Gore Vidal's Italian films: Roma, Caligula and a gay Ben-Hur | Gore Vidal | The Guardian

was gore vidal gay

'Tryg to make tegori is very Amerin, very stupid, and very dangero.' Gore Vidal’s refal to intify as gay was nsistent wh a man who worshipped ancient Greece, but was out of step wh the tim which he lived.

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GORE VIDAL’S SPAT WH CHARLTON HTON OVER GAY ‘BEN-HUR’ SUBTEXT

Gore Vidal's spat wh Charlton Hton over gay 'Ben-Hur' subtext * was gore vidal gay *

It wasn’t as bad as “faggot, ” but rried a dose of ntempt as strong or stronger than most of the other risive ephets for those whom, back then, only gay people lled gay.

The ldly clil term “homosexual, ” which some now fd to be as dub as “Negro, ” was seldom seen as herently rogatory.

GORE VIDAL'S DEFENSE OF BEN-HUR'S GAY SUBTEXT

Gore Vidal always hted at a sexual element between the Jewish prce and his Roman betrayer, but the remake seems unterted explorg gay subtext * was gore vidal gay *

“Gay” is too male, “gay and lbian” sufficiently clive, L. )Though Vidal never “intified” as gay—he never “me out”— was hardly a secret that the thor of “The Cy and the Pillar” was, to e his own favored term, a homosexualist. Buckley was a reactnary, arguably a racist, and arguably a homophobe.

HOW ONE SEXY GAY NOVEL RAILED GORE VIDAL'S LERARY REER

* was gore vidal gay *

”And Vidal had some unorthodox ias about the reasons why Judah Ben-Hur, played by Charlton Hton, and the Roman tribune Msala (Stephen Boyd) had gone om boyhood pals to adly enemi, culmatg their chart-race triggered the smackdown between Hton and Vidal was the release of the 1995 documentary film “The Celluloid Closet, ” which outed the d gay subtexts -- and closeted gay performers -- a number of Hollywood films. Directed and wrten by Rob Epste and Jefey Friedman, the documentary’s most talked-about sequence was an terview wh Vidal which the wrer scribed how he’d nvced Boyd and director William Wyler that there had to be a eper motive to expla Msala’s lethal hatred of his old iend Ben-Hur -- namely, that the two men once had a homosexual relatnship that Msala wanted to rume but Ben-Hur did not. ”“Vidal’s claim that he slipped a scene implyg a homosexual relatnship between the two men sults Willy Wyler and, I have to say, irrat the hell out of me, ” Hton, never one to back down om a verbal brawl, rpond to Hton’s terse letter wh a much longer elaboratn of his role “Ben-Hur, ” and tntg Hton as “the spokperson for the Natnal Rifle Assn.

GORE VIDAL'S ITALIAN FILMS: ROMA, CALIGULA AND A GAY BEN-HUR

He claimed there was no such thg as beg "gay, " only gay sexual acts. Vidal also claimed that he didn't believe gay people, jt gay sexual acts.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* WAS GORE VIDAL GAY

Why Gore Vidal Refed to Intify as Gay .

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