True story: a friend of mine exchanged birthday cards with Zelda Rubinstein

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You have to give it to the gays: we love our underdogs. Many, if not most of us grew up feeling like outsiders, like guests at a party thrown by a friend of a friend: anxious and unsure. Maybe this is changing, what with all the positive role models GLBT kids have these days; the Gays are everywhere now, or at least they’re far more visible and likable than the handful of cautionary figures I remember from childhood: that crazy dude from Soap. The clubgoers in Cruising. Wham. And after Rock Hudson died from AIDS-related complications, things got worse.
But back to the point. Underdogs and outsiders: the Gays love them. I’ve started calling it the Glee Phenomenon (though I’m not sold on the name), because as overwrought as Glee can be, in some ways, it’s a pretty accurate depiction of the social food chain I experienced when I was in — yes — high school show choir:
(That’s me on the far left. Ugh.)

There were a handful of cool kids in the music room, but they were totally outnumbered. The closet cases stuck together near the back of the risers  — us and the fat kids. (There was some overlap.) Even when I stopped singing in college, my allegiance to nerds and other social misfits remained strong. It still does. I have family and friends who run with the Cool Kids, but I’ve never felt comfortable in those packs.

Holy crap, I keep getting sidetracked. This is not meant to be about me. This is about Zelda Rubinstein, the woman perhaps best remembered for her turn in Poltergeist, but also a devoted friend of the LGBT community and one of the first Hollywood types to become involved in HIV/AIDS outreach and education. Short and heavy-set, with a curious voice, she was an unlikely actress — an outsider if ever there was one — but maybe that’s why we loved her so much, and why the feeling was clearly mutual.

I was sad to hear of her passing yesterday, but kind of excited to learn that one of my friends used to exchange birthday cards with Zelda. It’s like a brush with a brush with amazing fame.

Terrible people arrange for you to see Gary Coleman’s nads. Maybe.

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Despite reports of a “Good Samaritan” bailing Gary Coleman out of jail, two producers are claiming they’re responsible for Coleman’s freedom as part of a trade-off involving video of the actor’s genitals.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Coleman fan Jarrod Clarke says he put up the $1,725 for the actor’s release.

“I’m just a Good Samaritan, I guess,” he told the newspaper. “He just had a sad [mug shot] picture.”

…

Yet two filmmakers are telling a “diff’rent” story. In a statement, the producers say the “Diff’rent Strokes” actor OK’d nude footage to appear in a forthcoming straight-to-DVD mockumentary in exchange for bail.

“The footage in question occurred during an improvised moment in a shower scene when Mr. Coleman attempted to break up a fight between two little people,” the producers said in a statement.

“During the scuffle, Mr. Coleman’s robe split open to reveal more than he had planned. The producers stand behind their position that Mr. Coleman signed multiple documents allowing any and all footage, including both scripted and unscripted moments, to appear in the film. The producers simply agreed to bail out Mr. Coleman as an ‘olive branch’ and to avoid any potential litigation,” the producers said in the statement….

[full story at NBCLosAngeles, emphasis totes mine]

It should go without saying that if the second story is true, the people behind Coleman’s release are terrible, terrible people. Yeah, they’ll probably make back their $1725 investment tenfold, possibly fifteenfold, but they’ll forever be known as the guys who forced one of America’s former child stars to pull a Coco. Worse: Coleman was a beloved child star — not like that unbeloved Linda Blair [NSFW], who willingly chose to drop her top for Oui or whatever.

I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t live with all that on my head.