As film about his years with Liberace is set to be released, Scott Thorson is now in a jail cell and fearful that he is dying of cancer
It's the most talked about film of the year, thanks to stars Michael Douglas and Matt Damon sharing gay kisses as flamboyant showman Liberace and his toyboy lover.
But the Sunday People can report that Liberace’s real-life ex-boyfriend Scott Thorson does not expect to be watching Behind The Candelabra – which is based on his kiss and tell book of the same title.
Scott, who was seduced by the bling-loving piano player when aged just 17, is languishing in a jail cell and fears he is dying of cancer.
He recalled: “Liberace adored me and called me his prince. He was a man I loved and cared deeply for. We had wonderful times. He wanted me as his son – and wanted me as his lover. The beginning was wonderful but he ruined my life.”
US superstar Liberace, a favourite of the Queen and famed for having a candelabra on his white piano, was already 57 when he fell for Scott in 1976. He told the teenager he wanted to adopt him, showered him with extravagant gifts – and then bedded him. Scott became part of Liberace’s Las Vegas act – driving on-stage in a rhinestone-encrusted limo and dancing suggestively.
When he admired a gold-plated Rolls-Royce, Liberace wrapped it up in a giant red bow and presented it to him for his 21st birthday.
But the relationship unravelled after five years when Liberace ordered Scott to have plastic surgery to look more like him.
Scott became addicted to painkillers prescribed after the botched operation and Liberace then flounced off with a series of other young male lovers.
Sweeney Shannon
Furious Scott, who also had a brief fling with Michael Jackson, launched a multi-million dollar “palimony” lawsuit against Liberace, which was settled out of court.
Eventually the pair were reunited, months before Liberace died of Aids aged 67 in 1987.
Now, aged 54 and facing charges of burglary and credit card crime, Scott was a trainee vet when he met the performer who changed his world. The good-looking youngster treated one of Liberace’s dogs for an eye infection. Within weeks he had moved into the fur-coat loving star’s Vegas mansion.
Scott, who grew up in a succession of foster homes, recalled: “I was so young. I didn’t think I was gay, I had a girlfriend. He told me he wanted a son and I thought of Liberace as a father figure.” But the relationship quickly became sexual. Their affair was an open secret amongst Liberace’s pals, including British stars Danny La Rue and Engelbert Humperdinck.
But for the benefit of his army of female fans, he always insisted in public he was heterosexual. And when the Sunday People’s sister paper the Daily Mirror described Liberace as “fruit-flavoured” and “mincing” in 1956, he sued.
He claimed he was so upset by the innuendo that he “cried all the way to the bank”.
While with Liberace, Scott enjoyed fabulous homes and riches beyond his wildest dreams. But the relationship was wrecked by the older man’s promiscuity – and a bizarre desire to turn his lover into his lookalike.
Scott said: “He got annoyed because I gained a bit of weight, so I was put on a diet that included speed and all sorts of other drugs. Then he got this plastic surgeon to operate on me.
Sweeney Shannon
“I had a chin implant and other work to make me look like a younger version of him.” He blames the plastic surgeon – played by Rob Lowe in the movie– for turning him on to the drugs that caused the final rift with Liberace and wrecked his life. He said: “I was on Demerol, the drug that killed Michael Jackson, and barbiturates. I quickly progressed to cocaine.”
The movie, which opens in Britain in June, concentrates on Scott’s romance with Liberace and the palimony suit that scandalised Hollywood.
But Scott’s life since they split would also make for a dramatic film.
He settled out of court with Liberace for £62,000, copious amounts of bling, custody of two dogs and the gold-plated Rolls-Royce.
But the trappings of wealth soon disappeared. Heavily into cocaine, Scott traded the Rolls in a drugs deal. Then he went into the witness protection scheme after giving evidence in a gangland murder trial. Using the name Jesse Marlow, he went to ground in Alaska and Maine until drugs got the better of him again.
He survived being shot five times by gangsters outside a Florida motel but has been in poor health ever since and has been in and out of jail for drugs and burglary offences.
His latest arrest, in February, came in the midst of treatment for colon cancer.
Unable to pay £81,000 bail, he faces months in custody and if found guilty he could be jailed for several years.
Fighting back tears, he told of his distress at missing the movie – and being snubbed by its makers. He said: “I begged to meet the director, the cast and the crew. But they just didn’t want to know. I could have told Matt Damon and Michael Douglas so much and really helped – but they’ve ignored me.”
Scott gave up the publishing rights almost immediately to his 1988 tell-all book on which the movie is based. He plans a second memoir, which he says will include details of his teenage fling with Michael Jackson in Britain and how he rebuffed cross-dressing showman Danny La Rue’s sexual advances.
Scott discovered he had cancer last summer and got a message to the film makers to see if they could help. But he was snubbed again, he says. Scott recalled: “I thought Michael Douglas would be sympathetic, because filming was delayed for two years while he got treatment for throat cancer. I wanted to talk to Michael about what he had gone through with his cancer. But I was told bluntly it would be impossible. That really hurt. It was clear I wasn’t relevant. My heart sank.
“These people are portraying me but I am persona non grata. I’m angry. My medical bills are massive and I have no money. I don’t know how long I am going to survive.”
Scott, who has a long-term girlfriend, is especially furious that actor Damon, who plays him, has been talking about his relationship with Liberace, without knowing half the details.
Dad-of-four Damon, 42, recently gave an interview saying: “These two men were desperately in love and in a real relationship, a marriage, long before there was gay marriage. The script is beautiful and relatable. Their conversations when they’re undressing or have a spat or getting ready for bed? That’s every marriage.”
The Oscar winner admitted he had been concerned about snogging Hollywood legend Douglas, famous for his sex scenes with women in Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct. But he revealed: “Michael was a wonderful kisser.”
Scott is still in a love-hate internal conflict over his feelings for Liberace. Choking back tears, he said: “At times I have hated him. But I have to think back to the good times. I pleased him. He once told me, ‘You have the most important job in my organisation and that is to keep me happy’.”
Scott says he filed the palimony suit in a fit of anger and quickly regretted it. He had heard Liberace was gravely ill and a immediately suspected Aids. He explained: “I was very angry because he had been so promiscuous. And I was scared to death myself.”
But he helped nurse Liberace in his last days and now says: “I’m glad we made our peace.”
Check out all the latest News, Sport & Celeb gossip at Mirror.co.uk http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/behind-candelabra-liberace-called-prince-1856743#ixzz2UUoYXSp8
Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook
没有评论:
发表评论