Gay Fandom and Crossover Stardom: James Dean, Mel Gibson, and Keanu Reeves

“DeAngelis has been diligent in researching star biographies, film reviews, studio publicity and promotional campaigns, as well as straight and gay fan literature.”–Anthony Elliott “The Australian”

“DeAngelis probes the connections between identification and desire. He shows how studio publicity, fan web sites, and ‘dish’ columns reflect changing attitudes toward gay icons, from Dean’s ‘in and out’ sexuality to Gibson’s heterosexuality to Reeves’s ‘panaccessibility.’ Although DeAngelis focuses on these three stars, the wider implications of his arguments merit consideration in a larger context . . . . His argument is clear and concise, leaving room for continuing debate on audience response, criticism, and popular films. Highly recommended for film studies on gay-audience response.”– “Library Journal”

“I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in the construction of queer identities, the negotiatory process of fandom and the star’s management and negotiation of that fan attention.”–Kerry Gough “Scope”

“An important contribution to star studies, one distinguished by the way that it convincingly brings together queer theory, cultural studies, and close textual analysis.”–Steven Cohan, author of Masked Men: Masculinity and the Movies in the Fifties

“What is James Dean’s appeal for generations of queer men? How did Mel Gibson win, and then alienate, a gay audience? What is behind Keanu Reeves’s sexual ambiguity? You will discover the answers to these, and many other, provocative questions about male stars and their male fans in Michael DeAngelis’s sharply argued and wonderfully written Gay Fandom and Crossover Stardom.“—Alex Doty, author of Flaming Classics: Queering the Film Canon