Posted on 01/09/2003 5:43:35 AM PST by Skooz
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Thu Jan 9, 3:22 AM ET
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By Andrew Wallenstein
NEW YORK (The Hollywood Reporter) --- HBO is developing a documentary based on a controversial book that claims Adolf Hitler was gay.
Scheduled to air next year on either HBO or Cinemax, the documentary will draw from "The Hidden Hitler," a biography released in 2001 to heavy criticism from historians who disputed its allegations. One academic who reviewed the book for the Washington Post chastised the author, German history professor Lothar Machtan, for coming "perilously close to blaming the entire Holocaust on Hitler's alleged sexuality."
The documentary will be produced by Los Angeles-based World of Wonder, whose credits include "Monica in Black and White" for HBO and the upcoming theatrical release "Party Monster."
"The thrust of the documentary looks at the body of evidence that in his early life, Hitler was, in all possibility, gay," said Fenton Bailey, co-director of the program with Randy Barbato. Bailey and Barbato are co-founders of World of Wonder.
An abridged 49-minute version of the documentary aired on the United Kingdom's Channel 5 in November with the title "Is Hitler Gay?" The full 75 minutes are expected to air on HBO with either the new title "The Pink Fuhrer," the original British title or a combination of both.
The documentary features interviews with Machtan and other noted historians. The production, which took 10 months to complete, visits European cities where Hitler spent his early years, including his hometown of Linz, Austria.
"Hidden" recounts eyewitness testimony describing Hitler's sexual activity during and after World War I. The book also suggests that he murdered a high-ranking Nazi who attempted to blackmail him by threatening to disclose his homosexuality and persecuted hundreds of thousands of other gays and lesbians to "disguise his own true colors."
Depictions of Hitler's early life have become a bona fide trend in movies and television. "Max," an independent film currently in theaters, provides a fictional account of Hitler's short-lived career as an artist, while CBS is preparing a miniseries on his rise to power that will air later this year. Both projects have been criticized for humanizing Hitler.
When NBC's "Today" anchor Matt Lauer interviewed Machtan about the book in October 2001, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation blasted the program for failing to grill the author on the validity of his claims.
GLAAD news media director Cathy Renna has higher hopes for the documentary. "We would welcome a rigorous and fair examination of the book from all different sides, which it didn't get from the mainstream media when it first came out," she said.
Bailey defended his company's decision to explore Hitler's alleged homosexuality. "It's an absolutely uncomfortable subject, but you're in graver danger if you refuse to explore an idea in fear that someone might misinterpret it," he said.
World of Wonder has another gay-themed documentary coming to cable in the spring as part of MTV's "True Life" series. "Homo High" examines the lives of a group of students attending a private gay high school in Dallas.
FYI: Nietzsche was gay
What is this, the "everyone I don't like is gay'" thread? What is the evidence? I've read numerous biographies of Nietzsche, and none of them have made that claim. Quite the reverse.
"Virtually all of the evidence"? Isn't that an exaggeration? Isn't that just one chapter in a book of 300 pages or so? What do you make of the statement by the general who had access to Hitler's police record?
It is interesting that Hitler being homosexual to the best of my knowledge had never been claimed before by any serious historian. Not even the ridiculous and discredited screed "The Pink Swastika", which claimed that virtually every man and his dog, even if he had 10 children was queer, put Hitler in the homosexual basket.
I believe you're right that he was not a strict vegetarian. I understand that, on his frequent trips to Munich, he would often break down, go to eat at the Vier Jahreszeiten, and have what I had understood was his favorite dish of Leberknoedelsuppe (liver dumpling soup,) with which he would even have beer.
Sorry, but this is my understanding thru reading quite a bit.
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