Anthony Weiner Sexts; Channing Tatum on Broadway; J.K. Rowling Number One

Anthony Weiner Sexts

When I post things here on this blog, I actually do make a conscious effort to keep with the theme of Naughty Guys with Strong Stories. Mostly that's about my fiction, however, I don't think there's been a naughtier guy with a stronger story than Anthony Weiner since the Bill Clinton era. And now that's he's running for mayor of New York City more information about his penchant for sexting has surfaced and every crooked politician in NY seems to have jumped onto the band wagon to seize Weinder's weak spot, and they are calling for him to drop out of the race.

Three of his rivals for mayor — Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and former City Councilman Sal Albanese, both Democrats, and billionaire John Catsimatidis, a Republican — also called on Weiner to quit the race.

"Enough is enough," de Blasio said. "The sideshows of this election have gotten in the way of the debate we should be having about the future of this city."

So far, Weiner has the support of his wife and he's not making any moves to drop out. And frankly, I hope he doesn't.

While I do think that Weiner's lack of discretion has created most of his problems because we live in a society that likes to cover these issues up all the time, I don't think his issues should be a deciding factor on whether or not he can run the city of New York. At least in his case we know he's an exhibitionist, he takes care of his body, and he happens to enjoy sex. Compare this to past politicians like John F. Kennedy or even the late mayor of NY, Ed Koch, and the only thing Weiner is guilty of doing is showing a little too much too often. The hidden sex lies about Kennedy were never actually addressed in public, and openly acknowledged. To this day, there are still people who think Jack and Jackie Kennedy were the perfect married couple. And Mayor Koch lived his entire life as a closeted gay man who didn't even acknowledge the AIDS virus...and he was mayor during a time when thousands of gay men were dying from it. On another note, it took over two hundred years to acknowledge that Thomas Jefferson not only had slaves, but that he made his living...a very good living...on breeding slaves and selling human beings for profit. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I think sexting falls into an entirely different category than selling human beings to make a buck.

Weiner's wife has openly supported him so far. Anyone who has ever been married knows that what happens between spouses, gay or straight, is unique and not all circumstances are handled the same way. And unless you can stand up and say you have the ultimate perfect marriage, I don't think anyone should be pointing fingers at anyone else. And, anyone who has been married knows that there is no such thing as the perfect marriage and that marriage is more about learning to compromise, mostly in ways you never could have portended when you were single. The levels or degrees on which we're willing to compromise differ from person to person, however, no one has it perfect. And sex is a big part of everyone's life and no one is willing to admit that openly. I personally know a few closeted gay politicians, Democrat and Republican, who come to New Hope because it's a safe gay community, to visit their kept male lovers. These men are married with children and they live double lives. I wrote about this in the upcoming book, The Palm Beach Stud, with a minor character.

Anthony Weiner is obviously not perfect, but no one is perfect. At least he's been open about his mistakes. Or at least I hope he's been open about them. And that's far more than we can say about any politician, including those who cruise men's rooms and lie about that all the time. Most of the time we get nothing more than a spin and what they want us to know, thanks to crafty PR people and those who stand to gain a great deal of money from the system. At least we know Weiner's not perfect.

Channing Tatum on Broadway

As with most things these days, this came from a tweet. Channing Tatum posted on twitter that the stage version of his recent film, Magic Mike, is headed for Broadway.

 "Magic Mike, The Musical" will be written by Aguirre-Sacasa, who co-wrote the book for "Spider Man: Turn Off The Dark." Tony winning songwriters, Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, creators of “Next To Normal," are set to write the songs for the musical.

Anyone who follows me regularly knows that I have never been a fan of torch songs, Broadway show tunes, or anything even remotely related to musical comedy. In fact, I dislike them so much I love to parody them...I'm still thinking about writing an erotic romance titled, Banging in the Rain based on Singing in the Rain. However, I passed on seeing Magic Mike in the theaters, and I even passed on renting it on demand because I didn't think I would like it. From everything I had read about it at the time I imagined a bunch of straight guys involved in a typical hetero romance plot. So when I finally did see in on one of the premium channels I was a little amazed at how good it was, and how much I liked the storyline. I hope they do justice to the film with the play.

J.K. Rowling Number One

Who didn't actually think this would happen? Seriously. I posted about Rowling's pen name being disclosed last week, and about her new mystery suspense, Cuckoo's Calling, and I didn't have a doubt in my mind she'd hit the number one on more than a few bestseller lists.

J. K. Rowling will land at No. 1 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list on Thursday – but this time as Robert Galbraith.

As most of the world now knows, Galbraith is the pseudonym Rowling used when she released a detective novel, The Cuckoo's Calling, in April. Despite good reviews, it sold fewer than 1,000 copies.

Even though I loved her adult book, The Casual Vacancy, I'm not planning to read the new book right away because mystery suspense is just not my thing, and lack of time. But I do find it interesting that a book with a pen name written by Rowling lingers around without doing much for a while, plus good reviews, and then it hits all the bestseller lists the instant her real name is revealed.

I do believe Rowling had nothing to do with revealing her name in public. But I can't help thinking there's also a problem with the book system as we know it and that we're not getting all the information...or we're not bothering to look for all the information...we need in order to find good books. So when I post about new web sites like Lazy Beagle Entertainment I'm hoping people will really start to take this seriously and that they will check it out and give a few new authors a try. Because the only difference between J.K. Rowling and an unknown author is that Rowling has a little more luck and a little more publicity on her side. And if that weren't the case, her pen name, Robert Galbraith, would have hit all the bestseller lists, too, just based on the reviews alone. And that God awful title, Cuckoo's Call, didn't put her on the bestseller list. I'm not even sure WTF a Cuckoo is.

I don't often talk about marketing and publicity here, especially PR firms like this one that represents Debbie Macomber and Nora Roberts, and is affliated with a few people who might suprise you because they keep it very toned down. But I think readers should know some of the things that happen behind the scenes, and I'm going to get into that more in the future. I may wind up in the river with a cinder block tied to my leg, but the information we are getting on a grand scale is not by accident. And those who often speak of full disclosure don't always practice it. It wasn't sheer talent that landed Debbie Macomber a movie deal with Hallmark. So there's nothing more important nowadays than publicty and marketing, and the least of that deals with reviews.