(2 of 4)
Hollywood, ever cautious, has yet to make an AIDS film, although The Normal Heart may soon be produced by Barbra Streisand. Nor have rock musicians, trapped in machismo, done much to raise money and consciousnesses. In pop music, that is mostly women's work. And women, like Madonna, are doing splendidly. Dionne Warwick's megahit single That's What Friends Are For raised more than $1 million for AMFAR. Cyndi Lauper's royalties from Boy Blue, about a friend who died from the disease, will go to New York City AIDS research and patient care. Says Elizabeth Taylor, a ferocious fund raiser for AIDS research: "Since we began fighting this tragic disease, the most loyal, courageous support has come from the artistic community. The irony is that AIDS has decimated the arts, and every day we lose some of the greatest talent of our time to this hideous disease."
The roll call is heartbreaking. Broadway's top musical showman, Michael Bennett, dead last month at 44. Manhattan Art Dealer Xavier Fourcade, 60. Fashion Designers Willi Smith, 39, and Perry Ellis, 46. Makeup Artist Way Bandy, 45. Charles Ward, 33, who left the American Ballet Theater to go Dancin' on Broadway. Production Designer Bruce Weintraub (Prizzi's Honor), 33. Allan Estes, 29, founder of San Francisco's Theater Rhinoceros. An appalling 27 deaths in the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. To list them and their dying or dead brothers is to compile a journal of the plague years.
The plague carries its own stinging stigma, in that most AIDS victims have been homosexual males. Thus there is ambivalence among artists when the media disclose deaths caused by AIDS. Is the press spreading information or incrimination? Further, artists do not die only of AIDS, and the disease does not kill only artists. Says Hoffman: "I was going through my address book the other day to see who was gone. Among the 16, there was a plumber, a computer genius, a cop. AIDS attacks a cross section of humanity. But artists get the notoriety, and that gives people a false sense of security. I think that's dangerous."
And artists' friends comfort the afflicted. Manhattan Gallery Owner Holly Solomon knows dozens of AIDS victims. "One night this April," she recalls, "I went to Willi Smith's memorial. Then to Fourcade's funeral on Friday morning. That same week Tucker Ashworth ((p.r. chief for the city planning commission)) became very, very ill. At his home I held him in my arms and tried to console him. He died about a month later." The disease infects her business as well. "One day a woman called me to sell paintings her son had collected. He died when he was 31; she couldn't stand the reminders."
Hollywood can't stand to think much about AIDS either. The disease's two most celebrated victims, Liberace and Rock Hudson, may have worked there, and the movie industry may have nearly as high a concentration of gays as New York City. But the town has not been devastated by AIDS. Says a writer: "In the top echelons of Hollywood, people are always looking over their shoulder. Caution leads to sexual sobriety, and that could save their lives."