To illustrate the point, Stone recounts an incident that occurred a few years ago when he, Van Virden and several other friends were waiting for an airplane to Phoenix after attending a gay pride rally in Los Angeles. According to Stone, one of the men in the group grew alarmed when he happened to see a relative approaching; the relative, who just happened to be passing through the same terminal, was unaware the man was gay.
"We looked at Virden and asked him to please cool it for a few minutes," recalls Stone. "Big mistake. Virden immediately started camping it up, acting like a total ass, putting his arms around the guy and trying to kiss him. The poor guy was mortified.
"Virden can be hilarious, but after a while, everything is at somebody else's expense," continues Stone, himself the butt of several unflattering digs in The U Report. "He doesn't care who he hurts as long as he's the center of attention."
When Van Virden and Stone bumped into each other at a recent Radix Gallery opening, the onetime friends scarcely acknowledged each other's presence. "I can't deal with the guy and all his spiteful attacks," says Stone. "His paper is old and it's tired, but it's the only way he has of getting back at everyone. And the scary thing is that while a lot of people are petrified, nobody does anything."
Perhaps even more frightening is the message Van Virden may be sending to his largely young, impressionable party-hardy readership. "I would hate to see the next generation of queers influenced by David Virden," says Robrt Pela, Van Virden's former editor. "That would be horrifying. The last thing we need right now is another reinforcement of negative stereotypes.
"What he's doing with this paper is telling everyone who comes after him, 'Hey, look at us! We're still doing this and isn't it fun?' He's glamorizing the sort of stuff that stopped being glamorous the minute people started dying. And because of people like him, thousands of people will continue to die. I sincerely hope that his 15 minutes are almost up."
Apparently having the time of his life, David Van Virden is one very busy socialite these nights. Busy rubbing biceps with muscle boys during the weekly whipped-cream wrestling matches he referees at The Works. Busy gearing up for "Meow," an advice-to-the-sexlorn column soon to debut in U and busy plotting his upcoming mock wedding ceremony to Miss Coco--an event whose future may be in serious doubt. (Fearful that his future "bride" was receiving too much attention during a recent photo shoot, he was overheard snarling, "Remember, Miss Coco, I don't have to wait until 1994 to compile my next 'out' list!) Far too busy, actually, to pay attention to anyone whining about lack of journalistic responsibility in The U Report.
"Doesn't anybody read the little disclaimer I print in the paper?" he asks. "It says, 'This is a gossip publication, not the evening news!'"
And like he also says in his paper, "Glamour is not a matter of life and death . . . it's far more important than that!
