 SOUTHERN COMFORT
Well, well, well! If it isn’t LESLIE JORDAN and his new book, My Trip Down The Pink Carpet (Simon Spotlight Entertainment)! So, Mr. Sordid Lives / Will & Grace Scene Stealer, what’s it about?
“It’s about being an openly gay actor since ’82, and having worked with George Clooney and Mark Harmon and Luke Perry and Billy Bob Thornton and all these angst-ridden, unrequited, made-up crushes I’ve had,” Leslie says. “I also slipped in my recovery story, my journey out of the Baptist church and away from the shame.”
Until August, the Emmy-winning lil’ Leslie is also criss-crossing the country doing a one-man show based on the book, which is as audacious, hilarious and uplifting as you’d expect—and more!
“I’ve just been blessed with this amazing journey through the ’80s, where we lost so many people to AIDS, and the ’90s on and here I am, still standing,” he says. “It’ll be a lot of this, a lot of that, a lot of name-dropping. It’s not Kathy Griffin-ish. I’m too scared to be mean! I do talk about the size of a lot of famous people’s privates, or what I thought, from doing a little peter-gazing here and there!”
Lest you worry that our dainty mint julep will let the road get to him, take heart.
“My manager said, ‘My god, he’ll get on Rentboy.com in every city. By the time he gets to Boston, he’ll have a bus full!’” Mr. Jordan giggles. “Come on boys, we’re on tour!”
Besides being laugh-out-loud-funny, the book’s also incredibly heartfelt, moving and sweet.
“I wrote it for the young gay man and the young gay woman out in our hinterlands. I read this quote recently that says there are two kinds of gay people in America: the fabulous and the fearful,” he says. “The fabulous live in the big city and are on the pink carpet, just working it. We forget that outside of the velvet pink ropes are a lot of gay people that are scared to death, especially our youth. There’s work to be done.”
JASON VOORHEES VS. LESLIE JORDAN:
“Jason Goes To Hell was fun. Jason throws me in the French fry fryer and then he tosses me onto the grill. The oil was really root beer with one of those bubble machines they put in aquariums. The director said, ‘He’ll grab you and put you down in it.’ So we did it once and the director said, ‘Can you wave your arms?’ We did it again, and he said, ‘Can you kick your legs?’ Seven times he made me do it, and I was sticky, I had root beer in my ears and my eyes were stuck together because I’d forgotten to take out my contact lenses—and I said, ‘Get your damn shot, honey, I’ll only go in the root beer one more time!’”
ROLL CALL:
Look for cameos in the book from Faye Dunaway, Tammy Faye Bakker, shirtless Dean Cain, Boy George, Luke Perry, Robert Downey, Jr., Beverly D’Angelo’s panties, and Billy Bob’s Thornton.
CUTTING ROOM FLOOR:
“The editing process? Honey, I don’t know why I love to talk dirty, but my book was just filthy! My editor sliced it! She was relentless! But you know what, I have this amazing book that’s mainstream but still naughty.”
To buy tickets to hysterical Leslie's national tour this summer, visit thelesliejordan.com!
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Instinct Online 
written by Scott Rose on June 03, 2008
I want Beverly Leslie, er, I mean Leslie Jordan to sit right next to me in compromising circumstances and tell me all about the filthy parts of his book that the editor wouldn't let him publish. I admit I like a thing cut, on occasion, but not my reading material. Just look at Leslie's expression in this picture. How could you not think he was gay? How could you not just love him to pieces? If he tripped down the pink carpet then it was just one of those cute sexual come-on moves; what guy or girl doesn't know all about those?
written by rhonda johnson on June 22, 2008
i was fortunate enough to 'meet-n-greet' w/leslie after the play 'sordid lives' last year in palm springs, ca.
i've met several celebs here in the desert, but mr. jordan is by far the most approachable star of his caliber that i've ever had the pleasure of meeting.
i'd forgotten my camera, and he asked loudly for anyone 2 take our pic 2gether.
someone did it 4 us, but i have yet to reconnect with the couple.
i LOVE leslie jordan!