Steven Soderbergh: Hollywood rejected Liberace film for being ‘too gay’

Hollywood studios refused to finance Steven Soderbergh’s forthcoming HBO biopic of the flamboyant entertainer Liberace (Behind the Candelabra : My Life With Liberace) because it was “too gay”, the Oscar-winning film-maker has revealed.

Despite the presence of two fellow Academy Award-winners, Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, in the leading roles, executives repeatedly passed on putting up the movie’s relatively meagre $5m budget.

Titled Behind the Candelabra, Soderbergh’s film centres on the relationship between Liberace and his younger long-term lover Scott Thorson, who met when the latter was just 17. The film will screen on the pay-TV channel HBO in the US following Hollywood’s lack of interest.

Read more : www.guardian.co.uk