But the daddy of all closeted film stars was Rock Hudson. He perfectly fit into the public's image of a romantic, manly hero. But with so many affairs with men, he also had trouble hiding his sexuality.

To quell the gay rumors, Hudson's agent Henry Willson, arranged a marriage for Hudson and his secretary, Phyllis Gates, in 1955. After a three-year whirlwind media blitz as "the happy couple," they were divorced.

Evidently, Hudson harbored resentment towards the marriage. Once, when asked why he named his production company Gibraltar, Hudson replied, "I didn't know what else to call it. I couldn't name it after my kids - I don't have any. I certainly wouldn't name it after my ex-wife. Nor any of my four dogs, and one of them is named Wee-wee."

In 1982, just three short years before his highly publicized death from AIDS, Rock Hudson said in an interview with Boze Hadleigh, "I'm not like anyone I've ever played. Roy Fitzgerald is a different person from Rock Hudson, whom I sometimes think of as a stranger. The public doesn't know Roy, only Rock, who is partially of their own creation."

Armisted Maupin, who had a clandestine affair with Hudson in the 70s, outed him in his 80s newspaper serial, "Tales of the City."

In 1999, Maupin rationalized his feelings in an interview for The Guardian, entitled, "How I outed Rock Hudson: Armistead Maupin explains why he told the world that his film star friend was gay." Maupin admitted, "I'm the age now that Rock was when he picked me up, so I can understand how he felt (about being gay) - how his fame limited his freedom."

In the film, things ends on a happy note: the straight-jacked Guy shows promise of having a better future as Rick shows him the reality of social awareness and the world beyond the bright lights of Tinseltown.

But Maupin sadly suggested otherwise in his Guardian interview, saying, "It's preposterous to think that after Rock Hudson, the closet is gone from Hollywood. It's just being run by the Church of Scientology."

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