Eldergays, tell me about My Own Private Idaho

I weep with nostalgia for the early 90's. Anything arty from that time is like crack to me.

Keanu is one of the greatest living actors, according to the New York Times.

Wasn't it based on Shakespeare's Prince Hal or am I imagining that?

Pretentious twaddle from a pedarast. Keanu was wonderful, however.

Keanu

Wonder if River and Keanu hooked up during production.

River and Keanu

I love My Own Private Idaho; and a lez counterpart to that artsy 90s contemplative type film would be All Over Me.

We has out honeymoon in Portland and one of the first things I wanted to do was tour places the film had been shot. When we checked in, they were doing renovations and there was dust everywhere so my husband and I complained because he has asthma.

They upgraded us and surprise! It was the Sentinel, the same hotel since renovated. When I went back and watched the movie, I realized they put us gay newlyweds in the very same room. Here are pics of what it looks like now.

r11 That's fabulous!

They made a song!

The film holds up so well. Especially the cinematography.

r10 Wilson Cruz is in this movie!

Yeah, it's based on one of them there Shakespeare plays that the woke have decided should not be put in front of teens.

Go figure.

The Shakespearean parts may have seemed like a good idea on paper but in the film they take all the air out of the flow of the story.

Campfire scene

The casual nipple pulling scene.

I knew Rodney Harvey, I'm about 15 years younger but I lived two blocks from his mom's in South Philly in the mid 90s as a kid, after he got hooked on drugs and relapsed, he worked in the deli at the corner for a bit in 1995, I was 12 and used to talk to him about Hollywood

Is it true Rodney's mother and his stepfather moved away from their home without telling him? He arrived at the house to find it all locked up?

That campfire scene lives in my head rent-free forever. I've read film lore that said River improvised the "I really want to kiss you" line. They used to call each other "My Romeo" and "My Juliet" in interviews. I don't know if they hooked up, but nothing will ever talk me out of thinking that at least River caught feelings.

R22 yes before I was born, it was a neighborhood story for years, I was born in 1983, Rodney in 1967, I remember being 6 and out whole neighborhood watched the premiere of The Outsiders TV show and my Aunt was best friends with his mom, Lois, Lois passed just last year, and he was my idol and I wanted to be like him when I grew up, he played Soda Pop on the show

There were rumors of him getting into drugs in the neighborhood in the early 90s, after he got out of rehab and started working at the deli in 1995, I would talk to him, he was really sweet and still good looking, at the time I didn't know he was on heroin, I mean I was 11/12, I also remember him walking me home a few times, I would be walking and he would get done work and he would walk with me, he didn't even smoke cigarettes, he was cold turkey sober and really did not want to be a drug addict

The neighborhood still loved him but he had this sadness about him, one time I ordered an Italian hoagie and they had an AC station playing while he was making the sandwich, Madonna's current hit Take a Bow came on the radio and he looked up and smiled and told me, mind you I was 11, " I Fucked her when we did a Life magazine shoot together, she was afraid that Sean Penn would find out and kill me, he was her husband then"

I just laughed

Fun story. I watched "The Outsiders" for Harvey as well.

My Own Private Duchess of Idaho

R34 he has this street smart Philly way about him even after having been in Hollywood

He told me that he wanted to go back to Hollywood because he still had connections and was sober for a long time but relapsed in spring /summer 1995 and then went away and was back in Philly at his mom's by the fall of 1995

I remember it because I was held up and robbed at gunpoint for 5 dollars on the corner and Rodney and his now late brother Eddie were some of the guys that went driving around and looking for the punks that robbed me

My Mom is also friends with a woman named Ruthanne, who was his first girlfriend I believe and is interviewed in the E True Hollywood Story, which I heard about but have never seen

Rodney was discovered by accident, he took the train from Philly to New York City to spend the day and they discovered him walking in Times Square

I believe this was Harvey's last screen appearance.

Was addiction big in the Harvey family?

I have a lot of stories about Rodney since I went to the deli everyday after school, it was on my way home from school

I would get a hoagie once a week and the other days but chips , soda or candy

He always worked that time, I think from 12-9

Did you have a crush?

R22 yes but at the time didn't realize it, I played baseball for my school and he was a big baseball fan and I invited him over a few times to see my Phillies memorabilia, they had also just went to the World series in 1993, there was a baseball strike in 1994, and we would talk about the upcoming baseball season, this was early 1995, it was very cold in Philly, he never came up to see my room but he was open to it, I figured he would have eventually

My best friend, Dominic, lived on the block the deli he worked at was in, it was on the corner and one Saturday night I was in there with Dom around closing and it was just Rodney, usually there was at least 2 people closing but it was just him that night, he made a couple of hoagies for us free of charge and took some food himself, he was supposed to throw away certain food but didn't, that's how much of a heart he had

When he was closing up and we were leaving, he bent over to get his plastic bag with hoagies in it to take home and accidentally farted a loud ass fart, me and Dom couldn't stop laughing and Rodney joked "since I've been clean I fart all the time, I never farted when I was using"

We all laughed, I know it's juvenile and it didn't even smell but it was just something young boys would think was funny because it CAME OUT IF NOWHERE and it was loud

Usually that's a turn off but he was like a God to me

[Quote] he never came up to see my room but he was open to it, I figured he would have eventually

What do you mean?

R33 he told me he would come up when he hàd the time

He just wanted to work, stay clean and go to his meetings and eventually go back to Hollywood, he tried to keep a low profile

He relapsed not long after and got fired from the deli I think went back to Hollywood and jail and would come back for the next two years to his mom's house in South Philly, he started looking really bad in early 1997, his teeth started rotting and he was hanging with the real degenerates of the neighborhood, there were also rumors that he was HIV positive and that he was having sex with men for drug money

This was in 1997 not 1995

He didn't associate Hollywood with temptation?

R35 again I wàa 11/12, not the type of question a bit that age would ask

I just thought he was awesome, good looking and just as they say ”real people"

In retrospect, he was probably my first big crush but didn't realize it back then, he also used to call me "little Sammy", the ONLY person to ever call me that

He did tell me that he still had an agent and hoped to be auditioning again soon and that he kept in touch with some of his Hollywood friends, I remember him mentioning Drew Barrymore, David Arquette (who wasn't that famous in 1995), some actor named Boyd(?) and his ex girlfriend was an actress but I don't remember her name or know of her at the time

Roxana Zal.

Boyd Kestner. He played the oldest brother on "The Outsiders" TV show.

He would see me and recognize me around the neighborhood ehen he came back between rehab and jail stints in 1996 and 1997

He deteriorated quickly it seemed and was hanging with hooker's and lowlifes, EVERYONE was saying that he was doing sex acts with men for money, he robbed his Mom multiple times too

His stepfather was named Sam too I remember him telling me

Did you ever ask him why he did drugs?

R40 no but we bonded over my family ily knowing his and my Mom being friends with his Mom

Oddly enough they became friends in the mid 80s when I was 2, 3 years old and Rodney was living in NYC modeling and acting part time

So never met him until he moved back home in 1995, but I constantly heard of him and knew his mom, brothers and younger half sister well

I don't remember meeting his stepfather, who was named Sam too, so he told me, I have no memories of him, It always seemed Lois was single

Did Rodney's sibling stay on the straight and narrow?

R10 isn’t the girl who played the awkward sexually-confused female friend to Casey Affleck & Joaquin Phoenix in TO DIE FOR in that? Or does she just look similar to a woman in ALL OVER ME?

R32 Eddie, his older brother, was in jail when he died, I don't think he got into drugs but I think he did some illegal shit

My Mom moved in the 2000s but her Facebook page friends líst has many of Rodney's family including his Aunt, his Mom Lois's older sister and his niece Brandy

My mom is about 10 years older than he would be now, she's 64, his Mom was in her 70s when she passed last year, so my Mom is actually closer to Rodney's age he would be 53/54 today

But my Mom is the youngest of 5 and her older sister Gail is the same age as Lois was and was friends with Lois first as teenagers

Frida was his Aunt's name, i just texted my Mom because I forgot and she texted it back to mé

Frida was Lois's sister

she's still alive

Awesome stories r41, 44 etc. Thanks for sharing.

I certainly didn't know him but I modeled when I was a teenager and got called into Click - a big agency at the time. This was around 1987? The guy I met with asked an associate of his to have a look at me - this big queen. He gave me a quick scan and said right in front of me "We already got a Rodney Harvey type. His name is Rodney Harvey." And waved me away. Ha. I had no clue wtf he was talking about (until I saw MOPI a few years later)

R46 funny story

I always wondered if Rodney was bisexual, I mean I did idolize him in a weird way but wasn't he discovered by a gay man?

And I hate to say it, because I never want to even think of him going this route, but I'm almost 100% certain from sources at the time that he was doing "gay things" for drug money running the streets of Philly towards the end

I guess you were short, r46.

Fuck Keanu and River. Flea was so hot in this!

"I mean I did idolize him in a weird way but wasn't he discovered by a gay man?"

Yep, Allan Mindel.

R50 I thought it was Paul Morissey

Madge and Rod.

DTW who didn't Madonna fuck?

I remember Rodney telling me she "was kind of annoying" too

Drag with Ione Skye.

Loved it. River's best role, along with Dogfight. Ending with The Pogues' "The Old Main Drag" was genius.

'91 was a good year (post-Desert Storm, anyway). The cobwebs of the Reagan '80s were being blasted away and there was a feeling of optimism. Too bad it didn't last.

No love for Running on Empty?

[quote]Wonder if River and Keanu hooked up during production.

What fools if they didn't!

It was the first movie that my teenaged self fell in love with. I hadn't realized until that then that art/film could be strange, wondrous, not always make sense, but be full of teeming with emotion and beauty and sadness.

The movie has about a million WTF moments that I became obsessed with. Yes, the campfire scene was the one that kills you. But the 4-4-44 scene with the red hair queen was awesome. The random house falling. The scene with Keanu talking to his dentist (I think?) dad wearing leather. River's narcoleptic fits.

My best friend (straight) and I were actually both obsessed with that film. At 15, we decided we were going to run away from LA and head up to Portland to be whores. We never made it to Portland.

At least you're a whore.

Loved it great song from a great album. Of course, it was outshined by Rock Lobster but it’s still one of the best in the B-52s collection.

Oh, wait. Nevermind….

Rodney lived on Jessup Street in South Philly

His Mom lived there until she died last year, I believe his much younger half sister Brandy, she was born in the late 80s, still lives there with her two small kids

Is Brandy a single mother?

Also Rodney hated My Own Private Idaho and told all his family and friends not to watch it

I think because this is the movie that he started shooting up with River, Keanu and Flea

R63 she's been engaged off and on to the father of her second kid the last couple of years

She has two kids under 5

I saw her on a SEPTA bus with her two kids about a year ago , after her Mom had just passed and we talked, I didn't recognize her at first because of the masks we had to wear

My Mom would still go to the house in recent years to see her and Rodney's Mom Lois and she has a bunch of pictures in frames of Rodney by her staircase, one is him and Madonna

Another is when David Arquette, spent the weekend around 1990 when The Outsiders premiered, it's Rodney, David, Lois, her stepdad, late brother Eddie, and little Brandy in the photo

David was Rodney's best friend, from two completely different worlds, one a Hollywood showbiz family the other a kid living in a row home from the streets of Philly

I think it's funny picturing David Arquette spending the weekend in a South Philly row home

Well, the Arquettes weren't all that successful until the kids (Rosanna, Patricia, Alexis, David). Isn't there a quote from the father about sucking dick for roles?

R65 interesting

Again, Rodney would tell everyone not to watch MOPI and I'm sure Gus is cupable for the drug use and turning a blind eye to it

I find it difficult to watch films with River in because he was such a huge talent who died so tragically (I’ll ‘Mary!’ myself). I think Running On Empty is at the top of my list.

I've actually been texting my Mom the last few days asking about Rodney and his Mom and Aunt

And posting some things she told me in here

My Mom is still very tight with his Aunt Frieda, whó had to get a cancerous tumor removed a few weeks ago and yet she still smokes

Also my Mom would babysit Rodney before I was born in the 70s, his Mom and my Aunt Gail, who were friends first as they're in the same age range, My Mom is 64, they're in their 70s, Rodney would be 54 tomorrow, would hang out going to bars together before Rodney's Mom remarried

Also my Mom's first cousin, Barbara Millard, really Millardo but her family Americanized her name when they came over from Italy, would go running up to Studio 54 in the late 70s from South Philly with my Mom, Rodney's Mom Lois and his Aunt Frieda

By then my Aunt Gail was married and settled down and had moved to Northeast Philly by Bensalem and had started having kids

Barbara died last year at the relatively young age of 69, my Mom said Barbara would try to hit on Rodney after he made it big ànd came back to South Philly to visit

LOL

She was the crazy, fun loving Aunt

Rodney's body is a little soft in Idaho. Didn't he leave LA for a year with Roxana Zal? They left the partying behind and put on some lbs.

RYO I think that was after MIPO

Everyone I know that knew him, even my Mom, say that was the movie that he started shooting up on

His Aunt calls it a terrible film

My Mom also SWEARS that Rodney came to my Christening in late 1983 after I was born, as his family was there, my Mom is also determined to find pictures of the Christening, since she keeps everything

Rodney would have been 16 then , I know they had the party in the living room of my old house in South Philly

I could smell that place now. LOL

Addiction definitely runs in Rodney's family, I think all his siblings except his little sister, who as my Mom reminded me is 34, "she's the same age as Jimmy" ( my little brother), had substance abuse problems and his Mom was a BIG drinker and chain smoker till the end

My Mom still smokes too

If you watch Rodney's early movies you can really hear his South Philly accent

I have a very similar voice to his accent and all, so people have told me time and again

What is the full story behind his mom and stepdad leaving him and his brother behind? It was a tough love "joke"? Where was his bio father?

Look at this Bruce Weber shot. It says 1986. Doesn't Rodney look fucked up on drugs in it?

R63 according to my Mom, his dàd left his Mom when he was 3 or 4 because he didn't want to settle down with one woman and because, I'm being serious here, "I'm to good looking for yoú"

The locked door story happened in the late 70s and his Aunt Frieda,one of my Mom's best friends for years, took them in, his older brother and JoJo, another brother who passed too about 10 years ago.

The Mom got her act together and then they moved to their Jessup Street house and she married the stepfather, they had previously lived a few blocks away

This was all before I was born

Some kids never have a chance with the bad parenting they receive.

R65 Rodney tried to contact his dad when he was a teenager on the phone and his dad rejected him and told him "I'm not your dad" or something

According to my Mom

The sucking dick for roles quote was from the Arquette father, not Rodney's, FYI.

David Arquette's family also struggled but it was different. They were bohemians who, for a while, lived on a commune, totally poor and on gov't assistance. But overall they were always actors working steadily in Hollywood--including their grandfather, who was the character Charley Weaver on many shows like Jack Paar and Hollywood Squares. So, deep roots in that whole world.

Balthazar Getty was also close friends with Rodney. I remember reading an interview with Getty, and he got very upset talking about him.

R78 yup! That's his name, I couldn't pronounce it bút I remember hearing about him

I was 21 in the Summer of 1991. Remember the combined impact of seeing both Gus van Sang’s My Own Private Idaho and David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch leaving me with the feeling that the world was about to change with these queer stories showing up in your standard mall cineplex.

Gus kept the cast including PDX locals like Michael Parker and Scott Patrick Green in a house together. Pretty sure this is what lead to all of the shooting up.

RIP yup and that's what ruined River's and Rodney's life

Like i said, he would tell family and friends not to watch MOPI when he was still live, he was ashamed of that movie

And if you listened to the South Philly gossip, Rodney's life towards the end mirrored his MOPI characters Gary, there were constant rumors that he was turning tricks for drug money in South Philly

Makes you wonder, what happened to his Hollywood friends?

I would say their fucked up childhoods had more to do with it. You think drunks weren't copious in LA, New York, Philly, Anywhere USA?

R82 Rodney was sweet and a jokester, he was very street smart, if you watch his first two movies Mixed Blood and Delivery Boys, that is more or less his personality , he was being himself

When he was discovered in Times Square bt Paul Morissey in 1984, I looked it up and it was PR, no one back in Philly believed his story of being discovered and being paid $100 a day, then Greg Gorman became obsessed with him and used him as his model/muse

Rodney was also the male face of those annoying Obsession by Calvin Klein ads mocked on even The Golden Girls

Again, it's a sensitive subject, but I'm convinced that he had to have at least been bisexual, it's not something I would bring up around his family or even MY Mom

Hey guy who knew Rodney, while we enjoy your stories, I would suggest to ixnay on the medical conditions of your characters, especially if those peeps are still alive. HIPPA and all.

Guess this is now the Rodney thread.

You on here, Gus? I want to hear about Ken Death and your “roughhousing “ home movies.

I think the Rodney info is great (there have been multiple MOPI threads over the years). Thanks for sharing!

Is this Allan, r50?

A homoerotic Bruce Weber shot.

Another homoerotic shot, amidst the shots with Lisa Marie Smith.

R87 thank you, I've been thinking about him ALOT lately because his 54th birthday would have been tomorrow

Today would be Rodney's 54th Birthday

Someone should start an official Rodney Harvey thread on here, I can't because I haven't been a member here in awhile

I would post a lot more on there as I kind of derailed this thread about My Own Private Idaho

I bet I won't get one like.

Happy Birthday beautiful Rodney Harvey

Keanu apparently was also using but he managed to get sober for Dracula and Speed. River's death affected him very deeply because they were good friends. He is still very fond of River and mentions him from time to time. I don't think either of them were gay (possibly bi maybe) but they were comfortable with their masculinity to not care about gay rumors.

Rodney says a sentence or two at 2:23.

River is overrated. Sorry, I never saw the appeal. He seems he wants to cone of as intellectual. And he looks like trade. Not very cute.

[quote] He seems he wants to cone of as intellectual.

?!?!?

**come off as intellectual.

I think River was insecure about his lack of education and resented his parents for not giving him a normal upbringing. English wasn't his first language, so that's why he enunciated weirdly. Most of what he said in interviews was inspired by the hippie upbringing he had. Even his vegetarianism originated from his parents being too poor to afford meat and thus putting the kids on a veg diet.

He was clever trash.

Oh please. Most of Hollywood, sports and the music industry is just "clever trash". It's a trade. Basically a modern version of court jesters and street performers. Actors were always likened to prostitutes. I'm confused as to why celebrities are even expected to be intellectuals or representative of the upper class. Most are either rags to riches or from showbiz families.

Agreed, r102. Given all of that, I still think River Phoenix came off as exceptionally sensitive and quite intelligent.

I think some believe that good acting = intelligent.

Dumb people aren't good actors. Good acting requires emotional intelligence and dedication. River researched his roles too and he would have a say in how his characters were portrayed. Gus Van Sant rewrote some of Mike's dialogue at River's request. And intelligent people are still human and they make mistakes especially when they're young, hormonal and lack world experience. River was still a young guy with a shitty upbringing, didn't have a normal childhood or teenage life and was surrounded by negative influences including his parents. He made a mistake by getting on hard drugs. But he was still far from an idiot. Depression and stress can make you do stupid things.

No. Good actors mirror. Plenty of good actors are crackpots.

Martha Plimpton came from a broken home. She saw the road River was taking. She veered away.

"I think some believe that good acting = intelligent."

No. I've watched a bunch of his interviews over the years. IDK how you gauge intelligence, but one off-the-cuff way is just to listen to how people acquit themselves in conversation. Are they articulate, insightful, engaging? If so, they're probably pretty intelligent.

I find RP to be quite intelligent in interviews. Therefore, I suspect he was quite intelligent as a person in general.

Samantha Mathis seemed a bit fucked up too. I mean she probably could not have prevented anything regardless. But I do like how she called out the hypocrisy regarding River's death and the martyrdom by his mother. She and Martha both seem to hate River's parents for good reason.

I’ve always been curious about Rodney’s relationship switch the openly gay manager Alan Mindel, he lived off and on with him for years but Rodney definitely had a lot of famous girlfriends including Amanda Anka, now married to Jason Bateman and Roxanna Zal

I know a few drag queens and artsy NYC types who hung with Rodney too

Also isn’t Paul Morrissey, who discovered Rodney gay himself?

My goto jerk off material when I was 17 was this layout Rodney Harvey did in Rolling Stone in 1987.

R112 again, if you read the Premiere magazine article or his E THS, They mention Alan Mindell and how Rodney loved him and he loved Rodney and Rodney bought him a dog, a poodle I think, one Christmas and Paul gave it back to Rodney saying “I can’t take care of a dog and you, you’re my poodle”

Even Rodney’s good friend, David Arquette said “Rodney knew Alan loved him and Rodney loved him too”

Makes you wonder

And furthermore, Alan directed one film, the 2003 film Minneapolis, Minnesota and he dedicated his one film to… Rodney Harvey

I mean usually you would do something like that for a deceased parent or sibling or wife but he did it for Rodney

Further proof that it was more than a manager/client relationship

Beautiful film.

Its so sad to think that a guy like River was doing heroin. Terrible drug right along with cocaine.

But God bless his soul.

I love the posts about his intelligence. Or trash smartiness lol. River wasnt book smart but he had wisdom, which is something that comes from experience. And its incredible to think at the amount of things he experienced in his short life.

River was beautiful. His face matched his soul. He truly was like an angel. A truly benign creature.

Ok, i'll stop. I don't want you bitches thinking I'm James Franco.

Rodney Harvey had this thing where every time you saw a picture of him you just wanted to hug him, he oozed that “lost boy” vulnerability

You just wanted to hug him and talk to him