Tab, 3; Felice, O.

I enjoyed reading your interview with Tab Hunter in the October 11 issue ["Tab Talks"]. I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Hunter, and I found it both interesting and enlightening to read about the choices he felt it necessary to make in order to maintain his career as an actor in pre-Stonewall, McCarthyist America. But I must say I was shocked and disgusted with Felice Picano that he should be so crude as to bring up the fact that he too had had sex with Anthony Perkins. It was obvious from Mr. Hunter's response that the question was completely out of line. There was absolutely no journalistic necessity for that piece of information to show up in the interview other than to titillate and to puff up Mr. Picano's already overweening ego. It would have been much nicer to read Mr. Hunter's interview had it been conducted by an interviewer who was more adept and less self-promoting.

PAUL PITKIN Oak Grove, Ore.

It was with astonishment that the current interview featured with Tab Hunter could take such a nosedive in the wrong direction. The esteemed writer that did the piece seemed so stuck in one groove as time and time again he reinforced the same question to Mr. Hunter: "What was it like being really gay in the closeted world of 1950s Hollywood?" Tab Hunter is a major star of a film community that extends from his early days as a handsome young actor to his work as a comedian opposite Divine for John Waters. Was it even necessary for The Advocate, known for its in-depth coverage of news, to put a National Enquirer byline on the headline of the interview--such as "we both slept with Anthony Perkins" (or whatever the phrasing was)? Did the writer experience the need to bring his interview down to such a degree? It was very schoolgirlish--or even worse, some self-validation--to bring to the table. Mr. Hunter's book is an honest and refreshing biography of a time gone by and from a man who dealt with it in an inspiring fashion--not a sizing up at a urinal or the age-old question "How does it feel to be gay?" His career--and Tab Hunter as such--is worth so much more.

BILL BLISS La Mesa, Calif.

It's unfortunate that Tab Hunter's first interview with the gay press was conducted by Felice Picano. Talk about your tabloid journalism. Although Mr. Hunter came across as a class act, Felice Picano behaved like a sleazy, name-dropping star-fucker. I wouldn't be surprised if Tab's first gay interview is also his last.

SCOTT CUSHING Celebration, Fla.