In the store, I am featuring, in a prominent place, the new biography of Burr, HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: THE SECRET LIFE OF RAYMOND BURR by MICHAEL SETH STARR. Men my age will pick it up, peruse the contents and then note to me: "I had no idea." Thus the point of this book.

Burr (1917-1993) started out as the villain. Think REAR WINDOW. He was swarthy and hulking. He got famous as a TV star, in hugely popular series like PERRY MASON and IRONSIDES, which, I suspect, are good to run in reruns for another 50 years. Who knows?

But being gay in Tinseltown at that time was another game. Burr made up stories about his past, yes, his very own "backstory," and not the first to do it. He told folks he was a grieving husband and father. He let people know about his (imaginary) affair with Natalie Wood, 21 years younger than Burr. Some of this spinning and weaving must have done its job; bits and pieces wound up in his NY TIMES obit.

His partner of 35 years was Robert Benevides. Burr met him on the set of PERRY MASON. Together they built a business empire, traveled around the world and shared their passions for orchids and fine wines. How they kept their relationship so private in a town that lives on gossip is part of the worthy subject of Starr's book. Burr's other TV appearances included a special in which he portrayed Pope John XXIII in PORTRAIT: A MAN WHOSE NAME WAS JOHN as well as his 1967 NBC special where he visits American troops in Vietnam.

HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT is a hardcover from Applause. There are photos throughout, $24.95

His new book, MARIO LOPEZ'S KNOCKOUT FITNESS offers a six-week plan for getting into shape. Though all in favor of gym work, Lopez likes variety--yoga, boxing, basketball, swimming and, of course, dancing. There are color photos throughout.

MARIO LOPEZ'S KNOCKOUT FITNESS, co-written with JEFF O'CONNELL,  is a hardcover from Rodale, $26.95

The Roman Civil War has ended. Pompey is dead. The Republic is in its death rattle. Egypt is ruled by Cleopatra and, for the first time in many years, Julius Caesar has finally returned to Rome. The Senate has appointed him Dictator, and the rumors are about that he wants to become King.

Gordianus, recently returned from Egypt with his wife, is pretty much retired from his profession as the "Finder." He gets a message from Calpurnia, Caesar's wife. She's had dreams about a conspiracy against her husband and had hired someone to check out the rumors. That someone, a friend of Gordianus, was murdered. Calpurnia asks Gordianus to help her out. He's no fan of Caesar, but agrees to do it--mostly to find the bad guy who killed his friend. But in for a penny, in for a pound, and who knows what will turn up in those days before the Ides of March?

THE TRIUMPH OF CAESAR is a hardcover from St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95

Timothy Laughlin is a recent college grad and a devout Catholic; he's eager to join the crusade against communism. He has an encounter with a handsome fellow who works in the State Department--Hawkins Fuller. This leads to Tim's first job in DC, and, after Fuller's advances, his first love affair. Joe McCarthy, flailing about to keep his witchhunt going, lashed out at "sexual subversives" embedded in the federal government. This makes it even more precarious for Tim and Hawkins, living their double lives.

Mallon, author of DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN, is great with period detail and captures the political and cultural climate of the capital in the '50's.

FELLOW TRAVELERS is a trade paperback from Vintage Books, $14.95

This collection of 21 stories is a love letter to those hardworking, hard-bodied hunks who build our buildings, connect our cable TVs, and fix our furnaces. Ride to the top of an unfinished high rise for a raunchy steel-beam encounter. Head to the country where a road repair crew breaks in the new guy.

Editor NEIL PLAKCY, a former construction site boss, has signed on some of today's best erotic writers for this steamy salute to our irresistible symbols of masculinity.

HARD HATS is a trade paperback from Cleis Press, $14.95

There is a noir motif also, a dark feel, perhaps the hint of danger, sweaty men on the job. GODS OF SPORT may not have been the most precise title for this lavish presentation; it seems the models inhabit spaces that are some dark intersection of rough locker room, gritty work pit and low-security prison unit, all filtered through the sexual imagination of Jean Genet. Perhaps Virgil is caretaker of his namesake and is accurate in the account of our erotic travels.

GODS OF SPORT is an oversized hardcover from Bruno Gmünder. $99.99

In his memoir, INCLUDE ME OUT, written with ROBERT CALHOUN, Granger recounts working with directors Alfred Hitchcock, Luchino Visconti and Nick Ray. Granger's personal life was complex. He was intimately involved with both men and women and rather open about it all, given the times. Then there was his legendary fight with Sam Goldwyn, to get out of his contract. (There's that wonderful story where Mrs. Goldwyn took Granger to lunch, said she had something important to discuss--Farley figured it was going to be a dressing down about his being so out 'n gay--but no! Mrs. G. had heard he was dating Shelley Winters, and she suggested that Shelley was perhaps a bit too trashy for a fine fellow like him! Turns out Shelley was one of Granger's best pals in Tinseltown.)

Full of show business lore, Granger's book is an intelligent account of his life and times. INCLUDE ME OUT is new in trade paperback from St. Martin's Griffin. It includes black and white photos and an index, $15.95

His latest title is DISHONORABLE PASSIONS: SODOMY LAWS IN AMERICA 1861-2003. Eskridge posits that sodomy laws were part of the regulatory apparatus of the government--and the ruling elites it fronted--to regulate the sexual behaviors of the citizens, both straight and gay. Anti-sodomy laws have always been controversial, not just because of their intrusiveness but also because of their selective applications. Anti-sodomy laws were legal instruments for controlling minorities deemed undesirable; the effect of the targeted enforcement was to enforce a specific construct of "social order."  The anti-gay panics of the 1950s and the sexual revolutions of the 1960s focused attention on removing anti-sodomy laws. It would not be until 2003, when the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, tossed the anti-sodomy laws into the dustbin of history. Eskridge filed an influential amicus brief in the Lawrence case.

DISHONORABLE PASSIONS is a hardcover from Viking, $32.95

Full of passionate sexuality, Diamond's stories are dense with dangerous men. There are the rogue cops, the ravers, horsemen, prison inmates, drug dealers, wildlife officers. He covers the waterfront wherein there are perhaps too many coasts.

ROUGH CUT is a trade paperback from Lethe Press, $18.00

His latest title, a novel,  is ATTACK OF THE THEATER PEOPLE. It is 1986 and aspiring actor Edward Zanni has been kicked out of drama school for being "too jazz hands for Julliard." Zanni is mortified. What next? He throws himself into the jungle of NYC in the 80s. He lands a job as a "party motivator." His assignment is to get 13-year-old girls to dance at bar mitzvahs. He also must charm business folks as a planted "stealth guest" at corporate events. Then he meets Chad, a handsome stockbroker; instead of romance, Chad gets Edward involved in an insider trading scandal. It is only with the help of the crew we met in HOW I PAID FOR COLLEGE that Edward is rescued from a stretch in Club Fed.

ATTACK OF THE THEATER PEOPLE is a trade paperback from Broadway Books, $12.95

SCOTT POMFRET

Reads from his memoir

SINCE MY LAST  CONFESSION

Friday, June 20th  7 PM

JOHNNY DIAZ

Reads From His New Novel

MIAMI MANHUNT

Friday, July 11th    7 PM

MYRNA LAMB

Reads and Discusses Her New Title

THE ASTROLOGY OF GREAT GAY SEX

                Friday, July 25th,  7 PM