Vapid: A Decadent Adult Gay Fantasy About Hollywood at the Beginning of the AIDS Crisis

“Vapid” A Decadent Adult Gay Fantasy about Hollywood At the Beginning of the AIDS Crisis SYNOPSIS “Vapid” is a dark comedy/satire about the decadent underworld of gay Hollywood in the early 1980’s as the AIDS epidemic was on the rise. Its protagonists and antagonists are colorful caricatures of the show business world in contrast to the underworld of the gay street hustler. A young wood be actor named Brad gets wrapped up in prostitution only to wind up in the employ and bed of aging screen siren Carlotta Carlisle. Brad joins Carlotta’s corral of gay, muscular and sensual houseboys, Rocky & Rusty. Although Carlotta is a bit long-in-the-tooth, she fully intends to make a big splash again in her new motion picture. She promises roles to her young male companions, but as things work out, their paths take a little twist. We glimpse Brad’s home life in Los Angeles but briefly when his mother insists he fly to New York City to live with his estranged father who has promised to pay his way through college if only he will leave California and come to live with him. But things have a way of working themselves out that is not always satisfactory for our young hero, Brad, when he becomes determined to crawl his way to the top of Hollywood stardom at the cost of exploiting his sexuality, the consequences of which are truly dire. In the end, the neon lights of Hollywood are still glittering vacuously while the morals of that community are swept quietly under the proverbial red carpet, as Brad is now on his way to a glamorous, if vapid, celebrity lifestyle.