BY RONALD CONSTANTINO
It’s been ages since Highspeed visited Hollywood. A revisit is in order, starting with “Lavender Limelight,” dish on gay, lesbian, or bisexual stars.
“In the two books about Monty they have things about (actor) Kevin McCarthy and what a great friend he was to Monty. And in the books, McCarthy says he had no idea that Monty Clift was homosexual and was absolutely amazed…Why, he said, it never crossed his mind. Well, it had crossed the mind of every single trolley-car conductor in Hollywood, so it was very difficult to believe it hadn’t crossed the mind of his best friend for seven and a half years. I mean, how far can hypocrisy go?” – TRUMAN CAPOTE
“I got fed up with Twentieth Century-Fox and Hollywood when Marilyn Monroe came on the scene and they actually built her up into this giant of tiny proportions. The things they let her get away with! On account of the money she made for them. For instance, she took direction not from her directors but her lesbian drama coach, whom they all said she was sleeping with. That’s none of my concern, but it goat when they took a no-talent and began ignoring those of us who could actually act!” – ANNE BAXTER
“Rock Hudson surrounded himself with fellow closet queens, horrible, selfish, self-loathing older men. The day after Rock died of AIDS, one of them went on national TV to say Rock had died of anorexia, and another went on TV to deny that Rock was gay! This was all by way of saving their own silly skins, staying in that closet forever…” – PETER ALLEN
“Of course I knew Laurence Olivier and Danny Kaye were having a long-term affair. So did all of London. So did their wives. Why is America always the last to know?” –PEGGY ASHCROFT
(Source: “Hollywood Babble On” by Boze Hadleigh)
