the usual things until he was 11, when he quit school. He ran errands for a lawyer & doctor, & then became an apprentice typesetter for a Brooklyn paper.

He taught school in several small villages in NY, & contributed articles to newspapers. In 1841 he left country life for the big city. In NYC he worked for newspapers as typesetter, reporter, feature writer & editor. Whitman took a life of theatre, cafes & nightclubs.

He went to art exhibitions, museums, the opera, watch the ships, & walked among the masses in the great city. His favorite activity was to sit near the hot, young, rugged carriage drivers, & cross back & forth on the Brooklyn ferry to mingle with the rough deck hands.  Because he was repressing his sexuality, he was a loner in a crowd, a spectator rather than a participant.

Sometime after 1855, when Leaves of Grass was first published, he experienced some sort of emotional crisis that transformed him from journalist to poet. In the manner so many gay men in NYC & San Francisco of late 1970s, he gave up being a dandy & became a hyper masculine clone.

Crowds of men & women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me.

  On the ferry-boats the hundreds & hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose
 
& you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, & more in my meditations, than you might suppose . . .

I was one with the rest, the days and haps of the rest,

Was call'd by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as they saw me approaching or passing,

Felt their arms on my neck as I stood, or the negligent leaning of their flesh against me as I sat,

Saw many I loved in the street or ferry-boat or public assembly, yet never told them a word.
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

Once I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future use with its shows, architecture, customs, tradition,

Yet now of all that city I remember only a man I casually met there who detained me for love of me,
 
Day by day & night by night we were together — all else has long been forgotten by me,

I remember I saw only that man who passionately clung to me,

 Again we wander, we love, we separate again,
 
Again he holds me by the hand, I must not go,

I see him close beside me with silent lips sad & tremulous.
Once I Pass'd Through A Populous City

Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son,

Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking & breeding,

No sentimentalist, no stander above men & women or apart from them,

No more modest than immodest.

Unscrew the locks from the doors!
 
Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!

Whoever degrades another degrades me,

& whatever is done or said returns at last to me.
 
Through me the afflatus surging & surging, through me the current & index.

I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the song of democracy,

By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.
Song Of Myself

When Whitman is taught in school as part of the canon of American literature, there is still much resistance to identifying him as gay, despite some fairly well documented evidence.

I share the midnight orgies of young men . . .

I pick out some low person for my dearest friend,

He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate, he shall be condemned by others for deeds done,

I will play a part no longer, why should I exile myself from my companions?

Whitman's notebooks of this period are filled with descriptions of bus drivers, boat men, & other "rude, illiterate" men that he picked up is really in the streets of Manhattan, & "slept with," often keeping notes of their home addresses. Excerpts from his Notebooks have been collected in Charley Shively's Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working Class Camerados:

Peter — large, strong-boned young fellow, driver. . . . I liked his refreshing wickedness, as it would be called by the orthodox.

George Fitch — Yankee boy — Driver . . . Good looking, tall, curly haired, black-eyed fellow

Saturday night Mike Ellis — wandering at the corner of Lexington av. & 32d st. — took him home to 150 37th street, — 4th story back room — bitter cold night

Wm Culver, boy in bath, aged 18

Dan'l Spencer . . . somewhat feminine . . . slept with me Sept 3d

Theodore M Carr — came to the house with me

James Sloan (night of Sept 18 '62) 23rd year of age — plain homely, American

John McNelly night Oct 7 young man, drunk, walk'd up Fulton & High st. home

David Wilson — night of Oct. 11 '62, walking up from Middagh — slept with me

Horace Ostrander Oct. 22 '62 — about 28 yr's of age — slept with him Dec 4th '62

October 9, 1863, Jerry Taylor, (NJ.) of 2d dist reg't slept with me last night weather soft, cool enough, warm enough, heavenly.

This is the 19^th century version of John Rechy’s Numbers!

As I have been noting the protests of the right wing & religious fundamentalists to the recent legislation adding references to gay people in history to the curriculum in public schools of California, I consider how liberating it will be for young gay people to acknowledge that the most American of poets was not just a homosexual, he was gay.

I recommend the excellent & very readable- Walt Whitman: A Gay Life by Gary Schmidgall

Born On This Day- May 26th... Actor Alec McCowen

Alec McCowen is one of those terrific, highly trained English actors, best known for classical roles including Shakespeare, who dabbles in TV & film, & is always good no matter the quality of the project.

I first took note of him in the a favorite film from teens- Travels With My Aunt, starring Maggie Smith, & directed by George Cukor in 1972.

His many stage successes include: Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge (1954), Barnaby Tucker in The Matchmaker (1954), Mercutio in R&J at The Old Vic, Friar Rolfe in Hadrian the 7th, for which he won an Evening Standard Award for the London production & a Tony nomination. I was lucky enough to see him in Molière's The Misanthrope opposite the very talented Diana Rigg in 1973. McCowen originated the role of psychiatrist Martin Dysart in Peter Shaffer's Equus, but his greatest achievement was his one-man performance of the complete text of Saint Mark's Gospel (1978), for which he received worldwide acclaim & a Tony nomination.

Among his many film roles, check out McCowen’s work in my favorite Scorcese flick- The Age Of Innocence.

His partner of 20+ years was actor Geoffrey Burridge, who died in 1987 from an AIDS-related illness. In McCowen was featured on the British version of the celebrity surprise show This Is Your Life.  He was shocked at the slight from the show's complete failure to mention Geoffrey Burridge, who had died 2 years before. Brave for the time, McCowen insisted that his late partner be acknowledged on the program.

Born On This Day- May 22nd... Actor Paul Winfield

I was just 19 years old when I was emotionally crippled by the film Sounder, the last to leave the theatre as I was weeping myself sick. It a terrifyingly moving experience, & am destroyed by stories of racial injustice & dog stories send me over the edge of sadness. I recommend this excellent film from 1972, but know that I warned you. Sounder received Academy Award Nominations for Best Film, Best Actor for Paul Winfield, Best Actress for Cicely Tyson & Best Adapted Screenplay. The film was my introduction to the work of Paul Winfield.

Paul Edward Winfield was openly gay in his private life, but like other actors of the era, he was discreet about it in his professional life.

Winfield was born in LA on this day- May22nd in 1939.  He was first became noticed playing opposite Diahann Carroll on the TV series Julia. He played the title role in the 1978 miniseries King. When he was nominated for the Oscar for the 1972 film Sounder, he become just the 3rd African American to receive a nomination for a leading role, after Dorothy Dandridge & Sidney Poitier. Around the same time, Winfield played Jim in the dreadful musical film- Huckleberry Finn.

Winfield worked in the miniseries: Roots: The Next Generations, Queen: The Story of an American Family & Scarlett.

Films include: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan & The Terminator; on TV:  Babylon 5,&Star Trek: The Next Generation, Family Matters & City Confidential. Winfield was a gifted voice-over artist: Spider-Man, The Magic School Bus, Batman Beyond, &The Simpsons.

He won an Emmy Award, in 1995, for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, for his appearance in an episode of the CBS drama Picket Fences.

Winfield died of a heart attack in 2004; he was 64 years old. His long-time partner of 30 years- architect Charles Gillan Jr., preceded him in death in 2002. They are buried together at Forest Lawn.

Born On This Day- May 11th... Fashion Icon- Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani

I have had a hard time getting around the notion of why it would be difficult to come out if you were a successful fashion designer. It is similar to being a closeted chorus boy or proffesional figure skater. Really?

It's no surprise that of all the great gay fashion designers to have chosen to be open about their gayness in recent years: Versace, Tom Ford, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Valentino should be the last to come out, because being out on the leading edge has never been the style of the designer who burst on to the fashion scene in 1959 & quickly established himself as the favorite of the ladies who lunch.


The "secret that is not a secret", is what Valentino's partner in business & in life for 50 years- Giancarlo Giammetti called it, in an feature on the designer in an issue of Vanity Fair in 2004.


Giammetti has run the business side of Valentino's fashion house until their retirment in 2008. Giammetti: "Ours was not a story of money or fashion. It was a story of love. There has never been an article about us in this sense. I think the world has changed a lot, and that once it would have been embarrassing to read but it's not any more."

Valentino: "Giancarlo & I understand each other, but his character is the opposite of mine. There are only 3 things that I know how to do: make a dress, decorate a house & receive guests ..."


Giammetti: “We were lovers for 22 years. Now it's a fraternal love, a relationship with nothing sexual in it. Yet a great love remains, ancient, surviving."


Their affectionate but testy relationship began when the pair met at a cafe in Rome in 1960. Giammetti claims if you added up the days they have spent apart since meeting, it amounts to only 2 months.


Altough they are open about being gay, Valentino & Giammetti are prudish in their perceptions. Bruce Hoeksema, Valentino's assistant for the past 15 years: "When Giancarlo sees male couple kissing in a restaurant he says, 'Disgusting!'. If he sees 2 men holding hands on the street, 'Queers!'."


The Husband & I caught the documentary- Valentino: The Last Emperor on Logo one Saturday morning. Watching the diminutive, majestically coiffed, hidden-eyed, orange-tinted, ill-tempered, impatient absolute monarch- Valentino was like enjoying chocolate & Champagne until that queasy moment arrives when you realize you’ve consumed far too much.


He travels exclusively on his own jets & yachts with a full entourage.

One of the very few things we have in common,Valentino adores dogs. He named a second line of clothing after his late pug Oliver. Today Valentino has pugs: the mother, Molly; her sons, Milton & Monty; & her daughters, Margot, Maude & Maggie. When traveling on his 14-seat jet, 3 cars are needed to move Valentino & his group to the airport: one to move Valentino & Giammetti, another for the luggage & the staff, & one to transport 5 pugs, Maude, the 6th canine, always travels with Valentino.

I Don't Tell You What To Say, I Don't Tell You What To Do...

Today marks the 65th birthday of Lesley Sue Goldstein. She is a thinly disguised character, played by Bridgett Fonda, in a favorite movie- Grace Of My Heart. The film deals with the struggles with her sexuality, but in real life Leslie Gore wouldn’t come out as gay until 2005. 

"I'm free & I love to be free
"To live my life the way I want
To say & do whatever I please"

Leslie Gore was discovered, nurtured & her early work was produced by Quincy Jones, & what a catalogue of 1960s hits! She was 16 when she had her first hit- It’s My Party.  After she recorded It's My Party, she was told not to be disappointed if it was never released. She didn't think much would become of it until she heard it on the radio. Gore was something of an anomaly in the pop music world, a solo female artist in an age of girl-groups. Gore has lived in NYC with her partner of 31 years- Lois, a jewelry designer. One of her songs has been a personal anthem, sung by your host with conviction & tears, all alone in the house. I love her sound, & I was crazy for her work then & I am crazy about it now:


It’s My Party
Judy’s Turn To Cry
She’s A Fool
You Don’t Own Me
I Don’t Know Anymore
That’s The Way Boys Are
Maybe I Know
The Look Of Love
Sunshine, Lollipops, & Roses
Young Love
California Nights

Born On This Day- February 13th... American Artist Grant Wood

If you have been following this little blog thing, you will know that I have a passion for 20th century American Art. Grant Wood's work is quintessential 20th century American Art, I now we know there has always been a gay twist.

Grant Wood’s American Gothic is one of the most parodied & iconic American images. The work was acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago after it was unveiled there to the public in 1930 to much scrutiny. Ever since, the painting has captured a certain resonance with the American public, but its historical reception has had somewhat of a turbulent ride. The painting is admonished & celebrated, dismissed & parodied. The work is a dour portrait of a farmer & a woman in front of a neo-gothic farmhouse in Iowa. The woman’s sullen look is echoed in the farmer’s direct but blank gaze, pitchfork in hand looking not the least bit amused. The Models were the artist's sister & dentist.


Last autumn, a biography of Grant Wood by Tripp Evans- Grant Wood, A Life, lifts the lid off many of the lies & secrets which have surrounded the artist’s life story & digs deeper than ever before into his complex personality. Evans acknowledges Wood’s homosexuality, which earlier biographers left out entirely.

Self Portrait by the Artist

There are some delicious ironies to the acknowledgement of Grant Wood being gay. For decades, Wood has been celebrated as a spokesman for the conservative values of the close-minded set. To me, the essence of our country's Constitution is a willingness to allow diversity, change & the supposed narrow mindedness of the Midwest is a bit of myth: Iowa, after all, was the 3rd state in the country to legalize gay marriage. Wood survived happily in small town Cedar Rapids, where local businessmen protected him from the consequences of his gayness.


Wood is often described as a sort of homespun American farmer who celebrated traditional American values. But in fact, his life as a farm boy ended at the age of 10, when his father died suddenly of a heart attack & Wood, his mother & his sister moved to Cedar Rapids. His values & choice of professions were not ones that were often endorsed in early 20th century Iowa. Wood’s father was a severe Quaker, who once insisted that he return a book of fairy tales: “We Quakers only read about true things.” He would surely have never approved of his son’s career as an artist, & he would have approved of the nagging secret of Wood’s life- he was a homosexual.


Evidence of Grant’s gayness has been hidden in plain sight for years. Grant’s mentor-Thomas Hart Benton, confided to many of his friends & students that he believed that Wood was gay, & it’s even part of Wood’s files at the University of Iowa, where 5 of Wood’s colleagues made the accusation during a nasty dispute pitting Wood, who had never been to college, against his better educated faculty colleagues. Indeed, the artist was fired from his position on the faculty when it was discovered that he was having an affair with his male private secretary. Evans is the first author of a bio of Wood to take this important fact into account. During Grant’s time homosexuality was a crime that could be punished by imprisonment or castration, & even rumors could end a career or make an artist a social outcast. Wood’s art is a strange mix of revelation & concealment.

Daughters Of Revolution

In Appraisal

Everything about Wood’s art carries some sort of double meaning & complexity. He was fascinated by changes of gender. In his Daughters of Revolution he pictures 3 founding fathers in drag, as members of the D.A.R. For In Appraisal, he transformed his friend Edward Rowan into a farm woman. Wood was fascinated by masks. Wood’s art has an element of “let’s pretend.” Wood's Gothic folk-art style is a way of suggesting that the work has some sort of double layer, a representation of something real & something else,with a big dash of wit. Wood was always vague & inconsistent when asked what his paintings represented, apparently because he sought to avoid criticism when his subjects or his neighbors were offended. On different occasions, he described the figures in American Gothic as city or country people, & as a man with his daughter or as a man with his wife.


Is America finally ready to embrace a gay Grant Wood? Or will Conservative Christian Right Wingers rise up to deny his gayness, or to denounce him as wicked? Since American Art History 101, American Gothic has always struck me as high camp & a little queer. I always saw the piece as satire rather than a celebration of The American Spirit. For many art lovers in the heartland, this new book & it’s well documented discovery of Wood's gayness will not be a terrible shock. Just possibly, America is finally ready for Grant Wood to come out of the closet.


Grant died of liver cancer in Iowa City, one day before his 51st birthday. In the end, Wood’s American Gothic stands next to masterpieces like Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa & Edvard Munch's Scream as truly recognizable & iconic across the world.

Born On This Day- January 10th... Sal Mineo

He was born Salvatore Mineo, Jr. in the Bronx, New York on January 10, 1939.

I have a very odd connection to Sal Mineo. In 1976, I was actually an acquaintance of the man charged with his murder. This was nothing sordid. This man was pursuing one of my best friends. WCK3 & I were concerned for our friend because this mystery man seemed especially troubling. Sal Mineos’s death was major news in LA that February. WCK3 & I really had the chills when this creepy man, who had been aggressively working on our good friend, was charged with the movie star’s demise.

Sal Mineo was nominated for an Academy Award 2 times, & he enjoyed success as a stage director & recording artist, but he is mostly remembered for his performance in Rebel Without A Cause & for the brutal murder that ended his life just as he was on the verge of reinventing himself & his career.


You can feel the sexual heat of the actors in this screen test.

He made his first film appearance in 1955, & appeared in many screen productions, usually playing ethnic& troubled youths. Mineo's career was dominated by that single role that eventually achieved mythic status: Plato in Nicholas Ray's Rebel without a Cause (1955). Mineo's homosexuality was a fairly open secret even at the height of his Hollywood success. He had affairs with Peter Lawford, James Dean, & with Nicholas Ray during the filming of Rebel Without A Cause.

With maturity, he sought to explore his homosexuality in his life & his art. Although he appeared in several television productions & films (his last film was Planet Of The Apes), he found the theater more supportive of his aspirations & sensibilities.


From one of my favorite shows of the era- Shindig! in 1967

In 1969, he directed the Broadway & West Coast productions of Fortune & Men's Eyes, John Herbert's exploration of power roles & homosexuality at a prison. Mineo's production was controversial for its nudity & simulated sex.

In 1976, he was cast as a bisexual burgler in a Los Angeles production of James Kirkwood's P. S. Your Cat Is Dead. As he returned to his West Hollywood apartment from a rehearsal on February 12, 1976, he was stabbed to death. The murder remains cloaked in mystery. A suspect who initially confessed later recanted, but was nevertheless convicted. Over the years, & Mineo's friends & relatives have claimed that the authorities, eager to solve a high profile murder case, charged the wrong man. He was just 37 years old when he was murdered.

Considering k.d. lang On Her Birthday

"I'm proud that I was one of the first ones out,
 singing loud & proud.”







Happy Birthday, Kathryn Dawn Lang! Before there was George Michael, Elton, Ellen, Mellissa or Rufus, there was k.d. lang.This blog is intended to celebrate all things important to me; art, film-theatre-TV, design, books, food, cocktails, travel, friends & lovers, & of course the art form that moves me &informs my life the most: Music. Among the Top 10 musicians that have meant the most to me, k.d. lang may be the artist that speaks to me the most. Her stunning, pitch perfect, unadorned voice, androgynous look (she’s the girl next door & the boy next door) & brilliant performances have fully engaged me & swept me a way to new heights for the past 25+ years. She is the artist (along with Lyle Lovett & Bette Midler) that I have seen in concert more than 6 times.

 Lang came out of the closet in 1992 with no real negative affect on her career; indeed she won 1 of her 4 Grammy’s around this time, for Constant Craving & her album- Ingénue was her best selling to date. How would & pick a cut that would be her best or my personal favorite? I know that every time she did Roy Orbison’s Crying in concert, every hair on my body would stand on end. I am crazy for her album of covers about smoking- Drag & I still dig the stripped down pop of- all you can eat.


The Husband loves her, my parents love her, my rock music loving friend-Eiric loves her, lesbians lover her, gay men love her. She is an activist & vegetarian. For just hair raising virtuosity & for the glory of her voice I will post Halleluiah by fellow Canadian- Leonard Cohen from her album of covers written by Canadians- 49th Parallel & a personal favorite- Cole Porter’s So In Love from Red, Hot + Blue with this amazing & somewhat disturbing video:

The Gay Birthday Roll Call For October 22nd... 3 Talented Men Of Show Biz

Openly gay Bill Condon would be on the birthday roll call just for writing & directing one of my top 10 movies of all time- Gods & Monsters. To me this is a nearly perfect film, without a wasted scene or line of dialogue & amazing Oscar worthy performances from Sir Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser & Lynn Redgrave. Gods & Monsters is the story of the last days of James Whale, the gay director of Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man & Showboat. Condon was nominated for Best Director & won the award for Best Screenplay Adaptation (from Christopher Bram’s book). On top of this accomplishment, he wrote the brilliant screenplay for the film of Chicago, a stage musical that seemed to me, to be impossible to bring to the screen (another Oscar nom), he wrote & directed the under-rated Kinsey, & wrote & directed the over-hyped, but very engaging film version of Dreamgirls. Bill Condon has been chosen to direct the last installment of the The Twilight Saga franchise- Breaking Dawn… & I he is cute.

When Marc Shaiman kissed his fellow Tony winner & partner Scott on the televised award show, it made quite a stir. He’s won a Tony (for Hairspray), a Grammy, & an Emmy, He has had 5 Oscar nominations, including one for Blame Canada. He has been with Scott Whitman, his creative partner & life partner for 31 years, since they met when he was 20 in 1979 (the same year that I matched up with the Husband). His film credits include Broadcast News, Beaches, When Harry Met Sally, City Slickers, The Addams Family, Sister Act, Sleepless in Seattle, A Few Good Men, The American President, The First Wives Club, George of the Jungle, In & Out, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Team America: World Police & HBO's From the Earth to the Moon. He frequently works on films by Billy Crystal, Rob Reiner, & Trey Parker He has also appeared in many of these films. Shaiman started his career as a theatre/cabaret musical director. He then became vocal arranger for Bette Midler, eventually becoming her musical director & co-producer of many of her recordings, including The Wind Beneath My Wings & From a Distance. He helped create the material for her performance on the penultimate Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. This season he had the musical-The Addams Family on Broadway. He auditioned for & but lost the role of himself on Bette’s short lived TV sitcom,… & I think he is cute.

Derek Jacobi was invited by Lawrence Olivier to become 1 of the 8 founding members of The National Theatre, soon after graduating from Cambridge. An extremely successful film & theatre actor, he is probably best known for his performance in the ground breaking BBC TV series I, Claudius (1976) & his Shakespearean roles around the world, including what many feel was the best Hamlet of the 20th century.He also appeared as Alan Turing in the stage & film versions of Breaking The Code. His other appearances have been diverse & ranged from major classical roles to an appearance in Frasier as the world’s worst Shakespearian actor & one of my favorite films- Robert Altman’s GosfordPark. Jacobi is married to Richard Clifford, his partner of 31 years (again, all these 31 year anniversaries!)...& think he is cute.