The Life of Sean DeLear review – loving film about queer black punk rocker, and secret legend
It's not the first posthumous attempt at recognition for DeLear. In 2023, his teenage diary, written in 1979, was published under the title I Could Not Believe It. Extracts of this queer black memoir are read here on the voiceover – and they are glorious. Even aged 14 years old, living with his Christian parents in a conservative suburb of Los Angeles, DeLear was proudly, joyfully gay, though this was before the terror of Aids. The interviews in the film with his mum and brother, an evangelical pastor, feel a little bit thin; his family accepted his sexuality, they say, but not much else.
DeLear never had a proper job. For years he believed his band Glue would make it. A friend says the reason they didn't might have something to do with having a black man in drag as lead singer, and tells the story of a Glue video being pulled from MTV by an executive. DeLear later moved to Vienna, joining a performance art collective, and lived like a celebrity, never thinking about where the rent was coming from. And celebrities loved him: when he walked into the women's toilets at Kate Moss's 21st birthday party, a gaggle of supermodels swarmed him, cooing over his dress. Does it matter that he wasn't famous himself? Clearly he was a legend to everyone who knew him.
The Life of Sean DeLear is on True Story from 2 May.
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Scotsman
15 hours ago
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'Meghan's failure to publicly back Harry speaks volumes after Netflix downgrade'
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After all, the Duke has consistently spoken out in support of his wife, establishing the precedent early on and against the wishes of his family when he condemned Britain's media coverage and insisted he had never before witnessed such a 'degree of pressure, scrutiny and harassment' from the press. "As it currently stands, Harry cuts a lonely figure. The Charity Commission 'identified a 'strong perception of ill treatment' swirling in the unhappy waters of his former charity, Sentebale. It was a terse ruling that exonerated no one; all parties remain incandescent, particularly the aggrieved prince, who insists the report has fallen 'troublingly short.' "In other words, the Duke of Sussex's nemesis, Dr Sophie Chanduka, is still at large, running Harry's former beloved Sentebale. The Duke could really do with some public TLC, especially from his wife, whose own issues with said Dr Chanduka were allegedly caught on camera at a polo match Sentebale fundraiser." 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