Subject: Michael Jackson's Manager OUTED by Los Angeles Times! In a major ironic twist, Michael Jackson's personally manager Sandy Gallin was outed by the Los Angeles Times in a major cover story about Gallin and his defense of Michael Jackson in the child-molestation charges. Even though Gallin is well known to be gay within the LA gay community, this is the first time in a major mainstream newspaper which Gallin's name has been associated with being homosexual. The multi-page profile, written by Times' Movie Editor Claudia Eller, chronicles Sandy Gallin's succcessful career in managing show business' biggest stars, including Dolly Parton, Neil Diamond, Whoppi Goldberg and Michael Jackson. A major part of the article is devoted on how Gallin persuaded Jackson to stage his publicity blitz last year to increase record sales. He released a statement regarding Michael Jackson "....Michael's innocent, open, child-like relationships with children may appear bizzarre and strange to adults in our society who cannot conceive of any relationship without sexual connotations... This is not a reflection of Michael's character; rather it is a symptom of the sexual phobias of our society. The article describes Gallin was being close friends with other Hollywood power brokers David Geffen, Barry Diller and Calvin Klein (Geffen is openly gay, Diller and Klein are well-known closet-cases). There's even a picture that could best described as the official photo of Hollywood's Rich Homosexual Men Club. It includes the four gays described above. The biggest shocker in the lengthy article came in a brief paragraph detailing Sallin's career developments. ---- In the mid-60's, he was transferred to GAC's West Coast offices, a move he welcomed because he was a closeted homosexual. "I was afraid of being gay living in the same city as my brother and mother," he says. ----- So there you have it. Though not officially a coming out article, this little paragraph officially makes Sandy Gallin the second Hollywood power broker to come out of the closet. It is always possible that the writer might have violated the paper's anti-outing rule by printing the quote but we will find out soon! FILM CLOSE-UP Tom Hanks By Joey Berlin Copley News Service It is the ultimate acting challenge of our day playing a gay man dying of AIDS. For Tom Hanks, the key to playing such a character in the new Jonathan Demme movie, "Philadelphia," came suddenly in a flash last Christmas season. Hanks had many long conversations with men and women suffering from the dreaded disease while doing his research for the challenging part. However, it wasn't anything any of them said that crystallized their common tragedy in his mind and in his heart. It was a goodbye hug. "I felt his body temperature," remembers Hanks during a recent interview in a posh Beverly Hills hotel. "He was hot. I know why he was hot, why he had been hot for weeks. It was such a profound image of his human fabric being burned up." Best known for his comic performances in such hits as "Splash," "Big" and "Dragnet," Hanks has taken on serious roles before, most notably in "Nothing in Common" and "Punchline." Still, there was extra pressure on Hanks and everyone else working on "Philadelphia" because the film dared to openly address a subject that Hollywood had studiously avoided previously. In a business driven to no small degree by the talents of many gay people, this has long been a source of community embarrassment. If "Philadelphia" was to be the groundbreaker, it had better do the job right and as the AIDS victim Hanks would inevitably shoulder a disproportionate percentage of the blame if things went wrong. "No one is shying away from the fact that this is the first big movie that deals with this subject matter," observes Hanks. "But the human condition is the first thing we're trying to capture. We want to do it honestly, accurately and in terms everyone can understand. The pressure is there, but there's always a pressure to hit the mark and tell the truth from as many sides of the quadrangle as possible. And the truth is embodied in Andrew Beckett's struggle." When "Philadelphia" opens, Beckett is a hotshot lawyer rising through the ranks of a top law firm in the City of Brotherly Love. But when the lesions on his face give away the secret of his illness, he is quickly fired. Enter Joe Miller, a flamboyant if not particularly enlightened attorney, who represents Beckett in the wrongful termination suit that becomes the throughline of the film. Denzel Washington co-stars as Miller, Jason Robards is the head of the firm and Antonio Banderas plays Beckett's lover, but it was Hanks who had to carry the film's weight partly by losing a lot of his own. "I was fat," he recalls. "I went on a diet and exercise plan. Your body goes through very specific changes that cannot be denied. I received a very fast education on what the virus does to the body when your immune system is under attack. "That is very eye-opening stuff, even more so in my conversations with men and women who have it. When you're talking to somebody in very graphic and open terms, someone who's literally embarrassed because the lesions are starting to show, it's almost a surreal circumstance that's only made palatable by their honesty. There is a responsibility that goes along with that, not to betray their confidence." While Hanks is quick to point out that his experience as an actor pretending to have AIDS is "trivial" compared to real victims, he underwent real emotional and physical changes while making "Philadelphia." "The shooting lasted four months," he reports. "My brother came to see me near the end, and he didn't recognize me." A lot of actors believe that playing a gay character is a dangerous career move. Some feel being associated with an "AIDS movie" will taint them with the stain of the disease itself, which so many want to deny or ignore. Hanks thinks that's nonsense and insists that no one on his "crack team of show-biz experts" discouraged him from taking the role of Beckett. "It's not 1955 anymore," he laughs. "The moviegoing audience will accept just about anything. It's been proven over and over again that they have. Hey, I made `Bonfire of the Vanities' and I'm still here."