(SOAP Q ) Franco Sells Book 'Straight' to Amazon!

Jack-of-multiple-trades James Franco is about to peddle his latest endeavor on Amazon. The actor's first novel, Actors Anonymous, has been acquired by Amazon's new fiction editor and the tome will head directly to the company's online store. The work is supposed to be a barely-fictionalized version of Franco's own experiences, reports the New York Observer. Franco's first book of short stories, Palo Alto, won less-than-stellar reviews from Gawker, which is also less than thrilled about the upcoming book. FRANCO currently plays a Rapist on GH!

SOCK IT TO ME? New Book Alleges Richard Nixon Had Longterm Gay Relationship!

UK tabloid Daily Mail is reporting on a new biography of Richard Nixon by journalist Don Fulsom which suggests former President Richard Nixon had a drinking problem, beat his wife, and had deep ties to the Mafia and a long-term affair with Cuban-American businessman Bebe Rebozo: Yet the most extraordinary claim is that the homophobic Nixon may have been gay himself. If true, it would provide a fascinating insight into the motivation and behaviour of a notoriously secretive politician.

Fulsom argues that Nixon may have had an affair with his best friend and confidant, a Mafia‑connected Florida wheeler-dealer named Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo who was even more crooked than Nixon.

The book, Nixon's Darkest Secrets, is out next month — by coincidence at the same time as the UK release of a new film directed by Clint Eastwood about another supposed closet gay among Washington's 20th-century hard men.

HEAVEN SENT: Christopher Hitchens Dead at 62!

Author, intellectual, and firebrand atheist Christopher Hitchens has died at the age of 62 after a long fight with esophageal cancer. The British-born writer, who had lived in Washington DC since 1982, chronicled his illness with the same caustic insight he directed at targets including Bill Clinton, Mother Teresa, and Henry Kissinger, and scoffed at the idea that terminal cancer would change his mind about religion, NPR notes. Hitchens, who wrote 17 books, was a radical leftist in his early days but shifted to the right over the years and became one of the left's fiercest critics after the September 11 attacks. His greatest passions, friends say, were politics and argument—as well as drinking and smoking. "There will never be another like Christopher,” said Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, where Hitchens was a columnist for nearly 20 years. “A man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar. Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls.'"

CRAZY: Ellis Wants Scott Disick for American Psycho Re-Make!

If you are somehow not already creeped out by Kourtney Kardashian's boyfriend and babydaddy Scott Disick, this should do the trick: None other than Bret Easton Ellis himself wants Disick for the planned American Psycho remake, the New York Post reports. "I have warned Lionsgate that I will not approve a new version of 'American Psycho' unless it stars SCOTT DISICK or MILES FISHER," Ellis recently tweeted, continuing, "I am waiting for Scott Disick to ask: 'Who in the hell is Bret Easton Ellis?'" "Not going to happen, I know just who u r!" Disick quickly responded. He had earlier expressed his excitement at the announcement of the remake, tweeting, "best news i have ever heard! i hope they call me!" If you don't quite see the resemblance between Disick and Ellis' sociopathic killer Patrick Bateman, who apparently serves as Disick's style icon, perhaps this video will shed some light. In other news related to the Kardashian clan, there was much Kim-and-Kris drama on last night's episode of Kourtney & Kim Take New York.

ICON: Farewell To Barbara Grier, Pioneering Publisher Of Lesbian Books!

Farewell to Barbara Grier, a brave and resolute woman who had the wild idea to begin a serious lesbian publishing house in the dim and unenlightened January of 1972. The resulting company, Naiad Press -- which Grier co-founded with her lifelong partner, Donna McBride, as well as Anyta Marchant and Muriel Crawford -- became the biggest and most important lesbian publishing house in the world.

From the Los Angeles Times: By the time it folded in 2003, it had published more than 500 titles by authors such as Rita Mae Brown, Katherine V. Forrest, Jane Rule and Sheila Ortiz Taylor.

"She created Naiad Press because the mainstream would not publish any of our books," Forrest, whose career was launched by Naiad in 1983 with the publication of her novel "Curious Wine," told The Times on Friday. "Her accomplishments are just monumental, given the obstacles she faced. There was such virulent homophobia. Barbara was nothing if not fearless."

(the GAY SEXpert) Common Features of Religious Abuse (and the Ex-Gay Movement)

by Jallen Rix, PH.D

The most important discovery I made in my research* and understanding of my recovery process from my ex-gay experience had to do with the way “ministries” like this function. Briefly put, it is nothing new. In fact, the movement is a microcosm of a larger, more rampant problem today — religious abuse.

I had a suspicion that the ex-gay movement might have some commonalities with religious abuse and dependency, but I had no idea just how similar they were. As I began to read about religious abuse, I would often blink my eyes and glance at the title of the book to make sure I wasn’t reading a book exclusively about the ex-gay movement. It seemed that what was described as a structured kind of power abuse within a given church, was describing point for point any number of ex-gay groups. Whole chapters of religious abuse books could apply perfectly to what has occurred in the ex-gay environment — really!

PENNED: Sorkin Writing Steve Jobs Movie?

Sony is making a Steve Jobs movie based on the biography by Walter Isaacson, and none other than (Closeted) Social Network scribe Aaron Sorkin is being courted to write it, the Los Angeles Times reports. A source says Sorkin is considering the idea, but neither Sorkin nor Sony gave an official comment. Still, it seems like a good fit:

• LA Times: “Sorkin is known for penning stories about the lives of fiercely smart, if difficult, figures, of which Jobs certainly was one. Isaacson's take on the late executive as someone whose penchant for ‘magical thinking’ was both a great advantage and a fatal liability seems particularly suited to a Sorkin script.”

• New York: “If you're going to turn a non-idiotic book into a non-idiotic movie, and the central character is some kind of against-the-grain man, then you can only turn to one person for help with this script: Aaron Sorkin. It worked great for Social Network, it worked OK enough for Moneyball.”
• Huffington Post: “Aaron Sorkin's last two films have been adaptations of books about a game changing tech mogul and a dynamic personality who wasn't afraid to think differently to achieve success. Which makes him a very logical choice to take on the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic.”

Plus, Sorkin was a longtime Apple fan, and Steve Jobs himself once asked him to write a Pixar movie—a request Sorkin declined.

HAIL: Susan Sarandon Calls Pope a Nazi!

Actress Susan Sarandon is not a huge fan of the pope. In fact, she called Benedict XVI a Nazi—twice—at a British film festival. She mentioned that she sent the pope a copy of the book Dead Man Walking, then clarified that she sent it to the last pope, "not this Nazi one we have now." The Vatican has admitted Benedict was a member of the Hitler Youth group, but says he was enrolled against his will. "Susan Sarandon's quip about Pope Benedict being a Nazi bespeaks unparalleled ignorance," Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, tells TMZ. "Unlike most others, he not only refused to go to the compulsory meetings, he deserted the Hitler Youth."

THEORY: Was Van Gogh Murdered by his Young Male Admirer (Lover)?

The accepted explanation for Vincent Van Gogh's death may be all wrong. While the standard story is that the artist shot himself in a field, managing to return to a nearby inn before he died, a new 900-page book paints a very different picture. In Van Gogh: The Life, Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith postulate that a local teenager shot Van Gogh, likely accidentally, the Telegraph reports.

 The teen, one Rene Secretan, had formed an odd relationship with Van Gogh; he mocked the painter and bought him drinks. After the shooting, Van Gogh was asked whether he intended to kill himself; he said, "Yes, I believe so." Naifeh and Smith say the painter didn't want to get the boy in trouble and wanted to die anyway. They also write that the angle of the bullet's entry path isn't what you'd expect in a suicide. The authors' version, which the BBC notes is based on thousands of letters studied over a decade, helps explain why neither a gun nor a suicide note was found, but they acknowledge that "no one knows what happened."

BAD THING: Alexis Stewart Reveals Her 'Mommie Dearest'!

Turns out super homemaker Martha Stewart was a bit of a shrew in the maternal department—a gut-churning, demanding perfectionist when it came to her house, and decidedly not kid-friendly. That's the verdict from her grown daughter, Alexis, who has penned a kind of "Mommie Dearest" tell-all about life with mother. "If I didn't do something perfectly, I had to do it again. I grew up with a glue gun pointed at my head," she writes in Whateverland: Learning to Live Here. One of the things she was ordered to do was to wrap her own Christmas presents, perfectly, without peeking at the gifts. 

Halloweens were spent hiding out in the house with the lights off to dissuade trick-or-treaters. And there was never anything to eat. "Other people had food. I had no food. There were ingredients, but no prepared food of any kind," grumbles Alexis. She's also annoyed that her mom insists everyone take off their shoes when entering her home, but lets her dogs soil carpets all over the house, notes the Daily Mail. As for inviting Mom over for dinner, forget it. "My mother will occasionally complain that I don't invite her over for dinner," Alexis reveals. "Can you blame me? Whatever I serve, she'll sip it, taste it, make a face, and push it away."

BUST: Assange Memoir Sells Just 644 Copies!

A war of words between Julian Assange and publisher Canongate generated plenty of free publicity for Julian Assange: The Unauthorized Autobiography but that hasn't translated into sales. The book—which the WikiLeaks founder worked on with a ghostwriter before withdrawing from the project earlier this year—sold only 644 copies in the three days after its release in Britain, the Guardian reports. 

Canongate's publishing director says he expects sales of Assange's life story to pick up. "We're proud of the way we handled what has been a difficult and unusual launch, and we are extremely proud of the book," he says. "Fortunately, the conversation now seems to be moving away from the 'publishing story' and focusing on the quality of the book itself." Canongate says it plans to pay Assange royalties—as soon as the memoir sells enough to cover the $500,000 advance he received.

LIES: Assange Slams 'Unauthorized Autobiography'!

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is clashing with a British publisher over a memoir being released without his consent. The "unauthorized autobiography," which will go on sale in the UK today, is being published because Assange used a $500,000 advance to pay his legal bills then withdrew from the project because of fears US authorities might use the information in the memoir against him, Canongate says. 

Assange, however, accuses the publisher of "profiteering from an unfinished and erroneous draft" that he worked on with a ghostwriter earlier this year. The events surrounding the memoir's publication "are not about freedom of information. They are about old-fashioned opportunism and duplicity—screwing people over to make a buck," Assange tells AP. "This draft was a work in progress. It is entirely uncorrected or fact-checked by me." Canongate's publishing director says Assange ought to be pleased with the memoir. "What comes through here is this very human portrait of Julian, warts and all," he says. "He's a warmer character than a lot of people will be expecting."

NO NUDITY EVVERRRR! Daughter to Reveal Naked Videos of Joan Crawford!

Mommie Dearest is about to get her comeuppance once more, in the form of naked home videos. Christina Crawford, who penned the famous exposé on celebrity mother Joan Crawford, is now developing a one-woman show called Surviving Mommie Dearest, in which she will reveal new details about her upbringing.

She'll also, the Huffington Post reports, show home movies featuring her mother in the nude, which she just recently discovered. "I never knew that they existed before a year ago and never saw them before a month ago,” Crawford says. “I remembered her telling me about her married lover, Charles McCabe; however, I never saw photos of him 'til the home movies, when they were hunting, fishing, and canoeing in the Poconos.” Click for more.

TOO SOON: Archie's Kevin keller is getting married (ALREADY)!

Last year, Kevin Keller became Archie Comics’ first openly gay character; now, he’s getting hitched, On Top Magazine reports. “Kevin followed in his father's footsteps and is returning to Riverdale as a war hero,” the comic company says in a press release. “But that's not all—It's Kevin's wedding day!” Spoiler alert: Kevin’s nuptials will reportedly be timed with Archie’s separation from Veronica. The announcement has sparked the ire of gay-marriage opponents, the magazine notes. “It is unfortunate that a comic book series usually seen as depicting innocent, all-American life is now being used to advance the sexual revolution,” said a Family Research Council rep. 

Meanwhile, at Mediaite, Jon Bershad parodies such reactions. “With this comic book coming out (no pun intended) and Chaz Bono dancing with stars, it’s only a matter of time before every child out there is a gay married transsexual,” he notes. Click for more.

He just came out, I think it is too soon to tie the knot. He needs more time playing the field!

IMMACULATE: JD Salinger Note to Maid on Sale for $50K!

A newly surfaced work from the late JD Salinger is up for sale—for about $1,800 a word. It's a signed note to his maid written in 1989, which the online company History for Sale has up on eBay for $50,000, reports the Concord Monitor. "Dear Mary," it reads. "Please make sure all the errands are done before you go on vacation, as I do not want to be bothered with insignificant things. Thank you. J.D. Salinger" That $50,000, by the way, does not include $19 for shipping.

SECRET LOVE: James Dean Love Letters Up for Sale!

Love letters from one of the major romances in James Dean's short life will hit the auction block for the first time. The actor, who was killed in a car crash at the age of 24, dated Barbara Glenn for 2 years, and the three letters up for sale date from the year before his death, reports the Daily Mail. In one letter, the budding star complains about rehearsals for "piece of shit" Broadway musical The Immoralist. "They were all young actors starting out and struggling together," says Glenn's son, filmmaker Keith Gordon. She "never discussed their romance in great detail, but I did know Jimmy was her first serious, grown-up relationship," he tells the BBC.

"It was apparently very intense and involved numerous break-ups and reconciliations, but she often remained his confidant even during some of them 'off-again' times." The three letters are expected to fetch at least $25,000.

How much the letters go if it was to his Male Lovers, rather than his beards?

SWEET REVENGE: Levi claims Bristol Had Baby for Revenge on Sarah!

There's no love lost between the Johnston and Palin clans, and Levi's new tell-all memoir is set to keep the feud going. In Deer In the Headlights, to be released later this month, Johnston claims that Bristol became pregnant with his child to get even with her mother for Sarah's pregnancy with Trig, reports the New York Daily News. 

He says Bristol, then 17, believed that she, not her politician mother, should be having babies. Johnston—who says he was "too dumb" to use birth control—claims that Sarah offered to adopt the baby to "avoid a scandal," but he and Bristol turned her down. He scoffs at Bristol's claim that she lost her virginity to him after drinking wine coolers on a camping trip. The couple didn't go camping together until after they had become sexually active, he says, so if Bristol lost her virginity on a camping trip, Levi quips he "wasn't there."

REVEALED: Jackie O Had Cruel Words for Presidents, Other VIPs!

More details—and more barbs—are trickling out from the new book of 47-year-old interviews with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, which hits shelves Wednesday. From the New York Times:

• On French president Charles DeGaulle: "That egomaniac."
• On future Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi: "A real prune—bitter, kind of pushy, horrible woman."
• JFK’s thoughts on Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Charlatan is an unfair word," but "he did an awful lot for effect."
• On former Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson: "Violently liberal women in politics" liked him more than JFK because they "were scared of sex," Jackie theorized.

CHANEL-ED: New Bio Claims Coco Chanel Spied for Nazis!

Fashion maven Coco Chanel was an anti-Semitic Nazi spy who recruited agents with her then-boyfriend, a German officer, according to a new biography. Sleeping With the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War charts her alleged espionage career with lover Hans Gunther von Dincklage, and draws on international archives to support claims that the pair went on secret missions in Berlin and Madrid, Reuters reports. 

The Chanel fashion house, however, seems unconvinced. "What's certain is that she had a relationship with a German aristocrat during the war," says a representative. The Chanel house also dismissed allegations of anti-Semitism, saying the French fashion icon had Jewish friends and business ties to the Rothschild family. Written by a Paris-based American journalist, the book also claims that Chanel's German code name was "Westminster"—after another one of her lovers, the Duke of Westminster.

B-ITCH: Christine O'Donnell Addresses 'Witch' Ad!

(AP) – Nearly a year after she won a stunning primary victory in a US Senate race and drew nationwide attention for her controversial statements, Christine O'Donnell is back on the scene, by way of a new book. In Troublemaker: Let's Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again, O'Donnell chastises adversaries for undermining her campaign, while admitting errors in her own decision-making. The Delaware Republican addresses what she calls "my lowest moment of the 2010 campaign"—the commercial in which she assured voters, "I am not a witch." 

She says she never wanted to make the ad—which was prompted by questions about a statement from a 1999 late-night talk show that she had "dabbled" in witchcraft as a teenager—and was surprised when it showed up on the Internet. She blames an insistent media consultant, but also her own inability to put her foot down. "It was a wrong-headed move, made for all the wrong reasons, but it was mine," she writes. While O'Donnell claims the witch ad was leaked before she had seen or approved it, emails obtained by the AP yesterday show that the campaign had approved the ad and planned to post it on YouTube the same morning it was to begin airing on television. The book is scheduled to go on sale on Tuesday.