From the ‘Hope-It’s-In-The-DVD’ file, Newsweek (12/1) reveals that during the editing of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy director Peter Jackson filmed a gag video of Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) and Orlando Bloom (Legolas) making homoerotic eyes at one another. Bloom: ‘…they had a shot of Viggo pulling out his sword and looking at me, and me looking at him and drawing my bow. It was brilliant, man.’
From the ‘Denial-Is-Not-Just-A-River-In-Africa’ file the Chicago Sun-Times (12/4) ran an interview of J.L. King whose book On the Down Low tells about African-American men like himself ‘… Who have sex with men but do not consider themselves gay or bisexual. They are not effeminate and often have girlfriends or wives who are unaware of their double lives.’ He is touring, speaking to primarily Black women since such double lives can severely impact them. He says he has encountered much hostility from men living this way and straight people who simply don’t believe him.
The NY Times (11/30): Former N.F.L. player Roy Simmons, who also lived in ‘the Down Low’ mode but who has come out, told his H.I.V. status: he’s positive. Simmons, who suffered through shame and a drug problem for years, quit football, lived on the streets in San Francisco and finally rehabilitated himself. ‘To his surprise, he has found that old teammates and family members are not shunning him.’
From the ‘Little-Triumphs’ file, the Chicago Tribune (11/30) in an editorial calls South African AIDS activist Zackie Achmat a hero for facing down his recalcitrant government in its anti-AIDS-drug stance and getting those folks to admit the gay man was right and henceforth they would distribute the anti-virals to their ill country-people.
Check out: What We Lost, a book by Dale Peck reviewed in The NY Times book review section (11/16), a finely written memoir of a gay man. A novel reviewed 11/30 The Year of Ice … It’s 1978 and Kevin likes … boys. The Chicago Tribune (11-26) had a major article on ‘Lesbian pulp becomes pop phenomenon.’ Even though the books were produced in the ’50s and ’60s as ‘one-handed reading’ for straight men, they ‘…at least provided a representation of life as a lesbian.’ Chicago playwright Paricia Kane is quoted and featured since she has written a play on this topic called Pulp, which will run at About Face Theater’s Festival of New Plays in February.