Rufus Wainwright Mourns Gay Icon
MTV's The Real World is often credited with giving birth to the reality genre, but that honor actually goes to PBS's late, pioneering documentary series An American Family (not to be confused with PBS's new fictional Latino drama). The 1973 saga followed a middle-class Santa Barbara clan the Louds through the mundane and sometimes terrible days of their lives. The second episode unexpectedly made television history when flamboyant Lance leapt out of the closet and declared that, yep, he was gay.
Well, on Dec. 22 after 18 years with HIV and 10 years with hepatitis C Loud died at the Carl Bean hospice in South Central Los Angeles. This past weekend, about 160 of Hollywood's trendiest gathered at Chateau Marmont for an outdoor memorial venerating the 50-year-old gay icon. Family, friends and fashion mavens focused on Loud's irrepressible exuberance and caustic wit.
Loud pal and current gay icon