40 Jmt
• aprii IB. 2003
eatingout
BOOKS
eatingout
eatingout
cating o ut
Spring J icla ApAung,
the qhoAA has Ah,
9 wondeAA wkcAc m y new date h .
Culture vulture
Popular gay author picks over the movies
by
C'lMiu’ in il ml taste I letiven in your
mouth. Titt ¡2 oz. bevehuje when
you purchase u shit of our
fabulous poundcake with this coupon
|J969 lit nflcnn lunw toe Jc iin> • 303.2826334 • flon-SflT 1-1 • Sun ¡2-7 j
(¿hack oul Uta ¡}iud J aumc U (Joica fiv u e n a h on paga 50 da
w \de gouA own (Aaa 50 woJtd a d a i w w w .pulotd.aun
¡Come See 11 $ for U
Open can US
monday foresee
m
f i t . your fable
)TUiy 5 f f l for 6 or more
‘til 10pm people
< £? Iron Horse Restaurant
Open for
Lunch & Dinner
Tues—Sun
m
(503) 232-1826
_
6034 SE Mihvaukie Ave
Portland (Selhvood)
isyvneA/ a/n/cL w S£)wbe/ -
tAe/ fie d e d camAinaiian/.
cWute/, candlelight and 111
C&twck/out/tA&
^ u/S/t ¿7 vi/&n/d/S/ <zVo'i/oed ^e/vs/Q/iva/t/S/
o4v p a g a 5 0 !
cWiUe/ yawt/ auuvp etso n a t ad a t uMiiuis.fu&iaul.canv
F loyd S klaver
ennis Hensley loves to trash the movies.
And, using his new hook, Screening Party,
which has been nominated for a Lambda
Literary Award in Humor, now you can too.
W hat’s more, on April 24 the handsome,
38-year-old celebrity profiler and author will
share the art of movie mockery during a read
ing at the Lloyd C enter Barnes & Noble.
Hensley grew up in Holbrook, a town of
5,000 located in eastern Arizona. It had only
one movie theater, he recalls, “and half of the
time it was closed.” Yet popular culture provid
ed an escape, and Hensley became enamored of
celebrity and fame.
“Television was a window into outside
things,” he says. “It stimulated my imagination
and made me want to go beyond where I was.”
It also helped him understand his sexuali
ty. “As a gay person, it connected me,” the
single author says. “N o one {in Holbrook]
wanted to feather their hair and grab
onto the hack of a car riding a skate
board like Farrah Fawcett. There wasn’t
fabulousness around me, hut there was
on television and in the movies.”
After college the star-struck young man
moved to Los Angeles, where his first job
was "ushering eager audiences into tapings
for such shows as She’s the Sheriff with
Suzanne Somers.” A year later he
landed a job as a singer/
dancer with Princess
Cruises, where he
performed in “many
musical extravagan
zas with exclama
tions points in
their titles.”
In 1990
Hensley sold
his first story,
an account of
his harrowing
dance audi-
tion for M adonna’s Blonde Ambition tour titled
“Confessions of a Boy Toy W annabe.” A new
career was bom, and he’s since written count
less celebrity profiles for The Advocate, Out, In
Style, T V Guide, Us and Cosmopolitan.
Screening Party is Hensley’s second bnx)k. His
first, Misadventures in the (213), evolved from a
series of fiction columns he wrote for Detour.
H ie htx)k wound up on the Los Angeles Times
best-seller list, and the ensuing publicity landed
the author on The Rosie O'Dcmnell Shew.
Hensley also co-wrote, co-directed and co-
starred in Evie Harris: Shining Star, a 13-minute
film about a has-been actress trying to locate
her star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. T he
riotous comedy played at queer film festivals
around the country.
| ince moving to Hollywood,
Hensley has “tried to populate
my world with people who like
to say things about what they see
on television— people who ask
questions, make observations,
offer fashion commentary and
occasionally crack wise.” Many of
them became part of his inner cir
cle of friends who would come over
to watch TV together, including
movies, pageants, award shows
and American Idol.
W h en one o f his
editors requested an
article celebrating
the 25th anniver
sary o f Jaws,
which Hensley
had never seen,
he asked if he
could watch it
w ith friends
and then write
about the
experience of
seeing it for
the first time.
“It was sort of
an experim ent,”
he explains, but
he knew his
friends “could
deliver in the
funny departm ent