Deep Inside Hollywood

by Miss Paige Turner

Gus van Sant, the acclaimed gay director of My Own Private Idaho and To Die For, has embarked on a new career: author. Not content with the visual medium of film, Van Sant has turned his attention to creating an eye-popping new book entitled Pink. With changing typefaces and even a flip cartoon to animate the novel's action, Pink is sure to cause a big stir when it is released next month. Described as both a comic deconstruction of modern culture and a genuinely tender novel on the themes of love and loss, readers can expect to find an unusual blend of text and texture in the book's visually arresting pages. It's no small coincidence that Van Sant's latest cinematic endeavor, Good Will Hunting starring Robin Williams, is scheduled to be released by Miramax around the same time. Not wanting to miss a bit of the momentum of these two simultaneous events, Pink's publisher Bantam Doubleday Dell is planning a marketing strategy that is as unusual as the book itself. Using something called a "Web Ring," the publisher plans to promote the book on the web by linking together several different Internet sites. Each site will feature pages about Van Sant and his work, creating a funnel effect to shuttle fans into a circular frenzy of Van Sant excitement. To be included in the Web Ring is (be ready for a surprise here) Van Sant's own website, Bold Type (www.boldtype.com).

Despite controversial pasts, two queer German icons, Marlene Dietrich and Douglas Sirk, are finally being honored. A Berlin district has voted to put Dietrich's name on the map, choosing to name a square after the omnisexual screen legend despite some residents' resentment over her support for the Allied cause during World War II. The city-central Tiergarten district council voted unanimously to name a square being built as part of the Potsdamer Platz after her. The Marlene Dietrich Platz will be near a musical theater and a film museum which features items from her career. Some Berliners regard Dietrich as a traitor because she became an American citizen and entertained Allied troops during World War II.

Meanwhile, Douglas Sirk, the director responsible for launching Rock Hudson's career, is the subject of an international symposium at Dartmouth College in honor of the hundredth anniversary of his birth in October. Like Dietrich, the German-born Sirk left anti-gay Nazi Germany and prospered in Hollywood. Sirk made a name for himself as a director by creating his signature lush melodramas in the 1950s. In addition to Hudson's career-making films Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows, Sirk also directed the Lana Turner camp classic Imitation Of Life, and mentored queer director Rainer Werner Fassbinder (Querelle). A recent resurgence of interest for Sirk's work has led to several screenings and lectures around the world, all scheduled to coincide with his centennial in October. Dartmouth's three-day symposium will include screenings of some of his rarely seen German films, as well as discussions ranging from ideology and race to queer discourse.

Miss Paige Turner can be reached through this publication or by e-mail at paige@planetout.com.