Night and Day

I recently watched the movie, De Lovely, based upon the life of American composer, Cole Porter. It stars two of my favorite actors that always seem to fly under the radar, Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, and chronicles the life of Cole from his 20s into his 60s.

I have to admit that I actually enjoyed this movie a lot, though it bombed at the box office. It starts in the late 19-teens in Paris and features much of Porter’s music and musicals, with numbers sung by Alanis Morrissette, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Natalie Cole, among others (so if you’re not into that era of 20s – 40s music, you probably won’t like it).

What I found rather fascinating was watching the marriage between Cole and his wife, Linda (Judd), because Cole was a homosexual. Linda knew it before they married, but didn’t mind as long as Cole’s antics didn’t embarrass them (being part of “society” sure has it’s pressures, doesn’t it?).

The whole “lesson” being that there are many types of love, and marriage doesn’t have to be limited to the romantic sort. And the thing of it is that I couldn't tell if I was impressed with Cole's willingness to be true to himself to not apologize for his preference or if he was some type of a sell-out for getting married in the first place.

There’s something I find rather intriguing about people that live one type of life during the day and another at night. This is probably why I also gravitate toward spy-centered books and why I like watching The Unit about The Delta Force on TV. Maybe it’s that subconscious desire to wish I did something more exciting than marketing or had a talent that wasn’t work-related (like damn fine organizational skills).

If you were going to write your “alternate” biography, what would it say or what would you want it to say?