HOLLYWOOD (Netflix)
This is up there - for me - with Grace
& Frankie in the "Best of Netflix". It starts well in a splendid
recreation of 1940s Hollywood with a far-from-fictitious LA gas station, run by
Ernie West (Dylan McDermott, clearly enjoying himself in an off-character role)
with a sideline in pimping his hunky attendants as gigolos and rent-boys. The hunkiest of
the gigolos is Jack Castello (David Corenswet), a wannabe filmstar who can’t
even get hired as an extra until he screws Avis Amberg, a studio head’s
neglected wife (Patti LuPone, outstanding in a cast of fine actors). Another of
the gas station boys is Archie (Jeremy Pope), a cute black guy whose first ‘client’
is Roy, another struggling actor who will come to be superstar famous when his
name is changed to Rock Hudson (Jake Picking, a very good look-alike).
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| David Corenswet and Dylan McDermott, a gigolo and his pimp |
When Avis takes over the running of her ailing husband’s
studio she ‘greenlights’ a movie about Peg Entwistle, the actress who
jumped off the Hollywood sign in the 1930s. The movie is scripted by Rock’s new
boyfriend Archie and directed by another newcomer Raymond Ainsley (Darren
Criss, who played Gianni Versace’s serial killer stalker a couple of years
back).
There never was a movie about poor Peg, and this
take on her story goes somewhat off the rails when the decision is made to
change Peg to Meg and give an opportunity to Raymond’s gorgeous black
girlfriend Camille (Laura Harrier). So, the two big twists on the ‘real’
history of Tinseltown are the breakthrough for black actors on screen being
brought forward by several decades, and Rock Hudson becoming a pioneer of gay
rights also many years before any major player risked coming out of the closet.
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| Jack Picking as Rock Hudson: "Fill it up, and while you're about it ..." |
Gays everywhere knew that Rock was a ‘fag’ but it was kept
a secret from his female fanbase until just before his death from Aids in 1985.
Even today, when privacy is harder to come by and a number of high-profile
stars are Glad to be known to be Gay, there are several who aren’t (naming no
names).
Other real-life people are woven into this story –
Vivien Leigh, Cole Porter, Anna May Wong, Hattie McDaniel (Queen Latifah, always
a joy to watch) – which adds to the glamour as well as the authenticity. The
making of the Peg/Meg movie becomes a bit tiresome – I wish they’d thought up a
grander project for the era of Mildred Pierce and The Best Years of
Our Lives – but the gas station brothel contributes plenty of juice to the
story (and it’s true) and I relished the fantasy that Gay Liberation was kick-started
by Rock Hudson in the 1940s. He could be canonized!
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| The real Peg, who jumped off the big H in 1932 |
