PETER, by Roger Peyrefitte, author of SPECIAL FRIENDSHIPS, had been considered for banning and then cleared, resulted in a large demand for the book. In future, said Henty, his censors will work in secret, and nobody will know about such considerations unless a book actually joins list of over 1,000 titles under ban . . . Ceylon recently became 33rd nation to join in an international agreement to ban production, possession and exchange of obscene printed matter... Recommend excellent biographical study of Madame de Stael and Madame Recamier, THE PASSIONATE EXILES, by Maurice Levaillant (Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1958) recounting a "love that surpasses that of friendship" which even Napoleon could not break up. Juliette Recamier was one of most beautiful, and Germaine de Stael one of most intriguing characters of their age THEATRE '58, Detroit group of thespians staged highly dramatic, upto-date version of famed old melodrama, "East Lynne" but with an all-male cast, which will go on to "Little Women," "The Boy Friend" and "The Women"-in productions for select, invitation-only audience ... Current plays in London: THE CATALYST, by Donald Duncan, satire dealing with one man's love for 2 women-who love one another; and QUAINT HONOR, by Roger Gellert, which the DAILY MAIL reviewer calls the "frankest play about homosexuality"-dramatizing seduction of one schoolboy by another . . . Painter Lucien Freud, grandson of the great doctor, recently did a portrait of his "male pal" (as a Chicago Trib columnist phrased it) and ex secretary and sent it off for exhibit labelled, "The Procurer." The sitter was miffed. "That is going to a bit too far," he says..

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BLIND IN ONE EYE

Pretty Johnny Stompanato is dead of a butcher knife, and no one seems to care much except for Mickey Cohen, who is not much liked by L.A. police. We won't really comment on the role Adonis-Johnny played among Mickey's boysafter all none of the papers were so bold as to make any direct imputation of homosexuality. But, so the story goes, this movie queen picked up the "gangster" gigolo and showed him a high time, until daughter Cheryl, from whom the affair was not exactly kept secret, overheard a nasty quarrel between mamma and her lover-boy and promptly stabbed him in the stomach-it says here in the script. Griefstricken momma, according to her pressagents, who were called several hours before the doctors, tried to imitate God and breathe the breath of life back into the dying Johnny. Afterward, the papers were so indelicate as to print Lana's gushy love letters, supplied by Mickey Cohen, who had once called chief Parker a "liar," a "pervert," and worse things on a TV interview. Meanwhile the cops were bent on proving the victim was the villain, while Cheryl's trial was such a quick formality as to supply barely enough drama to fill the headlines. Of course the sordid amours of faded cinema cheese-wrath, and daughter Cheryl's account of the killing seems more or less justifyable from her standpoint. But is the case to be dropped here? L. A. cops are vigilant enough to spend endless hours nosing around men's restrooms to catch illegal sex acts. Adultery is also illegal. And so is contributing to the delinquency of a minor. But of course, everyone knows justice isn't really impartial, and acts which in one case would

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