Double exposure.

Why so many books about homosexuality and the movies? Walk into any gay bookstore and you'll find shelf after shelf; you'll be hard-pressed to find even one volume about homosexuality and, say, literature. Clearly there is a special connection at work.

Or rather, many special connections. Some are visible, but many more must be decoded. After all, the movies are the dominant art form of the century. They are about emotions, violence, and beauty. They exist half in reality and half in the dreamworld. And they are full of beautiful people who are fantastic objects of sexual desire. What homosexual wouldn't be interested?

Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998

* David Ehrenstein * William Morrow * $25

Open Secret: Gay Hollywood 1928-1998 by David Ehrenstein may well be the best book on the subject since The Celluloid Closet. But whereas Vito Russo's groundbreaking tome was an indictment, Open Secret is more of an explanation. "Hollywood lies about homosexuality," the author admits. "But then, Hollywood lies about everything." And indeed, some of its whoppers are so enormous that they defy credulity--just look at the careers of Rock Hudson and Cary Grant.

Open Secret deconstructs Hollywood and shows us how homosexuality has played a crucial but often encoded role from the very beginning. It takes as its form not so much a general thesis but rather a series of magazine article-type chapters, each replete with an insider's knowledge and impeccable research. Among the topics: George Cukor and his elegantly closeted set, the rise and fall of Confidential magazine, Lily Tomlin's infuriating refusal to come out and say it, the new gay sitcom writers and producers, and, of course, David Geffen and his extraordinary role as not just the most powerful openly gay man in Hollywood but the most powerful man, period.

There are two things I particularly like about this book. Number one, it has a happy ending--sort of. Gay people have always made crucial contributions to Hollywood, but now they are doing it more openly. And number two, I was amazed at how many people in Hollywood hate Michelangelo Signorile, which only goes to prove what I've suspected all along: He must be doing something right.

Shooting to Kill

* Christine Vachon with David Edelstein * Avon * $12

Hollywood's mendacity has had one unexpected benefit: It has prompted the rise of queer cinema, in which gay people create their own visions of their lives. Ten years ago there hardly was such a thing; now the hippest place in the industry is a gay film festival.

One of the key players in the movement--perhaps the key player--is producer Christine Vachon, who has among her credits such films as Poison, Swoon, Kids, I Shot Andy Warhol, and the new and very hot Velvet Goldmine. Now she also has a book, Shooting to Kill. A guide for the would-be gay producer, it is full of practical advice, budgets, diary excerpts, and dish. An inspiration for anyone even remotely interested in what has become the gay art form of the moment.

Plunket is the author of My Search for Warren Harding and Love Junkie.