GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

FEBRUARY 12, 1999

Evenings Out

Hollywood intrigue

Two books, one fiction and one not, look into a hidden past

Gay Hollywood, Open Secret (1928-1998)

by David Ehrenstein William Morrow, $22 hardcover

Reviewed by John Baker

You know you do it. You and your friends sit around watching movies, endlessly speculating about the sexual proclivities of the stars as they promenade across the screen and into your heart. Who's gay and who isn't in the entertainment world is an arcane subject, akin to the Kremlinology practiced by the CIA in the seventies.

In his new book, David Ehrenstein dissects this curious phenomenon of the late 1990s in which gay people are enjoying more acceptance in society than ever, yet many in Hollywood and the entertainment press are content to stick their collective heads in the sand with regard to the sexuality of many actors and actresses.

Over the course of this century, Hollywood and the mainstream press has gone from crucifying the openly gay to enshrining "don't ask, don't tell" as an art form. One need only look as far as the careers of James Whale, immortalized in the recent film Gods and Monsters, to two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster to see this arc in Hollywood's treatment of gay stars and directors. Ehrenstein in-

vestigates this evolution of Tinseltown sensibilities in a breezy, dishy trip through the history of Hollywood and many of its more colorful personalities. Any fan of the movies will love reading this account of the early gay stars and how they managed, some more successfully than others, to fly below the radar of the likes of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons. Those who went along with the system and kept all evidence of their sex lives hidden were able to keep making movies. Others, like Whale, who felt no need to maintain any pretense, saw their livelihoods evaporate.

The author also details the deliciously salacious history of Confidential magazine and its role in raising the American public's awareness of the love lives of the stars. Reading Ehrenstein's version of early Hollywood history will definitely amuse and edify, leaving the reader with a new list of must-rent movies.

Ehrenstein also takes on gay issues from television and current history as well. He gives the skinny on everyone from Liberace to, of course, Anne Heche and Ellen DeGeneres, to Eddie Murphy. There is a comprehensive examination of the studios' treatment and growing acceptance of gay

executives. While this may be of more interest to those interested in labor

issues and activism, it also serves to bring a touch of the serious to a very gossipy book.

Yes, Virginia, there is a whole chapter dedicated to a discussion of Rosie O'Donnell's putative love interest, Tom Cruise. Ehrenstein lets us know that although there has been no evidence that Tom is gay, the actor does go to great lengths to exert control over all the press about him. Does he have something to hide? According Ehrenstein, the media would probably not tell us if he did. (Cruise's lawyers warned publisher William Morrow last September that they were prepared to sue if Ehrenstein's book even hinted that he is gay.)

to

In Gay Holly wood, Ehrenstein treats the reader to a discourse on

A night out in the 1930s: Carole Lombard, Cary Grant Marlene Dietrich, and Richard Barthelmess.

sexual politics replete with enough Hollywood trivia to satisfy the most jaded watcher of E! Entertainment Television with just enough serious discussion of current gay issues that one won't have to hide the book around the PC set.

The Gold Diggers by Paul Monette Alyson Classics, $10 paperback

In the hills above Los Angeles, there is a mansion known as Crook House, once owned by a director of silent films. The mansion is the repository of the secrets of the famous director who had a taste for rough trade and a soft heart for one of his leading ladies who had succumbed to the pleasures of opium. Fast forward thirty or forty years and throw in a hustler with a gun, millions of dollars of stolen art and a wildly successful gay couple, and you have a Hollywood tale full of greed, lust, and secrets revealed.

The Gold Diggers is a twentieth anniversary edition of Paul Monette's first novel, published in 1979. Monette went on to publish several more books, including Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir and Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story, before dying of AIDS in 1995.

Gold Diggers is a story set in that golden era before the AIDS virus had appeared, just

in plain sight:

ant and

on Scott on the n Santa

circa 1932.

on the cusp of the Reagan years. It tells the story of Nick, a realtor with a Midas touch, Peter, a famous decorator and heir to the czarist throne, and their female buddy, Rita.

Nick and Peter are the perfect couple who bought Crook House, well, because they can. The house's history as the home of the eccentric director Rusty Varda and his favorite star Frances Dean is just so much fodder for cocktail banter as far as they are concerned.

It's not until their friend Rita discovers a hidden room filled with looted treasures from several continents that things really begin to get tense at Crook House. It seems the house has had many visitors over the years, one of whom was a hustler named Sam who happened to be present at Varda's death.

Sam knows that there is something valuable inside Crook House and is determined to use all the means at his disposal to find it.

Although the characters do seem to get bogged down in existential musings now and then, Monette does an admirable job of spinning a tale. The Gold Diggers is both Hollywood intrigue and the story of a couple whose relationship emerges renewed and strengthened after passing through adversity. At the bargain price of ten dollars, it makes for an exciting read.

John Baker is a Chronicle contributing writer living in Austin, Texas.