Dilbert Perkins
2004-12-19 19:34:29 UTC
From http://www.holysmoke.org/cos/travolt.htm
Paul Barresi: Profiled
The Guide, March 1998
by Jim D'Entremont
Tricking with Travolta
In Perfect, John Travolta's second collaboration with the late gay
director James Bridges (Urban Cowboy, The China Syndrome), homoeroticism
runs rampant. As a character based on Rolling Stone reporter Aaron
Latham, Travolta delves into California fitness culture. The 1985
box-office failure, which is better than its reputation, has attracted a
growing core of gay fans.
In aerobics instructor Jamie Lee Curtis's exercise class, Travolta,
bulging perkily in clingy sweat-stained cotton shorts and flashing an
impudent grin, serves up shots of pelvic thrusts that are hotter than
many gay porn loops. There's also a drawn-out male strip show sequence
and lots of lovingly framed shots of male buttocks bobbing aerobically.
Paul Barresi appears briefly in Perfect as a denizen of the Beverly
Hills Sports Connection, the health club where much of the film is set.
During a locker-room photo shoot, he strips to a jockstrap at the
request of a Rolling Stone photographer played by Anne DeSalvo.
When Perfect was shot, Barresi's relationship with Travolta was about a
year old. As Barresi tells it, they met in 1982, when the star of
Saturday Night Fever sought him out at the Beverly Hills Gym. "I was in
the shower, butt-naked and soaped up from head to toe," Barresi says,
when Travolta walked in and introduced himself. "I asked if he was
looking for the manager.
`No,' he said, `I'm looking for you.'" Barresi says Travolta was well
acquainted with his status as a porn icon. "Out at his ranch," Barresi
recalls, "he had a whole collection of my videos and magazines, just the
straight stuff."
He adds that the deeply closeted Travolta preferred sex with straight or
bisexual men who fit a certain rugged heterosexual stereotype, avoiding
contact with men who were openly gay.
The relationship kept a low profile. "We went to dinner together
publicly once in a while," Barresi says, "but mostly we stayed at his
ranch or at my place. It was understood that the whole basis of our
relationship was strictly the sex." Nevertheless, according to Barresi,
Travolta "kept acting like I was his best friend."
Bitter fruit As time went by, Barresi says he felt increasingly strung
along and used. The last straw came when Travolta, in the market for a
new personal trainer, promised Baressi the job. One day early in 1990,
however, when Barresi went to visit Travolta at the Bel Air Hotel, he
found him with another man whose clothes were strewn all over the room.
"John said, `Oh, by the way, Paul," Barresi recalls, "this is so-and-so,
my new trainer."
It was a brief, awkward visit. Travolta sent Barresi on his way with a
gift� the remnants of the welcome basket hotel management had sent up
when Travolta arrived. "In the basket was stuff like a half-eaten apple,
pieces of fruit and candy with bites taken out of them, and a bottle of
Dom Perignon," Barresi says. "I left the hotel with tears streaming down
my face, carrying this stupid basket, and when I got home I threw the
basket away, put the champagne in the refrigerator... and then later on
I used it to celebrate my call to the National Enquirer."
He asked the Enquirer for $100,000 in exchange for the details of his
relationship with Travolta. They agreed to his price without blinking.
"I did it to get even," Barresi says, "and I did it for the money. If
I'd known what it would bring down on me, and especially what it would
do to my family, I wouldn't have done it."
The story appeared in an April, 1990 issue of the Enquirer.
Reaction was swift and intense. Photocopies of the Enquirer article were
sent anonymously to the owners of Barresi's building, every one of his
neighbors, every one of his fitness clients, his parents, and his
brothers. Savage anonymous notes were pasted to his door. He received
telephoned death threats, including one particularly strange assaultive
call at a clothing store where he was browsing. He was characterized in
print as a lowfife gigolo seeking publicity. "It just about wrecked my
life," Barresi remembers. "My whole world fell apart. My family disowned
me, I lost all but two of my fitness clients, I was barred from almost
every gym in town, and it cost me jobs." Some of the anger directed at
Barresi came from the Hollywood gay establishment, venting its wrath at
a time when the controversy over "outing" was just beginning and the
practice was considered supremely bad form.
Questions linger about the extent to which the "Church" of Scientology
may have mobilized against Barresi. John Travolta is a longtime adherent
of the "religious" cult invented by the late pulp sci-fi novelist L. Ron
Hubbard, creator of the self-help juggernaut called Dianetics.
Homosexuality is one of the conditions Scientology claims to be able to
cure. Barresi refuses to comment on whether or not he believes an
organized hate campaign perpetrated by members of the "church" occurred.
But many of the forms of harassment he encountered are consistent with
Scientologists' well-documented attacks on their enemies. It's worth
noting, however, that while Scientologists are a notoriously litigious
lot, Travolta never attempted to sue.
Pulled a Lewinsky In the end, Barresi accepted assurances from
Travolta's attorney that the affair could be brought "to a soft landing"
if he issued a retraction and an apology. "I was having a nervous
breakdown," Barresi says. "I just wanted it to be over. But when the
dust settled, I regretted the retraction a lot more than I regretted
that initial call to the Enquirer." Barresi eventually reconciled with
his family, but his thriving crossover career may not have recovered.
Rumors persist that Travolta has been pressured to promote the "church"
under threat of disclosure of his sexual history. Be that as it may,
Travolta, who now commands more than $20 million per picture, hastened
to marry actress and fellow Scientologist Kelly Preston a few months
after the National Enquirer story broke. At the same time, he stepped up
his visibility as a Scientology spokesperson. Accepting a Golden Globe
award for his work in Get Shorty, he thanked L. Ron Hubbard, several of
whose novels he has promised to produce as films. Kelly Preston recently
told Premiere magazine's Holly Millea: "John has had an amazing life
he's remained on top of it all, and I know it's because of Scientology.
It's misunderstood sometimes, and I couldn't give a fuck. Scientology is
so radically cool."
By Garry Scarff I had a meeting today with John Travolta's former fuck
buddy, Paul Barresi who showed me the photos & letters tying John to
Paul. I have also agreed to help Paul bring this matter to worldwide
attention, not to "out" John or denigrate him, but bring out the truth
on a very delicate subject for John: how to best hide and deny his
homosexuality while remaining the outspoken goldenboy for the extremely
homophobic cult of Scientology.
John: if you're lurking about and reading this, I have a question for
you. If the relationship between you and Paul never existed, could you
please explain the letter I read today postmarked December 2, 1989, from
Jacksonville, Florida where you wrote "One of these days, we will get
together again to speak or see each other, better sooner than later...
Love Always, John".
John Travolta not only slept with and enjoyed oral & anal sex with Paul
Barresi, and dressing up in women's clothes to mimic Bette Davis, but
maintained a sexual attraction for Sylvester Stallone (whose brother
Frank is a Scieno). John, in fact, travelled to Bangkok, Thailand where
Sylvester was on some politically-motivated PR event. John sent a very
interesting love letter to Paul from the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok.
Obviously, Sly never returned his affection to Bette Davis, er, John.
It's interesting, too, that a recent magazine entitled "Before They Were
Stars" spoke of John Travolta's childhood, where his overprotective
sisters would dress John up in women's wear and refer to him as their
sister. And a producer from Entertainment Tonight, where I was
interviewed, told me of a recent event where Travolta was seen on a
plane cuddling another man. Travolta's response to an puzzled flight
attendant was "my wife and I have an understanding."
John Travolta has some explaining to do, before these and other tidbits
of information are released to the public on a grand scale.
Garry Scarff
Paul Barresi: Profiled
The Guide, March 1998
by Jim D'Entremont
Tricking with Travolta
In Perfect, John Travolta's second collaboration with the late gay
director James Bridges (Urban Cowboy, The China Syndrome), homoeroticism
runs rampant. As a character based on Rolling Stone reporter Aaron
Latham, Travolta delves into California fitness culture. The 1985
box-office failure, which is better than its reputation, has attracted a
growing core of gay fans.
In aerobics instructor Jamie Lee Curtis's exercise class, Travolta,
bulging perkily in clingy sweat-stained cotton shorts and flashing an
impudent grin, serves up shots of pelvic thrusts that are hotter than
many gay porn loops. There's also a drawn-out male strip show sequence
and lots of lovingly framed shots of male buttocks bobbing aerobically.
Paul Barresi appears briefly in Perfect as a denizen of the Beverly
Hills Sports Connection, the health club where much of the film is set.
During a locker-room photo shoot, he strips to a jockstrap at the
request of a Rolling Stone photographer played by Anne DeSalvo.
When Perfect was shot, Barresi's relationship with Travolta was about a
year old. As Barresi tells it, they met in 1982, when the star of
Saturday Night Fever sought him out at the Beverly Hills Gym. "I was in
the shower, butt-naked and soaped up from head to toe," Barresi says,
when Travolta walked in and introduced himself. "I asked if he was
looking for the manager.
`No,' he said, `I'm looking for you.'" Barresi says Travolta was well
acquainted with his status as a porn icon. "Out at his ranch," Barresi
recalls, "he had a whole collection of my videos and magazines, just the
straight stuff."
He adds that the deeply closeted Travolta preferred sex with straight or
bisexual men who fit a certain rugged heterosexual stereotype, avoiding
contact with men who were openly gay.
The relationship kept a low profile. "We went to dinner together
publicly once in a while," Barresi says, "but mostly we stayed at his
ranch or at my place. It was understood that the whole basis of our
relationship was strictly the sex." Nevertheless, according to Barresi,
Travolta "kept acting like I was his best friend."
Bitter fruit As time went by, Barresi says he felt increasingly strung
along and used. The last straw came when Travolta, in the market for a
new personal trainer, promised Baressi the job. One day early in 1990,
however, when Barresi went to visit Travolta at the Bel Air Hotel, he
found him with another man whose clothes were strewn all over the room.
"John said, `Oh, by the way, Paul," Barresi recalls, "this is so-and-so,
my new trainer."
It was a brief, awkward visit. Travolta sent Barresi on his way with a
gift� the remnants of the welcome basket hotel management had sent up
when Travolta arrived. "In the basket was stuff like a half-eaten apple,
pieces of fruit and candy with bites taken out of them, and a bottle of
Dom Perignon," Barresi says. "I left the hotel with tears streaming down
my face, carrying this stupid basket, and when I got home I threw the
basket away, put the champagne in the refrigerator... and then later on
I used it to celebrate my call to the National Enquirer."
He asked the Enquirer for $100,000 in exchange for the details of his
relationship with Travolta. They agreed to his price without blinking.
"I did it to get even," Barresi says, "and I did it for the money. If
I'd known what it would bring down on me, and especially what it would
do to my family, I wouldn't have done it."
The story appeared in an April, 1990 issue of the Enquirer.
Reaction was swift and intense. Photocopies of the Enquirer article were
sent anonymously to the owners of Barresi's building, every one of his
neighbors, every one of his fitness clients, his parents, and his
brothers. Savage anonymous notes were pasted to his door. He received
telephoned death threats, including one particularly strange assaultive
call at a clothing store where he was browsing. He was characterized in
print as a lowfife gigolo seeking publicity. "It just about wrecked my
life," Barresi remembers. "My whole world fell apart. My family disowned
me, I lost all but two of my fitness clients, I was barred from almost
every gym in town, and it cost me jobs." Some of the anger directed at
Barresi came from the Hollywood gay establishment, venting its wrath at
a time when the controversy over "outing" was just beginning and the
practice was considered supremely bad form.
Questions linger about the extent to which the "Church" of Scientology
may have mobilized against Barresi. John Travolta is a longtime adherent
of the "religious" cult invented by the late pulp sci-fi novelist L. Ron
Hubbard, creator of the self-help juggernaut called Dianetics.
Homosexuality is one of the conditions Scientology claims to be able to
cure. Barresi refuses to comment on whether or not he believes an
organized hate campaign perpetrated by members of the "church" occurred.
But many of the forms of harassment he encountered are consistent with
Scientologists' well-documented attacks on their enemies. It's worth
noting, however, that while Scientologists are a notoriously litigious
lot, Travolta never attempted to sue.
Pulled a Lewinsky In the end, Barresi accepted assurances from
Travolta's attorney that the affair could be brought "to a soft landing"
if he issued a retraction and an apology. "I was having a nervous
breakdown," Barresi says. "I just wanted it to be over. But when the
dust settled, I regretted the retraction a lot more than I regretted
that initial call to the Enquirer." Barresi eventually reconciled with
his family, but his thriving crossover career may not have recovered.
Rumors persist that Travolta has been pressured to promote the "church"
under threat of disclosure of his sexual history. Be that as it may,
Travolta, who now commands more than $20 million per picture, hastened
to marry actress and fellow Scientologist Kelly Preston a few months
after the National Enquirer story broke. At the same time, he stepped up
his visibility as a Scientology spokesperson. Accepting a Golden Globe
award for his work in Get Shorty, he thanked L. Ron Hubbard, several of
whose novels he has promised to produce as films. Kelly Preston recently
told Premiere magazine's Holly Millea: "John has had an amazing life
he's remained on top of it all, and I know it's because of Scientology.
It's misunderstood sometimes, and I couldn't give a fuck. Scientology is
so radically cool."
By Garry Scarff I had a meeting today with John Travolta's former fuck
buddy, Paul Barresi who showed me the photos & letters tying John to
Paul. I have also agreed to help Paul bring this matter to worldwide
attention, not to "out" John or denigrate him, but bring out the truth
on a very delicate subject for John: how to best hide and deny his
homosexuality while remaining the outspoken goldenboy for the extremely
homophobic cult of Scientology.
John: if you're lurking about and reading this, I have a question for
you. If the relationship between you and Paul never existed, could you
please explain the letter I read today postmarked December 2, 1989, from
Jacksonville, Florida where you wrote "One of these days, we will get
together again to speak or see each other, better sooner than later...
Love Always, John".
John Travolta not only slept with and enjoyed oral & anal sex with Paul
Barresi, and dressing up in women's clothes to mimic Bette Davis, but
maintained a sexual attraction for Sylvester Stallone (whose brother
Frank is a Scieno). John, in fact, travelled to Bangkok, Thailand where
Sylvester was on some politically-motivated PR event. John sent a very
interesting love letter to Paul from the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok.
Obviously, Sly never returned his affection to Bette Davis, er, John.
It's interesting, too, that a recent magazine entitled "Before They Were
Stars" spoke of John Travolta's childhood, where his overprotective
sisters would dress John up in women's wear and refer to him as their
sister. And a producer from Entertainment Tonight, where I was
interviewed, told me of a recent event where Travolta was seen on a
plane cuddling another man. Travolta's response to an puzzled flight
attendant was "my wife and I have an understanding."
John Travolta has some explaining to do, before these and other tidbits
of information are released to the public on a grand scale.
Garry Scarff