Is that a gravelly scream heard from the vicinity of New York as Harvey Fierstein learns that John Travolta (???!) is being considered for the Edna Turnblatt drag role in the movie version of the musical Hairspray instead of Harvey himself? The Chicago Sun-Times (3/8) reports it to be so. (What’s the angle? They think Harvey’s too busy doing straight drag in Fiddler on the Roof?)
The Sun-Times (2/20) also reported on experts telling parents of ‘intersex’ babies to wait on re-assignment surgery until the kid is old enough to tell them if he’s a he or she’s a she. Too many doctors have guessed wrong with tragic results. Along these lines, and not to trivialize it too much, The NY Times (3/4) writes on a new trend (civil-rights movement?) to establish gender-neutral bathrooms in public places for transgender people. People in transition often get beaten up for using the ‘wrong’ bathroom but other people claim that stalkers and peeping toms will take advantage of any change. Stay tuned for further developments.
Gay author Gore Vidal wrote an essay on partly forgotten gay author James Purdy for The NY Times Book Review (2/27). Purdy wrote Eustace Chisholm and the Works, Moe’s Villa and other Stories, and Malcolm, among other works. Purdy’s books, which tend to deal with difficulties in coming to terms with gayness, are beginning to be re-published. Vidal argues that instead of the gay ‘outlaw of American fiction’ title that Purdy has been saddled with, he ought to be reassigned to the Gothic section of the neighborhood along with William Faulkner, et. al. The same magazine (2/6) reviewed February House by Sherill Tippins about the experiment in communal living in Brooklyn during the early days of World War II by writers/artists W.H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten and Gypsy Rose Lee. Many of these artists were gay, bi or very friendly. One on-the-premise literary event was Carson working out the plot of A Member of the Wedding while talking to (stripper and mystery writer) Gypsy Rose Lee.
You want glamour, riches, a title? Alexis: the Memoirs of the Baron de Rede is a how-to book. According to The NY Times (3/10) Alexis was a poor worker in an antique shop who at 19 caught the eye of a wealthy older man, Arturo Lopez-Willshaw. Lopez’ wife didn’t mind his new love and they all traveled and lived together. De Rede inherited million$ and half the estate when Lopez died. He became even more wealthy, bought banks and art gallerys. He oversaw the investments of the Rolling Stones, and commisioned art. Died distinguished, titled, rich and the friend of the famous. Was it Mae West who said ‘When I’m good. I’m very, very good but when I’m bad I’m better’?