From the ‘Brenda-Starr-Does-Drag’ file, we’re wondering about the comic strip in the Chicago Tribune (Aug. 14) : It seems to be a flashback with Brenda’s old b.f., Basil St. John, and he seems to be introducing an androgynous nephew, Slippery, who owns a ‘plastic costume bodice’ that gives him a, um, woman’s chest. With his trusty wig, says St. John, ‘He can impersonate almost anyone … male or female.’ Brenda looks a little confused—boys aren’t supposed to look as good as her.
From the ‘Mellowing-of-Andrew-Sullivan’ file, the September Atlantic has Mr. Sullivan writing ‘My Big Fat Straight Wedding,’ describing his own ceremony and how it made him feel, basically, just like a straight person. Relax, Andy: Even after the nuptials, you’ll still be a chunky sissy bear who can’t decide if he’s a liberal or a conservative.
From the ‘Hot-Kisses-and Soulful-Glances’ file, The Chicago Tribune (Aug. 13) says ostensibly straight actor James Franco (Pineapple Express) is all ready for his big movie kiss with Sean Penn (certainly straight but liberal). They’re starring as Harvey Milk and his longtime boyfriend Scott Smith in the new flick Milk. The Trib, the day before, highlighted Katy Perry’s song ‘I Kissed a Girl,’ which the article says is ‘officially’ the song of summer because it was #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for five weeks. The writer fusses because the video doesn’t actually have a ‘sapphic lip lock.’ Back again in the Trib on the 13th, we’d better go check out the new funny/controversial Ben Stiller flick Tropic Thunder to watch a fake movie trailer for Satan’s Alley, a kind of ‘Brokeback Monk-Man’ in which Robert Downey plays a ‘tormented 18th century Irish priest’ who makes ‘ … soulful goo-goo eyes’ at a fellow sinner.
From the ‘None-So-Blind …’ file, The New York Times (Aug. 7) has a strange story about below-downlow men in Mexico who are increasingly vulnerable to AIDS because they will not admit they’re gay and only gay men get that disease. An example: A 69-year-old married man with a homophobic wife and a younger male lover (who dresses as a woman but has a girlfriend and child) ; the older man uses two separate cell phones to keep his wife ignorant, saying ‘I’m not the least bit gay.’ Mexican health official Dr. Jorge Saavedra, himself an HIV-positive gay man, says, ‘I’d say most of the men in Mexico who have sex with men will never recognize that they are gay or bisexual.’
From the ‘Chicago-Connection’ file, The Chicago Tribune (Aug. 9) reviews For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Chicago by Simon Baatz, and says the meticulously written and researched book more than adequately covers the lives of the gay, teenaged and highly inept killers.