Ask the Flying Monkey (November 18, 2008)

Then, of course, there is the case of Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, who met on the set of Supernatural (2005) and have been hot-and-heavy ever since…IN THE FLYING MONKEY’S DREAMS!

Jensen Ackles (left) and Jared Padalecki

Q: I was happy, but not surprised to see that Tales of the City topped your recent 50 Greatest Gay Books poll. I recall reading that Maupin is at work on an eighth book in the series. True? – Robert, Miami Beach, FL

A: “I’m at work on another one right now,” Maupin tells the Monkey. “It’s called Mary Ann in Autumn. It’s our girl at 58, trying to reinvent her life. It’s the old format of the multi-character tapestry [like the first six books, not the last one, Michael Tolliver Lives]. There’s very little that I need to say that I can’t say through these characters. And I think people need continuity right now.”

Maupin is also delighted that Tales is about to become a Broadway musical, with a book by Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q) and music and lyrics by Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters. The show, which covers the first book and the Nevada brothel part of the second book, should be ready in time for the 2009-2010 Broadway season, hopefully with a pre-Broadway San Francisco debut.

Alas, there are currently no plans for another Tales TV movie, not even a stand-alone version of last year’s Michael Tolliver Lives, which is just begging for an adaptation.

When can we expect to see Mary Ann in Autumn? “Oh, God, I have no idea!” the author says. “I just started.”

Armistead Maupin

Q: Was Alfred Hitchcock gay? – Daniel, Newark, NJ

A: That’s one theory, put forth by Hitchcock biographer Donald Spoto in his 1983 book The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock. But before you accuse Spoto’s title of being homophobic, the author is really arguing that Hitchcock was a repressed homosexual whose unacknowledged sexual orientation caused him to treat the women in his life, personal and professional, in really nasty, sadistic ways. (In his latest Hitchcock biography, 2008’s Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and his Leading Ladies, Spoto claims that the director had sex with his wife only once in 54 years of marriage, a union that resulted in their daughter.)

So is Spoto right? There are plenty who say no, but the Monkey can’t resist joining Spoto in giving into the temptation to psychoanalyze the director from his films. So what do they tell us?

First, Hitchcock loved strong female characters, especially blonds. But did he love them like a gay guy might love Jane Fonda in Barbarella (1968), or like John Derek loved Bo in Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981)? Hitchcock also made a point to frequently include coded-gay characters in movies like Strangers on a Train (1951), Rope (1948), and North by Northwest (1959) — though, befitting the theory that Hitchcock was a closet case, they were always the villains, and often repressed and tortured by unattainable love. True, Hitchcock wasn’t the credited screenwriter on any of his films, but he was deeply involved in all aspects of their production, including the ways the actors played these characters, who weren’t necessarily spelled out as gay in the scripts.

And let’s not get started on the mother of all “mother” movies, Psycho (1960), okay?

Alfred Hitchcock

Was Hitchcock gay? It’s fascinating to speculate, but even the Monkey doesn’t know for sure!

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