Born December 29: Paul Rudnick

Piscataway's funniest son tripped through several dead ends -- Yale, copy writing, stage set painting, satiric novels for Knopf -- before hitting his stride as a playwright in his 30s with I Hate Hamlet and Jeffrey. At the same time he was an uncredited contributor to The Addams Family and the sole screenwriter of its sequel, Addams Family Values. He also wrote parts of The First Wives Club and all of Sister Act for Bette Midler, though successfully sued to have his name removed when it was rewritten as a Whoopi Goldberg vehicle. His first and only major studio gay movie was inspired by Tom Hanks' Oscar acceptance speech for Philadelphia. Grossing $63.8 million in 1997 In and Out did half the business of The Birdcage the year before. Rudnick's movies since then have been either disappointing or atrocious (Marci X, Isn't She Great, and The Stepford Wives), but he redeemed himself with his faux movie reviews by Libby Gellman-Waxmner. More recently he's written "Shouts & Murmurs" pieces in The New Yorker imagining the Vatican's homosexual screening quiz, obscene books for children, Christian gym bunnies, or gay sheep. Unlike David Sedaris or David Rakoff, Rudnick never met a gay cliché he didn't want to put on a big pink pedestal festooned with glitter, sparklers, and disco lights. Camp is the one thing he's chest-thumpingly serious about. He complained to the New York Times:

''There's a tradition of gay flamboyance that would be shameful to lose. My God, if every gay character has to become the responsible district attorney or the crusading senator, then who will ultimately benefit? Yes, we will prove that gay people can be every bit as dull as everyone else. I guess, on a political level, it could be important to make that point. But certainly not for my entertainment dollar!''

Earlier this year his trio of monologues, The New Century, was hysterical. Watch him on Charlie Rose here.

Comments

[ChiChi Fargo]

Thank you, Stephen. For your fine site, for your kind words. I am happy to learn from you (and from searches prompted by you) that I not only share a birthday with the fine Paul Rudnick (day, not year, alas)and that I am two days older than Joe Dallesandro and two years younger than Marianne Faithfull...a fine place to land. Happy new year.