I've been trying to make a coherent picture out of the lives and loves of my ex-boyfriends, first Alan, then Fred, and now Lane, my partner for about ten years and friend for about thirty, But I can't fit Lane into a coherent picture; he's full of contradictions and inconsistencies. Every time you think you have him figured out, there's a new surprise.
Here are the 21 most surprising facts about him. At least they surprised me:
1. He's a third generation West Hollywood boy. His grandparents opened a hardware store there in 1938. His parents owned a clothing store and two apartment buildings there. His childhood home was on Romaine, near Crescent Heights, around the corner from the French Quarter -- his childhood hangout!
2. He was a hippie. At Hollywood High School in the early 1970s, he had long hair, listened to The Grateful Dead, smoked pot, and participated in a sit-in to protest the lack of attention to African-Americans in the curriculum. But he was also a good Jewish boy, keeping kosher, studying the Torah, attending Shabbat services. And he was gay, which, he thought, didn't fit into either the hippie or the Jewish worlds. High school was a time of anxiety and depression.
3. He invites Jane Fonda to Passover every year. In 1976, when Tom Hayden was running for the U.S. senate, his parents were big campaign contributors, and became friends with his wife Jane Fonda. They began inviting her to Passover every year (although she rarely came). After his mother died, Lane continued the tradition.
The full list, with nude photos and sexual content, is on
Tales of West Hollywood.
