Meet Your New Rock

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A couple of weeks ago I told you about Hollywood, Ryan Murphy's upcoming Netflix series that'll dive into the backstage lives of a bunch of folks in 1940s Tinseltown, including lots of real actual people up to and including the movie star and most famous closet case Rock Hudson. Well now we know who's playing Rock and it ain't the dude I guessed it to be -- it'll be the actor Jake Picking, seen above. Oh and below as well, cuz why the hell are we even here talking about this if not abs?

According to his IMDb page it looks like he's played several (presumably douchey) frat-bro types in his six-year career so far -- including a "Chad," a "Kyler," and three named "Sean" which for some reason I find hysterical -- in movies like Dirty Grandpa and Goat and Blockers and the forthcoming Top Gun sequel. Those all sound right.

Also added to the cast is Jim Parsons, who'll play Rock's infamous agent Henry Willson -- there's an awesomely sleazy book devoted to Willson called The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson that I very much recommend -- we don't know a ton about what Ryan Murphy's intentions are with Hollywood but if Henry Willson is a character I think we can start to hazard a guess where he's going. I've brought that book up a few times before -- how could I not, it's so in my wheel-house -- when discussing the rumors surrounding Rory Calhoun and Guy Madison...

... who were both "discoveries" of Willson's and long-rumored to be more than just pals. And now I really need this rumor to be brought to life via Netflix, please. Don't do us wrong, Ryan Murphy! Other "discoveries" of Willson's include Robert Wagner, Troy Donahue, Tab Hunter, John Derek... the list goes on and on. Willson is mentioned a bunch in Tab Hunter's book and I think he's in Scotty Bower's infamous memoir about his prostitution business at the time as well, although it's been awhile since I read that.

I've posted that shot of Willson smiling away with half-naked Rock before but one really must post it every time Willson comes up, for obvious reasons. Anyway I don't know if Jake Picking is a good pick(ing) (sorry) for Rock or not as he's never left any impression on me in the several things I've apparently seen him in before, and I'm not entirely convinced looks-wise -- I mean he is clearly attractive...

... but is he Rock Hudson? We'll have to wait and see. Until then you can follow Mr. Picking on Instagram here if you so desire, and I assume you desire at this point. Bonus: he appears to be plenty good friends with Archie aka KJ Apa...

View this post on Instagram

That wasn’t meant to be funny uce

A post shared by Jake Picking (@jakepicking) on Jun 30, 2018 at 6:19pm PDT

Time To Do Tab

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Although I'm a little wary of celebrating his birthday now that John Waters confirmed Tab Hunter was a Republican up until the day he died exactly a year and three days ago, which was way past the point of no return, I will bring up Tab today on what would have been his 88th birthday because there was a little smidge of news this week on that movie they're supposedly making about his closeted relationship with fellow movie star Anthony Perkins. NewNowNext interviewed Tab's husband Allan Glaser this week because TCM is premiering the terrific doc Tab Hunter: Confidential, based off Tab's terrific autobiography, tonight, and they got a little update (thx Mac) on the fictional film that's being made:

"Doug Wright, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his Tony-winning play I Am My Own Wife, is writing the screenplay. In a recent interview with NewNowNext, Glaser gave an update on the project, noting that Wright knocked his screenplay “out of the park.”

“I’ve never seen the first draft of a script so well done,” Glaser explains. “Then again, Doug lived with Tab; he came out here about three months before Tab died and spent a couple of weeks with us just to absorb Tab’s sense of being, his dialogue, his thoughts.”

“When I read the script, he totally captured Tab. His voice, his mannerisms, his outlook on life—and he did for Tony Perkins, too! Right now, we’re out to directors on the project. I think it’s going to be terrific.”

“For Tony Perkins, I was thinking Andrew Garfield,” reveals Glaser, but he is stumped when it comes to who could portray Hunter. “Maybe we’ll find an unknown, much like Tab was cast in his first movie,” he adds. “He was an unknown, and that made him a star. So, you know, we’ll have our own Hollywood story to come out of it.”

Andrew Garfield is of course a perfect pick for Perkins, even if he might be getting a little old for it at this point -- they really should hurry this up! But when the movie was first announced I asked for casting ideas and got a lot of suggestions for Tony (Andrew, Timothée, Ezra Miller) but not so many for Tab. So let's cast Tab! Give me your best suggestions in the comments...

I'm Gonna Get An Abortion & I Can't Wait!

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Have I mentioned to y'all that a single day hasn't passed since I met John Waters last month that I haven't thought about the fact that I met John Waters? I mean it doesn't take a lot of effort on my part since I'm still in the process of reading his new book (I'm taking it extra slow, to savor the sticky filth of it) and since my room is covered in newly autographed John Waters memorabilia, but it's still been pretty thick, this particular period. So consider today's official news of Criterion releasing his film Polyester on blu-ray come September 17th an extension of my magnificent obsession, I suppose -- and look at that cover! What glorious artwork. You might even call it... divine? (Groan, I know, I know.)

Anyway when I talked to John the other week I had him sign my old Odorama scratch-and-sniff card for Polyester and he mentioned that Criterion was working on making new cards for the new edition so I knew this was all in the works but it's lovely to have a countdown clock now, not to mention word on all the other per usual jaw-dropping special features that Criterion's including with the disc. Hit the jump for the full list...

Quote of the Day

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Sure everything seems shitty right now, but there is a new John Waters book coming out next week so it's not, it's not all shitty, only... mostly shitty minus the John Waters book stuff. Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder hits the stands (god that sounds antiquated -- the stands!) on May 21st, and Waters is doing the rounds (including a book tour, I'll be seeing him here in NYC!) and there's a brand new chat with him over at the Washington Blade very much worth checking. The bit I have chosen to highlight is the (depressing -- like I said, everything's shitty) bit he had to say about his Polyester star Tab Hunter:

"Well, he voted for Reagan, you know. He used to shock me. He was for Trump, too. He used to laugh when he told me, because he knew how crazy it made me. I love Tab. You know, that’s the thing. He was from a different era. Completely from a different era... I think was always a Republican. Oh yeah, he was in the closet forever. He had to be. It was illegal. You know. He was loved by every woman in America. It would have ruined his career. And he wrote about all that in his book... I stayed friends with him right up until the end. I just talked to his husband recently. Tab was great. He was a team player too. Lovely to Divine. Matter of fact, he liked the experience so much he went and made a movie with Divine afterwards, called “Lust in the Dust.”

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I Quit Smoking Eleven Years Ago Today

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Like two perfectly straight cigarette sticks we've struck the number 11 this year -- 11 years without a cigarette as of today, May 5th 2019. And as we've done with every anniversary since we've spent the past 12 months gathering up photographs of attractive actor fellas with a fag between their lips so, uhh... 

... to speak. And now's the time to share! If you hit the jump there are dozens and dozens (these things seem to grow bigger every year somehow -- I always think I'll run out but I never do!) of photos and gifs, enough to give you second-hand something...

Good Morning, World

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The terrific and troubled Anthony Perkins was born on this day in the year 1932 -- you know, a person lives an entire life, it's got to be annoying t get reduced to "troubled." Aren't we all fucking troubled? I rescind that "troubled." Perkins went through some shit and by all accounts was often an asshole because of it (Tab Hunter's book doesn't show the best side of Tony) but if I'd been forced to closet myself up I think I'd have ended up a lot worse than Anthony damn Perkins, that's for sure. Hell I'm nowhere near a closet and I'm no Anthony damn Perkins. 

I hope they think this stuff through when they make the movie about Anthony and Tab's relationship -- we ought to be past the place where even a story of someone in the closet has to be a relentless misery fest like Bohemian Rhapsody was. People find a way. Life finds a way. We can criticize the structures that were built around but not for us while also managing to find some appreciation for the way we rise above, survive. Hmm I haven't even had my coffee yet, I don't know where all that came from! Good morning, everybody!

Beyond Cat People

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An update on some news that I shared back in September -- the Jacques Tourneur retrospective that the Film Society of Lincoln Center is putting on next month has announced its line-up and schedule and it's every ounce as great as I thought it would be. I was mainly focused on the horror films that Tourneur made with producer Val Lewton -- classic stuff like Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie -- but they're showing so so so much more. Stuff like the 1951 female-led swashbuckler Anne of the Indies starring Jean Peters (as "vilest-hearted she-monster that ever came out of the sea") and Louis Jourdan (pictured above)...

... and stuff like the 1952 Argentinian technicolor western called Way of the Gaucho starring Rory Calhoun (mmm Rory Calhoun), Gene Tierney, and Rory's titular drawers, seen above. There will be classics like his noir Out of the Past, and then there will be, uh, not classics but quite possibly the most exciting thing they're showing, period, 1965's War-Gods of the Deep (aka City in the Sea), a loooooosely-based adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe poem starring Vincent Price as, and I quote, " the diabolical overlord of a secret city beneath the sea who holds a trio of unfortunates hostage in his aquatic lair where time stands still and an underwater volcano threatens to blast them all to smithereens."

I've never seen this one! 

It co-stars Tab Hunter!

Oh heaven and bliss, I have my holidays all planned out for me now. The series runs from December 14th through January 3rd, check out the great big list of films right here. And lest you think it's nothing but men I'll leave you with this stunning picture of the always stunning Gene Tierney in Way of the Gaucho...

I Am Link

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--- Monster Smash - The buzz on the Predator reboot seems awfully buzz-less right now, doesn't it? I know we're all a little buzzed-out by reboots but Shane Black is a smart writer director (with a history with the franchise to boot) and it's got a killer cast and I don't care, I am buzzing dammit. (See the trailer here if you missed it.) So I will link you to this batch of new pictures from the movie whether you want them or not - come for clear shots of the monster, stay for sleeveless Trevante Rhodes and Boyd Holbrook in military pants.

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--- Video Killed the Video Store - This piece right over here on what we lost when we lost video-stores is a real deep dive and I will admit I got a little impatient with the passages about Netflix algorithms, as is my wont, but man alive it made me nostalgic for my high school and college days (this would be in the mid 1990s) working at a video-store. I learned so much getting lost in those aisles, picking up piles of tapes every night of things I'd never heard of, of things my co-workers recommended, of things that just looked insane. 

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--- Bye Bye Barbara - I don't want to say that I am personally responsible for the death of Barbara Harris but I forgot to wish her a happy birthday last month like I usually did every year is all I am saying. Kidding aside she was a gem, a true gem, who perked up every movie she popped up in (I really want to re-watch Dirty Rotten Scoundrels now - I can't believe both her and Glenne Headly are gone now) and you should read our pal Nathaniel's piece on her at The Film Experience right now.
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. --- Ghost With Most - This was a nice little surprise yesterday - IndieWire chatted with The Changeling director Peter Medak about that 1980 classic yet deeply underrated horror movie starring George C. Scott. I don't know why they chatted with him but they did and I wish more placed would just randomly call up folks on stuff like this. (ETA Oh wait the interview happened because a new blu-ray of the film came out earlier this month. Nevermind. It's still a nice perk to hear from a veteran once in awhile anyway.) 
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--- Investigation Open - There was an awful lot happening in the news yesterday so perhaps you missed the word that Veronica Mars is being rebooted? I very nearly almost did myself and I am what some might consider, in the parlance of nerd-dom, a Marshmallow. Anyway "rebooted" is probably not the word - revived is the right word - since it will star original star Kristen Bell, as well it should since KB remains one of our most charming and under-utilized actors around. The series will air on Hulu. 
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--- Jazz Hands of July - I had to live vicariously through the Bob Fosse film festival diaries of Difficult People star and fire-headed funny lady Julie Klausner posted at The New Yorker this week, since I crapped out myself and missed all of the films when they screened at The Quad last month. I would've loved to have seen All That Jazz on a big screen, I never have, and there are a couple of Fosse's movies that I still have never seen. Specifically Sweet Charity and Damn Yankees...

The Not So Secret Now History of Hollywood

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Even though they came out seven years apart I personally read Tab Hunter's autobiography right around the same time that I read bisexual pimp to the stars Scotty Bower's book, and so they're pretty mashed-up in my head. That's not that weird, given the fact that they're both about The Closet in Classic Hollywood. And then they each got turned into buzzy documentaries, too. Anyway it seems Hollywood itself has them mashed up in their minds as well because not even a month after announcing a film is being produced about the secret romance between Tab and Anthony Perkins comes word that Bowers' book is itself being bio-pic-ized. 

The director of the Bowers documentary is producing the bio-pic but that's all we've got so far, name-wise; still it's a pretty juicy chance given all the huge Hollywood stars that Bowers says used his services - Rock Hudson, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (!!!), oh and that threesome Scotty says he had with Cary Grant and Randolph Scott. Not to mention that Bowers himself was movie star handsome - it'd be a killer role for an up and comer. Who might you cast?

Tab is Coming To Town

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Mark your calendars, gays and gay-lovers (or, you know, movie lovers in general I suppose) -- TCM is celebrating the life and work of the actor Tab Hunter this Friday with an all-day marathon of his movies! Starting with 1953's The Steel Lady, Tab's fourth film about a group of oilmen who uncover a WWII tank buried in the desert...

... they're screening eight films, running up through 1972's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, which starred Paul Newman not to mention Tab's former flame Anthony Perkins. I've seen Judge Roy Bean (which in weird related news is being dropped on blu-ray tomorrow) but I haven't seen a single one of the other seven films they're showing - see the whole list and schedule on TCM's site right here. I'm gonna record them all! But what especially grabbed me...

... was their description of a film they are not screening, one I don't recall knowing about. (There's a chance he might've talked about it in his book and I forgot about it, I guess, since my brain is mush.) Here's what they write:

"Perhaps his finest performance was as the lonely Venice Beach psychopath of Curtis Hanson's directing debut, "The Arousers" (1973)..."

The film is also known as Sweet Kill and it is available on DVD -- have any of you seen it? I'm a big fan of Curtis Hanson already - The Hand That Rocks the Cradle forever - so this just jumped way way up my watch list. Anyway let's all tune into TCM this weekend and memorialize ourselves some classic Tab, people.

Good Morning and RIP Tab Hunter

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Incredibly sad to read the news this morning of Tab Hunter's death at the age of 86 - we've covered the actor pretty thoroughly since he officially came out in his 2005 memoir Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star, which I can't recommend highly enough - the doc by Jeffrey Schwartz is also terrific, if you don't like to read or whatever. (Kidding - Tab's life was made for motion pictures.) I'm glad I got to see Tab in person with Robert Osborne (sigh, also RIP) at Film Forum a couple of years back when he was doing press..

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Spotted #tabhunter and #robertosborne at #filmforum before the new doc screening

A post shared by @ minimalhoard on Oct 12, 2015 at 3:57pm PDT

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That was a terrific night, even if Tab remained incorrigibly rough around the edges when it came to "the gay stuff." (He was decidedly old school in his thoughts about it, that is.) Anyway just a couple weeks back it was announced that Zachary Quinto and JJ Abrams are producing a movie about Tab's brief romance with Psycho star Anthony Perkins - read about that here, and then you can read an interview with Tab on just that subject right here - so hopefully that will be a nice tribute to the actor.

Also good tributes - clicking on either of the three great big gratuitous posts we did for him, the first one here and the second one here and the third one here - they get across the point of Tab Hunter in a way no words can. If you'd like to try, with words I mean, tell us what Tab meant to you in the comments, and take it away, Tab...
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I Am Link

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--- The Last Woman - Granted it's been several years since I have re-read Brian K. Vaughn's glorious comic series Y: The Last Man - a series I can't recommend highly enough to y'all, by the way; I have been blathering on about it ever since, after all - but I have no recollection of ever thinking to myself when the series was fresh in my mind that the role of Yorick's mother would be a hot ticket for a big name when they got around to casting the thing... and yet here we are and there's a rumor going around that the first person attached to the series is no less than Jodie Foster to play Yorick's mom. I mean, great! Jodie is great! Silence of the Lambs is my jam! I'm just wracking my brain to remember the importance of Yorick's Mom and wondering how this might skew the focus of the show, is all.

--- Robot Mama - Shooting has begun on the new Terminator movie, which is being directed by Deadpool's Tim Miller and is being billed as the real official sequel to James Cameron's T2, aka we should forget all those crappy sequels (sorry but you'll have to hold me down and lobotomize Jai Courtney's Almost Naked Scene out of me), and holy shit-balls it's a thrill to see Linda Hamilton playing Sarah Connor again. See the pictures over here, and then stay tuned for pictures of Mackenzie Davis butching it up in a dirty tank-top cuz why not?

--- Fantastic Beasts - About a month ago I told y'all about Lovecraft Country, a horror series being produced by Jordan Peele that's basically giving the Old Ones inventor the anthology treatment. It's based on a 2016 book by Matt Ruff that I have not read. Anyway I guess Peele's involvement is enough to get some awesome and exciting names involved cast-wise, including most enticingly drumroll please Elizabeth Debicki! Elizabeth Debicki versus Cthulhu! Elizabeth Debicki could totally kick Cthulhu's ass, you guys.

--- Grand High Excuse Me - For some reason Hollywood has decided to make a new movie version of Roald Dahl's classic book The Witches when we've already got Nicholas Roeg's practically perfect 1990 version with Angelica Huston - don't ask me. But they are getting Robert Zemeckis to direct it, it looks like, and that's not a bad idea if they have to do this. Zemeckis has had a few years of not-quite-up-to-snuffs but this seems like a possibly good match.I don't know. I don't really let myself get too worked up about remakes anymore - the originals still exist for us to watch. So the question turns to - who would you cast as The Grand High Witch?

--- Hulk Out - You might've already read this since it was making the rounds pretty hard yesterday but Vulture's piece ranking the Marvel Movies by gayness is high hysterical work by good ol' Kyle Buchanan - I laughed mightily and long. I had a hard time picking just one favorite bit but then I realized something even more important...
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You know the world has gone off the deep end when I - we're talking about ME here - had totally forgotten we see Hulk's big ass in Thor Ragnarok pic.twitter.com/JoaxqZ4COS

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 20, 2018

--- You Shall Not Pass - There's a documentary about Ian McKellen called McKellen: Playing the Part that's making the rounds starting this week - you can see if it's playing anywhere near you right here - and our pal Nathaniel got to chat with the doc's director for Towleroad, read the interview right here. I saw the doc earlier this week and it's worth checking out if you're a fan of the actor - it reminded me first and foremost what an incredibly brave move it was for him to come out  thirty whole years ago in 1988. Just wow.

--- Tab Up - Last week we heard that the real-world 1950s closeted romance between actors Tab Hunter and Anthony Perkins was getting turned into a movie - this week Attitude caught up with Tab himself and got some good quotes from him on that romance and what we should probably expect from the movie, biographically speaking. It's pretty much like I said - this was not a great romance; I hope the movie stays true to the difficulty of what the two had, even just personality-wise, because that seems more interesting to me than some rose-colored version. (thx Mac)

--- And Finally it's been a very long time since I've done one of these link round-up posts so this news is weeks old, but I can no longer allow MNPP to exist without this news-story written somewhere upon it - Brian De Palma's next movie is going to be a fictionalized and no doubt controversial version of the whole Harvey Weinstein Horror Show. I can't even entirely wrap my head around what that movie will be, but I have already bought my tickets to opening night. In related news and worth reading is BD's recent editorial about how Dressed To Kill is the ultimate American Giallo, which I agree with one thousand percent.

Fear Strikes Out Gays

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The relationship between the actors Anthony Perkins & Tab Hunter in the mid-1950s is one we've covered here at MNPP plenty over the years - here's a little post but really just scroll through our Tab Hunter Archives and you'll see Tony all over the place. These classic Hollywood gay romances (see also Cary Grant & Randolph Scott) fascinate me, as I think they do any movie-loving homosexual so it was only a matter of time before Hollywood, full of movie-loving homosexuals itself, caught up. And by "caught up" I mean "gave a gay person enough power to produce something of this sort." 

Enter Zach Quinto! He's teaming up with his Star Trek buddy JJ Abrams to produce a movie about those two titled Tab & Tony, which will apparently take its inspiration from Tab Hunter's (wonderful) autobiography of a couple years back and which had a couple of chapters devoted to their time together. What I think is especially interesting about this is those two have never really seemed like they had the great love affair we might want to ascribe to them - it always seemed like they probably had some really good sex but that was followed by just a couple of deeply difficult years together, made all the harder by a business that refused to let them just be, but also by a mis-matched clash of personalities.

Those two factors fed one another, obviously - their relationship fell apart when Tony pursued a film role, that of baseball player Jimmy Piersall in the 1957 film Fear Strikes Out (and a terribly, terribly apt title, that; that could probably be the title of the bio-pic itself), which was a role Tab had just played for TV; basically Tony swept in and stole Tab's big role out from under him. 

Anyway as soon as this news broke last night everybody on Twitter was throwing out casting ideas - this was a good one, I thought...

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Well because it should be Andrew Garfield and Billy Magnussen.

— Ryan (@sortathatguy) June 6, 2018

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... although they're both 10 years older 

than Tab & Tony were at the time. 

I thought maybe you could go this way:

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I have to think about it more but you could probably just throw a couple of random twinks from Dunkirk in there and call it a day pic.twitter.com/Rshf733ogO

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 7, 2018

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But I am putting it to y'all!

Give up some casting ideas in the comments...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Polyester (1981)

Todd Tomorrow: I got somethin' to show ya, Francine! 

It's long. And it's sleek. And it's powerful. 

It's my new 'vette! 

Happy 86 to Tab Hunter!

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All About Tab

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In case you missed it when it was in theaters (lord knows little things like this sadly don't play everywhere) now's your chance to catch the documentary about Tab Hunter titled, plainly, Tab Hunter Confidential -- it has just been released onto blu-ray and DVD and all that jazz. It is really a wonderful document of a fascinating life from pop-culture documentarian Jeffrey Schwartz, who also made the documentary on Divine and the documentary on William Castle and, well, dude has over 300 credits, most of which are on subjects I too obsess over, and I think he would be an incredible person to have a drink with, honestly. As would Tab! Oh and I also recommend the book too -- a great read, and a great watch.

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Which Is Hotter?

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It is the 85th birthday of living homosexual legend Tab Hunter today - and yes I've seen the excellent doc about him (hell I saw it screened with him there in person) so I know he'd be uncomfortable with me specifying the "homosexual" part but Mr. Hunter you'll just have to get over it. It's that tension inside your persona that's kept you relevant all these years later (just ask Troy Donahue). Anyway I was posting about Tab way before the doc but the movie did give us a deeper appreciation for him beyond the pretty... but we're still gonna exploit his pretty today. Happy birthday, Tab!

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Beautiful Men & The Men Who Love Them

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I'm having trouble focusing today -- it's totally lame but the tickets for FSLC's Scary Movies series, which I told you I was looking to buy this morning, still haven't gone on sale and until they go on sale I can't focus on anything else. I can't! I have to make sure I get my damn tickets to Paperhouse! Anyway I haven't been able to focus enough to do any posts of substance today even though I mean to, up to and including writing about the screening of the Tab Hunter documentary which I told you I was going to see at Film Forum last night, with Tab himself in person, but it has to wait until I can, you know, focus. (Actually I'm pretty sure this post itself is standing as proof of my scattered mindset right now, since these sentences seem as they're coming out of me a total jumble.) 

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Spotted #tabhunter and #robertosborne at #filmforum before the new doc screening

A photo posted by @minimalhoard on Oct 12, 2015 at 3:57pm PDT

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Anyway I will share one funny side-note from last night -- before the Tab Hunter doc Film Forum showed a trailer for their 4K restoration of Visconti's film Rocco and His Brothers, which they're showing soon, and the audience -- which, let's be frank about who's going to see the Tab Hunter documentary, was a big bunch of leaning towards the elderly side of the spectrum gay men -- made SUCH A SOUND when they showed Alain Delon on the screen. A room full of gay gasp! It was lovely. My people. Here's their trailer:

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See our previous post on Alain & Rocco here.

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Keeping Tabs

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I really wish Tab Hunter had used some horrible pun, like this post does, as the title for his autobiography -- he really missed out on a goldmine there. I mean I get "Tab Hunter Confidential" as a reference to the gossip rags of his heyday and everything, but picture it: "A Tab'll Do Ya!" or "Tab Be Cat" or "Tab! You're It!" on your bookshelf and mourn all we don't have. Oh well. In related news I am going to see Mr. Hunter in person tonight! The documentary based on his book is screening at Film Forum and he will be there for a Q&A after the screening. I'll report back tomorrow... let you know if I Picked Up The Tab! Ha! Sigh. For lots more Tab, click here. Here's the doc's trailer:
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I Am Link

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--- Hot Jinx - If you follow me on Twitter you maybe saw me go through my obsession with HBO's astonishing true-crime doc The Jinx, which I watched 5/6ths of in one sitting over the weekend (I had to wait a day for the finale, in which time all the real world news spoiled everything, dammit) - well I'm still kind of obsessed, which is good since said real-world news is gonna be loud for the next whos-knows-how-long, so I turn my eyes to Jarecki's 2010 fictionalization of the same case All Good Things, which I totally skipped watching at the time. (Even though I posted the pictures of Ryan Gosling in tighty-whities here, of course.) Point being I am totally going to watch that movie as soon as I can, and once I've done that I will read this article at the Dissolve talking about the film in light of the doc.

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--- Legendary producer Christine Vachon (true story: when I first got out of college I almost got a gig as one of her assistants... in hindsight I'm glad it didn't happen because she totally would've chewed me up and spat me back across the Hudson) did a Q&A thing at SXSW the other day and IndieWire wrote up the highlights from it; it's mostly about Where We Are Now with indie film-making, but she would know.

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--- Being Frank (Oh) - Some magazine let James Franco interview himself, or rather they let Straight James Franco interview Gay James Franco, and it's exactly all the navel-gazing you think it's gonna be going in, so if you don't wanna read that don't read it. I read most of it... I don't have the monumental patience required to do more than skim two lines of James Franco's poetry though, what am I, Superman? Anyway I wish somebody would just go ahead and ask James Franco: Are you Bi? Because his "I'm not 'Gay' wink wink" word-play's gotten exhausted.
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--- Keep Following - I wasn't quite sure what was up with the release of the awesome horror film It Follows; I'd read it did well on the NY/LA screens its first limited weekend, but I'd thought it was coming out on VOD as well... well DH rounds up the news, which is that it's hitting more theaters across the country this weekend, but it's still going to head to VOD super-fast even though it's making money in theaters.
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--- The Right One - The dudes behind Teen Wolf are turning their attentions a little bit higher with their next target: to the Swedish masterpiece Let the Right One In, actually. They want to turn it into a TV series for A&E. I don't know how I feel about this, but if I was a person who CG'd kitty cats for a living I'd be so excited right now.
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--- The Sigh Guy - I don't usually link to plain old movie reviews in these link-ups very often anymore but this SXSW review of Tab Hunter: Confidential - the documentary based on Tab's entertaining autobiography that I've talked about a few times - has gotten me really excited about seeing the movie myself, it sounds like they did his crazy story justice. Plus interviews with Debbie Reynolds and John Waters? You can't go wrong!

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--- And Finally, speaking of old-timey homos, this one's pretty spectacular a find and I'd never seen it before - via this Tumblr (thanks Mac) comes the following video, which is a screen-test for a scene in East of Eden that was never shot because oh my god it's the gayest thing you've ever seen. James Dean & Richard Davalos are milliseconds away from full penetration.

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