LATE PORN STAR BECOMES MEDIA DARLING

LATE PORN STAR BECOMES MEDIA DARLING

LOS ANGELES (Wireless Flash) -- Gay porn stars never die, they just become media darlings. Case in point: the late sex star Joey Stefano, who died of a drug overdose in 1994. The man some have called "the James Dean of gay films" is now the subject of two stage plays. Writer/director Michael Patrick Spillers -- who will stage the upcoming play "Divine Thing: The Joey Stefano Story" -- says the public's recent obsession with Stefano is similar to the enduring interest in slain stars like Selena and Kurt Cobain. He also thinks Stefano's cult status is partly because gay men have no sex symbols to look up to in traditional Hollywood movies. But well-known porn director Gino Colbert -- who was friends with Stefano and is portrayed as a character Spillers' play -- thinks the current crop of plays about Stefano is more about dollar signs than tributes. Colbert claims some folks are trying to capitalize on Stefano's legendary status because they know his sensational story is a moneymaker.