By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Today in Gay Activism: Man Overpays For 'Brokeback' 's 'Ruby Slippers of Our Time'
It seems like only yesterday we were captivated by the fund-raising promise embodied in a couple of stinky props from a likely Oscar winner. Today, however, those auctioned-off Brokeback Mountain shirts leave the symbolic world and enter the realm of tacky memorabilia, and the man who is taking them there is exactly $101,100.51 lighter for the privilege, says the AP:
Tom Gregory just spent more than $100,000 on two used cowboy shirts. And he couldn’t be happier.
The shirts are the ones worn by the ill-fated lovers, played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, in Oscar front-runner Brokeback Mountain. The shirts that represent their relationship. The shirts that, to Gregory, represent the ongoing plight of gays for acceptance in society.
“They really are the ruby slippers of our time,” said Gregory, 45.
A longtime gay activist, Gregory plans to keep the shirts “as they were, on the hanger, entwined.”
“I would never wear them, put them on, or separate them,” he said.
Well, at least in an auction boasting Vin Diesel’s xXx motorcycle pants and a Ringer poster signed by Johnny Knoxville, the Brokeback shirts are the ruby slippers, John Travolta’s white suit from Saturday Night Fever and Bela Lugosi’s Dracula cape all rolled into one stiff, blood-stained ball. But Gregory should know these investments are notoriously unsound: The Reeler hears that Transamerica star Felicity Huffman’s prosthetic penis, “Andy,” should be on the market soon and fuck everything up by becoming “the Indiana Jones fedora of our time.” Tough break there, pal.