Planet Homo

The Way We Were

We forgot to wish Arthur Gelien happy birthday on July 11. Arthur Gelien is Tab Hunter's real name and he is now 78. He came by the great name Tab from Hollywood talent agent Henry Willson, who also created the names Guy Madison and Rock Hudson.
Tab Hunters most notable role Joe Hardy was in the 1958 hit, Damn Yankees.
In his 2005 autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star. Hunter acknowledged his homosexuality: "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. And then my Hollywood life, which was just trying to learn my craft and succeed..." The star emphasizes that the word 'gay' "wasn't even around in those days, and 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, and the press was pretty darn cruel," the actor says, but what "moviegoers wanted to hold in their hearts were the boy-next-door marines, cowboys and swoon-bait sweethearts he portrayed."
Hunter has been in a relationship with Allan Glaser for 25 years and currently lives Montecito, Ca.

SITED: Newwork

A stroll down the media avenue revealed this alarmingly well designed website that features state-of-the-art typography and imagery. While it could use a good dose of fairy dust (more boys, please) it captures a very 70s-ish style of design and as we are always on the outlook for interesting ways of integrating traditional media with the Internet, this site succeeds. From their website:

NEWWORK magazine is a large-format arts publication for Connoisseur of fresh ideas. Designed and published biannually by studio NEWWORK, each issue features new work from a wide range of artists and creators in the worlds of fine art, design, high fashion, culture, and politics. From art directors to business leaders, design students to curators, NEWWORK's contributors are united in their passion to push the boundaries of their disciplines. Among the magazine's special features are bold, custom-designed typefaces and a twist on the traditional newspaper format, offering a stimulating juxtaposition of striking design and everyday simplicity. Since pages can be separated, each layout can be hung on the wall as an individual art piece.

The second issue of NEWWORK delved into the role of imagination in creative life: changing styles, changing minds, changing worlds. In issue number 3 we come face to face with... faces. In both the literal and abstract sense we explore how different designers and artists invoke the notion of the face in their work.

Photos We Like

Photo for the opening web page of Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Chop Suey

I was watching the incredible satisfying Bruce Weber film, Chop Suey on Sundance recently. The film is an homage to many things: singer Frances Faye, Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, model Jeff Aquilon, GQ art director Donald Sterzin and a young beauty by the name of Peter Johnson. Bruce Weber is a master photographer who has made a career of portraying beautiful men and women in relaxed yet sexually charged situations. Chop Suey explores many of those themes and for those old enough to remember, explains how some of the most historic photographs of men were created. There is a looming sadness of longing in the film as Weber explains that GQ art director Donald Sterzin fell in love with Pepperdine University water polo captain Jeff Aquilon on first sight. Aquilon became a cover model and one of the biggest models of the 80s. Sterzin died of AIDS in 1992 and he given a poignant farewell in Chop Suey. Peter Johnson was in 2001 a 16-year-old wrestler that Weber discovered in the Midwest and consequently asked him to live with him in New York City. He took thousands of photographs, mostly nudes of the beautiful young man in a four-year collaboration. As viewers we are never quite sure what the relationship is other than longing, or as Weber honestly states: “We sometimes photograph people we wish we could have been.” Beauty as muse is not new. Gay men longing for straight men is not new (both Aquilon and Johnson are married with children). The film itself is not without controversy—one reviewer called it: “a fascinating study of self-deception.”

Bruce Weber is married to a woman, which is not particularly remarkable. But it does ask the question, is he gay? A Google search reveals little about the subject. One could argue that his longing and lust for these young men is part of what has made him such a great photographer—it appears to never be satisfied. In age were a Clay Aiken is hounded to confess his sexuality, it would appear to be only the young who need to worry. No one is interested in old homosexuals. When Star Trek actor George Takei came out in Frontiers magazine in 2005, he was admonished for not coming out sooner. He responded with "It's not really coming out, which suggests opening a door and stepping through. It's more like a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen." Singer/songwriter Laura Nyro had a 17-year relationship with Maria Desiderio, but you will not find that in her Wikipedia profile. Yes, perhaps these are old school gay people but shouldn’t it be just as important the world to know that these talents, these huge legends of talents were gay. Neil Patrick Harris is a wonderful talented man, but his coming out really felt of no consequence. It makes one wonder. The current thinking about outing is something like thus:

            1. Hypocrites only, and only when they actively oppose gay rights and interests;

            2. Outing passive accomplices who help run homophobic institutions;

            3. Prominent individuals whose outing would shatter stereotypes and compel the public to reconsider its attitude on homosexuality;

            4. Only the dead.

Chop Suey is an amazing insight to one man’s longing and desires. If only because memory serves us to remember the slight details of substance, I recall now that Weber was once asked the question about his sexuality and if he were a gay man and he replied: “too many friends have died for me to deny it.” That may be as good as it gets, or as he said: You've always got to be unafraid about having a fantasy life, and be unafraid that people will be judgmental. They are going to be judgmental anyway."

 

 

 

Grant

Barney Frank Answers Idiot Woman

Outy of the Woodwork: "I was Michael Jackson's Lover"

From a website called womansday, not to be confused with Woman's Day magazine, come this blush of a story of love and tragedy. As we all know by now, Michael Jackson was certainly a curious man, and if this story is true, he is even stranger. But first, let's consider the source. The website appears to be owned by a company called ninemsn, and their logo has that gay, multi-colored butterfly, generally associated with Microsoft Network. Their leading story is "I had phone sex with my brother" which isn't much of a story, who hasn't? So here, the startling story of Michael Jackson's secret love life:

Despite two marriages and a string of alleged girlfriends, Matthew Denby reports that in private Michael Jackson was a very different man.

Michael Jackson's secret gay lover has blown the lid on the late superstar's hidden lifestyle, revealing startling details of the singer's final weeks.

Jason Pfeiffer, a heavily built, 35-year-old employee of Michael's dermatologist Dr Arnold Klein, has told Woman's Day of his love affair with the star, calling their connection "a short romantic love story that ended in tragedy".

"I've lost my soul mate, it's very hard to describe the loss I feel but there is something that is empty in my heart," says the Beverly Hills executive.

According to Jason, the romance began over the phone and progressed with a number of discreet meetings, after Michael had asked Jason to give him a ride home. He says they met secretly many times, both at the star's rented home in Beverly Hills and at Jason's office.

"I guess our first 'date', if you can call it that, was in my car," says Jason. "We went for a drive and were talking and having fun, but Michael had his minders who were 'nosey', as Michael put it.

"We had to make sure we were not caught, and although the date was short as I had to take him home before anyone noticed, we had a great time.

"I thought nobody else knew [about us] but have since discovered that others did surmise the truth."

Jason —who reveals that they even shared last Christmas together with Michael's children and a few close friends —says the plastic surgery-ravaged star was devastated by his appearance. He liked reliving the glory days of his career, but he wouldn't look at old pictures.

"He did not like looking at old photos of himself and didn't want his children to see them either," says Jason.

"He desperately wanted to recreate the old glory days for fans, the kids and for himself.

Hello Junior

Model Mateus Verdelho graces the cover of the August issue of Junior magazine photographed by Didio.

Tush Magazine: Gender Bending

With the improbable name of Tush magazine, this West German online magazine scores with great photography and design. The current issue is entitled, "Love Me Gender" which explores gender in various visual ways. Check it out.

Gaze upon Beauty

DIY filmmaker Matt Riddlehoover explores the work of various contemporary artists, including Salvador Cobrero Alarcon, Rob Beyond, Adam Bouska, Juanma Carrillo, Jerome Haffner, Matthias Herrmann, Ethan James, Albo Jeavons, Jules Julien, Karim Konrad, Bruce LaBruce, Ignacio Lozano, Sandro Mantovani, J David McKenney, Maykson Ribet, Alfredo Roagui, Nick San Pedro, Stuart Sandford, Bogdan Stanga, and Austin Young.

A Mad Man

The hit series, Mad Men returned to the airwaves last night and the show gave us a breathtaking sexual moment for closeted Salvatore Romano. Played beautifully by Bryan Batt, Romano has done everything he can to deny his sexuality. In last night's show, in an unexpected turn of events, Romano gets seduced by a horny bellboy. The beauty of Mad Men is that it is really like a show that famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman would have produced—it gets behind the skin of matters. And in Romano's homomoment, it is a revealing look at the torture and pleasure a closeted man must experience. In an interview with New York magazine, Batt explains why: "Well, I think some time has passed, and he’s also quite inebriated. And he’s out of New York. So there’s all these other possibilities in play. It is his first foray, shall we say, into that realm. But also, it’s very interesting, everyone hits on Sal. He really doesn’t go about seeking it; it comes to him, which is great because it’s just an innate attraction."
The moment is interrupted by a fire alarm and as Sal's (Don Draper) boss leaves by the fire escape, he sees Sal and the bellboy. On the plane back to New York city in one of the most cleverly written scenes, Draper, talks to Sal about a new campaign called "Limited Exposure", surely a metaphor and hinted suggestion. Don Draper, a man of secrets himself, is not about to pry into Sal's private life, and we are left to wonder where this incident will take the closeted art director.

Indeed

Evelyn Waugh had an "acute homosexual phase"

A new biography of author Evelyn Waugh claims he had three gay relationships while studying at Oxford in the 1920s.

Waugh, whose most famous works were Brideshead Revisited and Scoop, was described as "one of the great bisexual authors" by biographer Paula Byrne.

In the book, titled 'Mad World: Evelyn Waugh And The Secrets of Brideshead', Byrne says Waugh had an "acute homosexual phase".

According to the Daily Mail, she said: "He had what he called an 'acute homosexual phase' when he was at Oxford, like most Oxford men in the twenties. It was not particularly unusual, particularly because women were not permitted to go to Oxford.

"It was very much perceived as acceptable as long as it was a phase you grew out of when you left Oxford. He used to joke to friends who hadn't had a gay phase that they had missed out on something. He said it was like fermenting wine, in order to prepare you for later on - for being married."

The full dish here

CBS News on Logo to End

CBS News on Logo is set to air its final broadcast on Thursday, bringing an end to what has been billed as the nation's "premier LGBT news program."

In an online interview with Instinct, popular Logo news reporter Itay Hod called the demise of the partnership between MTV Networks and CBS a "sad day."

"I think it's terrible that there's not going to be a newscast," Hod told Instinct. "But I'm not the one paying for it. I'm sure whoever made the decision had their reasons. They are not reasons I agree with, but it was a certain amount of money that they realized they couldn't spend. Logo will continue to do a lot of news on 365gay.com, so they're not completely letting go of news. They're continuing to do it; they just won't have a show on television."

Full story here

Worth Repeating

Ennio Marchetto is an Italian comedic live entertainer whose performances feature quick-change artistry, impersonations and his trademark bi-dimensional paper costumes. In his one hour show he goes through 50 costume changes, often in front of the audience without hiding behind drapes or screens and without any assistance by stage hands.

Marriage Equality: Now or Then?

One of the state's largest gay rights groups announced Wednesday it will wait until 2012 to push for an amendment to the California Constitution permitting same-sex marriage, but other organizations with the same agenda insisted they want to bring the issue back to voters in 2010.

Leaders of Equality California, which spearheaded the campaign against Proposition 8, said they planned to wait until the next presidential election and released a road map for repealing the 2008 ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage.

"If we thought November 2010 was the best time to go, the time when we thought we could win back the freedom to marry, we would go . . . But we don't," said Marc Solomon, Equality California's marriage director. Story here

Commercial Art

Legends

Handful of Technique

Do you know what the "Campfire Method" is? " "Oral Lip Imitation Method"?  There is more to masturbation than meets the eyes, or the hand. There is technique! And for the advanced class on masturbation we turn to Advanced Masturbation: "It contains male and female masturbation tips, information, techniques, methods, illustrations, pictures, and videos. This site is a documentary, but it is NOT designed for young students."

A Shameless Plug

Her first new studio collection since 2005, Love Is The Answer, is a collection of intimate jazz standards that will be released from Columbia Records on Tuesday, September 29.

Love Is The Answer provides an opportunity for Streisand to work for the first time with the Grammy®-winning Canadian jazz artist Diana Krall and her quartet (piano, guitar, bass, drums) who bring a refined and sensual poignancy to the album's sophisticated and subtle accompaniments.  

Bar None: the 60 Greatest Bars in the World

"From Provincetown to Prague, Out magazine travels the globe to review the world's greatest gay bars. From Broadway show tunes on a New York dance floor to a Mexican club inhabiting a colonial-style church and featuring "Br’er Rabbit" serving up watermelon slices, the clubs are varied, gorgeous, and, in some cases, out of this world"..not sure what that means exactly, but that is the intro to Out magazine's daring 60 Greatest Bar in the World. As with any list, there is exclusion and that demands reaction. Out's list is certainly a magnet for controversy. Bars like KRAVE in Las Vegas are not even mentioned. Lists of this sort are packed with complexities: some are advertiser's, friends of publisher's and editors who get free drinks for the mention. And in this case, they haven't tackled just America but the world! They don't explain how the bars were chosen or the basis for inclusion, but there is a curious mention of the photos (bar photos) being art directed Jason Rodgers. Reaction is one of our favorite things and here is the first reaction listed on the website: "The 'reviews' are laughable. They sound like they have all been written by some 23-year-old Trixie PR girl whose bible is the Zagat's guide. Good work by the publicists, though, in getting their clients' bars/clubs in this list. I'm seeing e-mails, ads already by some bars that are touting their inclusion in this list."

Face the Facts

The New Rules for FACEBOOK

 

1)     Sipping tea or slicing a cucumber is not news and we’re really not interested.

2)     Promoting your event, website or blog continually becomes annoying.

3)     Creating a fan club for yourself is simply arrogant.

4)     Letting people know what fabulous restaurant you’re eating at is none of our concern.

5)     Neither is letting us know what class on an airline your flying.

6)     Being on FACEBOOK is not the new day job, unless you’re being paid.

7)     Boredom is not an excuse.

8)     If you need FB to find out what your friends are doing...they're not really friends..

9)     The amount of  “friends” you have on Facebook is meaningless.

10) Something will replace this, eventually.

What a wonderful world

Oh where to begin. Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black has hired lawyers to sue  for revealing intimate images of Dustin getting plowed without a condom. This outrageous act, caught on digital tape, has ruffled the feathers of professional gay blog commentators everywhere: "Oh poor Mr. Black, from pious, sanctimonious media-whore to greedy, money-grabbing, hypocritical Hollywood phony. Just go away sir, PLEASE…"
Dustin, who really should let this sleeping dog lie, wants $3 million in damages from the website that initially posted the images.

Is gaywired.com under attack? The site currently provokes a warning that: This site may harm your computer. Emails have been returned and there is no answer upon calling.
Susan Boyle has been made over. It was bound to happen. The unglamorous Scottish singer who sang her way into our hearts has had her eyebrows thinned, her nostrils hairs removed and she is sporting a new do. Harper's Bizarre was the lucky magazine to grab hold of this idol and whip her into a fashion state. The 48 year old singer gained worldwide fame in April when she shocked guests and judges alike with a stirring rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables.

Paul Abdul quits: Abdul said she'll miss the fans and, as she said on Twitter, "nurturing all the new talent, but most of all being a part of a show that I helped from day 1 become an international phenomenon." The Abdul factor should not be taken lightly. She is part of a chemistry that for years has worked. Simon Cowell of course, is the epicenter of the show, but it was balanced by Paula's good nature and ocassional Palinesque speeches.

The Apparently Offensive Cover

A Thai boxer who posed on the cover of a gay magazine in his underwear is facing a year-long ban.

Worapoj Petchkoom, who is one of the country's best hopes for a medal at the 2012 London Olympics, has said he did not know the magaine, Stage, was gay-related.

The Amateur Boxing Association of Thailand (ABAT) has called the shoot "inappropriate".

ABAT president General Thaweep Jantharoj said: "We will question him. After we listen to him, we will mete out punishment."

Petchkoom, 28, told the Joh Jai TV programme: "I thought it was an honour to be invited to grace the cover of a magazine on its third anniversary.

"I became sceptical when I was told to wear just underpants.

"They said everything was going to be okay because it would show my abdomen muscles."

The boxer said he was told he would have to pay compensation if he left the shoot.

He has said he may have to abandon hopes of representing Thailand in the 2012 Olympics if he receives a ban.

Petchkoom denied being gay, saying he had a girlfriend. He also apologised to fans, saying it was a "life lesson"

Why are we not surprised...

A former New York Post film critic warns director Guy Ritchie against the prospect of a gay Sherlock Holmes character, telling the Page Six gossip column that audiences feel no “hunger” to see stars Robert Downey Jr. (pictured) and Jude Law “impersonating homosexuals” in the upcoming film based on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle character.
In February, Downey, who plays Holmes, told British tabloid New of the World that his character would experience heightened intimacy with his sidekick Watson, played by Law. "We're two men who happen to be roommates, wrestle a lot and share a bed. It's bad-ass," said Downey. From the Advocate, this tidbit from the mouth of conservative vegetarian talk show host and sometime movie reviewer, Michael Medved. Medved, who is Jewish, loved the nail hammering The Passion of the Christ, directed by Jewish-loving Mel Gibson, but apparently the vision of Downey and Law locking lips is too much. Medved is also the author of The 10 Big Lies About America.

A Monday Random

1) How do you know when the news day is slow?
When towleroad.com does a story about Tiger Woods possibly farting.

2) Is anyone keeping on Michael Jackson's doctor? As in suicide watch?

3) religion is the root of all hatred

4) The pictures of Jack Nicholson smoking while swimming are pretty funny.

5) John Waters and Leslie Van Houten: An odd friendship.

7. Horrific shooting in Tel Aviv at Gay Youth Center.

8) It's Obama's birthday tomorrow.

9) Where is my much anticipated redesign of the Lambda Literary website?

10) The boy serves no purpose.