|
Book Reviews
| | Empire Magazine, August 2001 | Given that one of the most popular phrases in movie gossip circles is ‘S/he’s gay, you know’, a list of who’s batting for which team could be slightly preferable to this exhaustive list of celebs ponderings on issues of sex. There’s some fun stuff, James Dean revealing that he’d been blown by “five of the biggest names in Hollywood” being amongst them. So, if for some reason you’re in the market for a compendium of gay celebrity quotations, then you couldn’t do much better.
| | Positive Nation | I’d probably be bankrupt without all my gay fans.’ Well, yes, Cher, indeed. This is one of the many from a selection of celebrity quotes on the subject of sexuality, specifically of the homo variety, in In or Out, by Boze Hadleigh. It is packed full of comments and quips that celebrities have made about themselves (“I just love the Supremes. They remind me of me,” singer Little Richard) about others (“Barry Manilow did a TV movie. Did you see it? He played a heterosexual – it was like science fiction,” comic Tom Ammiano), and sexuality in general (We’re both bi-sexual… and it’s beautiful,” actress Maria Schneider about co-star Marlon Brando).
| | Time Out - June 2001 | According to one of the quotes gathered in this book, one of the reasons Ian McKellen became an actor was because he’d heard that he could meet queers in the theatre which rather makes you wonder why he waited so long before coming out. Still, an actors life isn’t always gay, as many stars have found to their cost.
Elsewhere Truman Capote is quoted as saying: ‘Did you know that in ancient Greek the word for actors is the same word as for hypocrite?’ But then that’s writers for you - always quick to pass judgment on things they know nothing about. The difficulties faced by gay men and women in the public eye is one of the themes explored in this collection.
The first section, ‘Playing The Game’, offers a variety of takes on how homosexuality is regarded within the entertainment industry. Here we have the irreproachably cool Susan Sarandon (Who could possibly object to doing a love scene with Catherine Deneuve?’) quoted alongside the strangely patriotic Peter Finch, describing his screen kiss with Murray Head (‘I just closed my eyes and thought of England’). Elsewhere, Liza Minelli recalls how her best girlfriend taught her how to kiss, and Gore Vidal responds to an enquiry about the sex of his first lover by saying that he was ‘too polite to ask’. Not the first of its kind, but a welcome addition.
| | more... | | details | | press releases | | extracts | | events | | related titles |
contact us |
|
|