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November 4 & 5
10am. 5pm
Free Admission

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28611 W. 12 Mile Rd., Farmington Hills
Between Middlebelt & Inkster
South Side of 12 Mile Rd.

The Jewish Ensemble Theatre presents

By Herb Gardner

"Herb Gardner's
best play.
Pungent, deeply
felt and very
powerful."

- Clive Barnes,
New York Post

Performances
Wed. 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.,
Thur. 7:30 p.m.,
Sat. 8 p.m.,
Sun. 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.
In The Aaron DeRoy Theatre

0∎NISH ENyFhe

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6600 West Maple Road,

West Bloomfield

Sponsored by:

Oct.25 - Nov.26, 2000

et information call

-788-2900

tix: 248-788-5160

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music reviews
OcIN Entertainment.

the best

Author David Ehrenstein
explores the lives and careers
of Hollywood's foremost
gays and lesbians.

SUZANNE CHESSLER

Special to the Jewish News

est Coast journalist
David Ehrenstein
believes that celebrities
should be outspoken
about their sexual orientation and
explores the issue through his book

Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-
2000 (HarperPerennial; $15).

Out in paperback and updated
since it was first released in 1998,
the new edition will be the subject
of Ehrenstein's Jewish Book Fair talk
at 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 5, at the
West Bloomfield Jewish Community
Center.
"I wanted to write about the sub-
ject in specific situations, not a list
of who's gay in Hollywood," says
Ehrenstein, who readily acknowl-
edges his own 28-year gay relation-
ship. "I wanted people to think
about the subject in a multi-faceted
way, looking at people in the closet
and what that has meant and look-
ing at people coming out and what
that means.
"Once you're a public figure, you
don't have a private life. Everything
is fair game. Performers put them-
selves out there to be worshiped and
adored, but putting limits on who
will adore them and how is pretty
much impossible."
NV hile the author discusses stars
who have been up-front about being
gay or lesbian, such as Ellen
Degeneres, he also delves into the
lives of people who go to great

lengths to deny the rumors, such as
Tom Cruise and Kevin Spacey. Many
of the people he mentions are
Jewish, including Jason Gould,
Barbra Streisand's son.
"I don't use any unnamed
sources," says Ehrenstein, 53, also
the author of The Scorsese Picture:

The Art and Life of Martin Scorsese.

"I did a tremendous amount of
research at the [Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences] Library in
L.A."
Two of the people named as
sources have ties to the Detroit
Jewish community. Actress Piper
Laurie (born Rosetta Jacobs), who
talks about Rock Hudson and their
friendship early in their careers, lived
in Michigan until she was 5.
Katherine Rosman, who is quoted
from a piece she wrote about Spacey
for Brill's Content, grew up in subur-
ban Detroit and graduated from the
University of Michigan.
Ehrenstein, a film writer and critic
for various publications, including
The Los Angeles Times and The
Advocate, explains that the idea for
his book came from an article he
had written.
"I wrote a piece about gay and les-
bian sitcom writers, and this came
about because I knew a writer on
Frasier," he recalls. "I found out that
there were a lot of openly gay writers
on that show and there were a lot of
openly gay writers on television.
"After I had written this, an indus-
try writer asked if I had thought
about writing a book and suggested I