I got a brand-new cell phone today. It's got it all - all the bells and whistles. But one thing it doesn't have, that my old and broken cell phone did have was pictures taken with the camera phone that I never bothered to download or whatever. There are pictures with friends and one with me meeting ABC newsman Sam Donaldson last spring and I'm bummed about those. But what is killing me is that the pictures I took with actor Tuc Watkins and model-actor Rusty Joiner are lost forever. I mean, look at them!
Rusty had a role in the Ben Stiller comedy "Dodgeball" but he's better known for his work as a model - calendars, fitness videos and about 100 magazine covers. More on him later.

Tuc had what I think was probably the best gay role on television - until Kevin Walker came along last fall on "Brothers & sisters" - during his two-year ron on the Showtime series "Beggars & Choosers." This absolute gem of a show was about the running of a fictional television network and it remains a cult classic for rabid fans like me. Watkins played development executive Malcom Laffley who, early on during season one, comes out on national television during a roundtable talk show. After that, Malcom was an out gay man who had crushes, dated, had family issues, and did his best to navigate all of the craziness around him at the network.
This is one of my favorite shows - ever. I don't know why it has never been released on DVD. It's so smart, and so clever, and it also stars Brian Kerwin as the network president, Charlotte Ross as a ruthless (but very funny) executive, William MacNamara as a quirky talent agent and a host of guest stars including Alexis Arquette, Bea Arthur, Valerie Harper, Beau Bridges, Anne Archer and on and on. It was GREAT stuff.
I had met Tuc a few years ago as I was waiting outside the Academy Theater in Beverly Hills waiting to get into the premiere of a Melanie Mayron-directed movie that never got released. Great party though. I turned around and Tuc was suddenly just there, standing next to me. "Tuc Watkins!" I was so excited and surprised. Tuc could not have been nicer and we chatted for a few minutes on the sidewalk. Then about a year ago, I was having lunch with my friend James as El Mirasol mexican restaurant in Palm Springs where there is usually a celeb or two ranging from Streisand to Manilow. On this day, we spotted Tuc and siome friends being seated and since we were on our way out, we said hello and James took a photo of me and Tuc with my cell phone.
Oh well, since we run into each other every few years, next time I'll get a photo and immediately have it emailed to wherever the Verizon dude told me to. Tuc is best known for his long-running role of David Vickers on "One Life to Live" which he left this fall but I think will reappear next month in a limited way. He left the show to do "Beggars" and movies like "The Mummy" and the gay indie "I Think I Do" which cast him as a gay soap star who wants to marry his boyfriend (Alexis Arquette, pictured above with Watkins). He also has a few scenes in the current release "The Good Shepard."
As for Rusty Joiner, our meeting was a real fluke. I was at a friend's birthday party at iCandy in West Hollywood sometime last year sitting at the bar sipping lemon drop martinits with my friend Michael. In strolled Rusty who looked really familiar. He was bartending at iCandy on some Saturday nights and we started chatting. I soon realized that I had bought his workout DVD a few weeks earlier at A Different Light bookstore. "Have you tried it?" he asked. "No," I said. "But, I've watched it!" We chatted more and Rusty told me he had posed for a photo that was in the current issue of The Advocate. You couldn't tell it was him because the photo, an entire page, was of his ABS! It was illustrating a controversial cover story on gay polygamy and the story was written by....ME! What a small world. Rusty made us several more lemon drop martinis and at some point Michael took some photos of Rusty and I.
Now, I only have the memories. But good ones they are.