My mind nearly exploded today when I heard James “Rebel Without A Cause” Dean was gay, or at the very least bisexual. This inspired me to do a little bit of digging, you don’t go on with your day after hearing something like this an not confirming it. Turns out I’m a little behind the loop on this one, It’s pretty widely accepted that he had sex with other men. Of course, some say he was just doing it to advance his career, but when James was asked about his sexuality, he replied, “Look, I’m not going to live life with one hand always tied behind my back.” How fitting of a response from the man who “belonged to no one.”

This led me to the new movie/documentary that’s coming out this year Joshua Tree 1951: A Portrait of James Dean, staring James Preston of ABC’s “The Gates”. I’m really looking forward to film. I just hope it’s in black and white just like the trailer.

If you want to read more about James Dean and his sexuality there’s a great article from  the Guardian by Germaine Greer . Here’s a little taste from it.

Once he had fashioned himself in his new toothsome boy image, Dean fell in love with it. He learned to do sexy things with cigarettes, rolling them along the lips of his half-open mouth, looking up at the viewer from under his eyebrows or slouching crotch forward, broodingly. For the next five years he was seldom far from a camera; if there was no one else to photograph him, he photographed himself. Usually the camera was held by another man, not always a professional. There is a photograph of Dean, stark naked, squatting in a tree above the photographer, knees apart, presenting with a radiant smile what appears to be a truly enormous erection. (Sometimes there are pictorial advantages in being a small man.) I saw this picture in an art gallery some time in the mid-1970s. What’s become of it since, I don’t know; if anyone out there has a copy I’d love one.