Boze Hadleigh

Boze Hadleigh (born May 15, 1954) is an American journalist, interviewer and writer of celebrity gossip and entertainment sometimes including homosexuals of Hollywood.

Biography

A linguist,Hadleigh has an M.A. in journalism and has traveled to over 60 countries. He has been called the "Samuel Pepys of Hollywood".

He has published 18 books and has written for over 100 magazines here and abroad, including TV Guide, Playboy, and Us Weekly.

He lives in Beverly Hills, California, and in Sydney, Australia. His latest book is the hardcover "Broadway Babylon," published in June, 2007, and next is "Mexico's Most Wanted," due Columbus Day, 2007, via Potomac Books (Washington, D.C.). Hadleigh's books have been translated into 14 languages, and half of his first 16 have been made into television specials and documentaries in the USA, UK and elsewhere.

Writings

Several of his books deal with pop culture and/or entertainment history, and how the media and status quo shape and manipulate audiences' perceptions and opinions. Six of his eighteen books are exclusively about the les/bi/gay presence in and contributions to entertainment. Some of Hadleigh's books are quotes collections, some are histories and overviews, and some are interview books with noted personalties in movies; several portions of these interviews, as with Rock Hudson, were published in periodicals before the subjects died. The author had committed himself not to out any of his subjects against their will — at least as long as they were living. Some interviewees agreed to speak only on condition that the published result be posthumous. Nearly all the interviews were recorded; a few individuals, like director Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Mae West, however, refused to speak if they were recorded--which was their policy with other interviewers as well. The author is frequently cited in many books and biographies dealing with gay and lesbian actors in Hollywood.

Commentaries and Criticism

Hadleigh's second book, Conversations With My Elders (republished as Celluloid Gaze) includes interviews with actors Sal Mineo and Rock Hudson; directors George Cukor, Luchino Visconti, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder; and designer, photographer, and author Cecil Beaton.

Their frank conversations with the author reveal much about the lives and careers of these celebrities and how their homosexuality affected both. According to Midwest Book Review, the book "is a ground breaking collection of interviews with six men who share a common and unusual trait relevant to their success in the movie-making industry: they were gay, and during their lifetimes, they concealed their sexual orientation from the public. Yet these interviews are remarkably open and candid about how these men's sexuality affected their lives and careers. ... Celluloid Gaze is an informed and informative contribution to Film History and Gay Studies academic reference collections and supplemental reading lists, as well as highly recommended reading for fans of the film work of Sal Mineo, Luchino Visconti, Cecil Beaton, George Cukor, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Rock Hudson."

Hadleigh's book Hollywood Gays is a collection of interviews with prominent film personalities, such as Liberace, Anthony Perkins, Randolph Scott, and several others, most of them widely known as homosexual. Publishers Weekly said about the book:

• Hadleigh (is) evidently taking up where the great gossip columnists of yesteryear left off.
• There's nothing very surprising about his choice of subjects — Paul Lynde, Liberace, Randolph Scott, et al. — all of whom, conveniently for legal purposes, are deceased.
• [A] touching interview with producer David Lewis, who talks freely about his longtime companion James Whale, director of the classic 1931 films Frankenstein and The Invisible Man, who committed suicide in 1957.
• [A] talk with William Haines, whose career was destroyed by Louis B. Mayer after Haines refused to marry a woman, and was later caught with another man in his cot at a YMCA. The book's style is suitably straightforward, though Hadleigh's banter often verges on the cute or leering.

The Library Journal said:

• Like his earlier volumes,...the interviews are highly entertaining and provide an important, mostly undocumented view of the film industry's social history. Recommended for both general readers looking for dish and scholars of gay history and film studies.

Hollywood Lesbians, according to Movieline "deliciously dishy", is a collection of frank interviews with ten lesbians in the entertainment industry. Publishers Weekly said about the book:

• Fans of Hollywood's golden age will find this collection of interviews conducted over many years revealing though hampered. The principal problem is not so much that all of the subjects - director Dorothy Arzner, designer Edith Head, actresses Judith Anderson, Marjorie Main, Barbara Stanwyck, Nancy Kulp, Capucine, Patsy Kelly, Agnes Moorehead and Sandy Dennis — are now deceased, but that almost all were raised in a generation terrified of voicing support for fellow homosexuals, let alone daring to come out of the closet ... Even with carefully couched questions from Hadleigh (Conversations With My Elders), the respondents dance around the subjects of sex and sexuality. Still, an enlightening picture emerges of Tinseltown, different from that presented in the fanzines. Stanwyck kicked him out of her house and his claim that Moorehead is a lesbian has been heavily contested. In his interview with Dennis, he claims that Truman Capote performed fellatio on him after an interview.

Hollywood Babble-On: Stars Gossip about other Stars (1994) includes dish and juicy comments by stars on other stars.

Other works

In or Out: Stars on Sexuality is a compilation of celebrity quotes from stars who are homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual, and who comment on themselves, their sexuality, on others, on the closet, and on society's homophobia, as well as that of showbiz, Hollywood in particular.

The Lavender Screen: The Gay and Lesbian Films — Their Stars, Makers, Characters, and Critics is a collection of gay and lesbian film lore covering movies with homoerotic themes and more or less openly gay films throughout the history of film.

Gays and Lesbians in the Music World is one of the first books that document the artistic contributions of gay and lesbian musicians and performers. According to Madonna, it "cuts through the role-playing crap and shows the music world as it really ... is! It's camp with a High-C!"

Bibliography

Hadleigh wrote the following books:

• The Films of Jane Fonda (under the name "George Haddad-Garcia")(1983)
• Conversations With My Elders (1986)
• The Vinyl Closet: Gays in the Music World (1991)
• Leading Ladies: Conversations with Dame Peggy Ashcroft (1992)
• The Lavender Screen: Gay and Lesbian Films — Their Stars, Makers, Characters and Critics (1993)
• Hollywood Babble On: Stars Gossip About Other Stars (1994)
• Hollywood Lesbians (1996)
• Hollywood Gays: Conversations with: Cary Grant, Liberace, Tony Perkins, Paul Lynde, Cesar Romero, Brad Davis, Randolph Scott, James Coco, William Haine (1996)
• Celebrity Feuds!: The Cattiest Rows, Spats, and Tiffs ever Recorded (1999)
• Sing Out!: Gays and Lesbians in the Music World (1999)
• Hollywood Bitch: The Snippy, Snotty and Scandalous Things Stars Say About Each Other (1999)
• In or Out: Stars on Sexuality: a Collection of Celebrity Quotes (2001)
• Celluloid Gaze (2002)
• Celebrity Lies: Strs, Fibs, Fabrications, Myths and Little White Lies (2003)
• Holy Matrimony! Better Halves and Bitter Halves: Actors, Athletes, Comedians, Directors, Divas, Philosophers, Poets, Politicians" (2003)
• Celebrity Diss And Tell: Celebrities Talk About Each Other" (2005)

Trivia

• Boze Hadleigh appeared on Jeopardy! once as a contestant. He had some success and won several thousand dollars.
• The author once wrote: "Hollywood is where the truth lies...still."

External links

• The Boze Hadleigh interview of Sal Mineo.
• Boze Hadleigh has been publishing gossipy books about gay celebrity and cinema for nearly two decades