AE: Do you have any more TV or movie adaptations in the works?
AM: We're trying. I'm adapting, Maybe the Moon, my Hollywood novel.
AE: That's the one about actress who happens to be a little person. Might I suggest the irrepressible Charla from The Amazing Race.
AM: It's funny. Material about little people is sort of like it was for gay people in the old days. They find their way to you because there are so few roles available. I've been approached by a number of actresses that would probably be great. I've also written a feature length script for Babycakes, the fourth Tales of the City novel, but it's tough right now, finding the right network for it. As Laura Linney said to me recently, “You better hurry. We're not getting any younger.” I hope it happens.
AE: Speaking of Laura Linney, you got to be her date for the Oscars the year she was nominated for You Can Count on Me. What was that like?
AM: It was a total gay boy's dream come true. I helped her pick out her red Valentino gown and we sat in the front row. A lot of people said to Laura, “So nice of you to bring your father.” (Laughs) We had a ball, though. It was kind of like Mary Ann and Michael from my stories, just kind of wide-eyed about the whole thing. I'd be like nudging her, saying, “Oh my God, Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas are heading over this way.”
AE: After you wrote your last novel, The Night Listener, it was revealed that you were being played and that the young boy and his mother who inspired the book were actually the same person. Where is that woman now?
AM: She lives in the appropriately named Lake Bluff, Illinois. (Laughs) That's the kind of thing I'd be given a hard time for if I'd put it in a novel.
AE: The Night Listener was released as a film last year. Am I mistaken or did your husband Christopher pop up briefly in the film?
AM: Yes, he has a kind of Ruby Keeler moment. There's a scene where someone's helping Bobby Cannavale move out of the house. It's somebody who's supposed to make Robin Williams jealous and the director looked at the actor who came in and said, “I don't think he'd make anybody very jealous. We need somebody fast. Has Christopher ever done any acting?” And I said, “Well, he used to be a model ten years ago.” “That'll do.” So they outfitted him and made him up on the spot and there he was. The character's called Lucien and Robin's character refers to him as Lucifer so I called him Lucifer for the rest of the week because they made his hair into a devilish point on the top.
AE: You've been quite outspoken about closeted celebrities …
AM: It's been a project of mine for many, many years. I knew Rock Hudson and I tried to get him to come out all those years ago. I remember I was sitting there with his partner and his partner said, “Not until my mother dies.” I thought, ‘Man, I wish my mother knew I was sleeping with Rock Hudson. What's not to be proud of there?' That's a very weird kind of shame. He never came around to it, but I'm happy to say, I was the first person he sent his biographer to because he knew that I could talk unashamedly about his gayness in a way that no one in Hollywood was willing to do at the time, even his closest friends.
AE: And weren't you instrumental in Ian McKellen's coming out?
AM: Ian McKellen refers to me as his godfather because back in 1988—I've known him for about 25 years—we sat up all night one night in San Francisco and he said, “Do you think I should come out?” I told him all the reasons why I thought he should and he said he was going to do that when the next opportunity arose and I thought, ‘Oh, you charming guy. I know that's not going to happen.' And he came out not long after that in a radio debate about Clause 28, the big anti-gay measure they were trying to put through [in England] in the late 80's. Then he was knighted and then he had this incredible career.
He's completely defied the notion that once you're out, your career will be stalled. The Advocate did this chart recently following his career and avowed heterosexual Kevin Spacey's career over the last ten years. It was very, very, very clever because Ian completely defied the notion that coming out's going to hurt you.
