Rants & raves.

"Monty was in the closet, but I think I knew what he was fighting. He was tormented his whole life. I tried to explain to him that it wasn't so awful. It was the way that nature had male him."

--Elizabeth Taylor, on the homosexuality of Montgomery Cliff, her costar in A Place in the Sun, as quoted in the October issue of Talk

* "I don't talk about two things. I don't talk about my personal life, and I don't talk about death."

--Richard Simmons, talking about why his sexual orientation is not mentioned in his new autobiography, Still Hungry After All These Years, as quoted in the September 12 edition of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Sun-Sentinel

"It is an ultramodern family, but I don't think they are homosexual. The other male is just confused."

--Wildlife officer Geoff Underwood, referring to two male emus who are nesting together and caring for seven emu chicks in an Australian nature reserve, as quoted by Agence Press France September 17

* "I like to think that if I were gay, I would be out, Rupert Everett-style."

--Ben Affleck, commenting on rumors that he's gay, in the October issue of Vanity Fair