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^ In through the out door In an article which touched off a journalistic debate, "The Advocate," a national magazine aimed for gays and lesbians, reports that Pete Williams, the Pentagon's highest-ranking spokesperson, is gay. The story, by Michelangelo Signorile, one of the country's leading proponents of outing, leads to impassioned discus­ sion of when a public figure's homosexuality is a private issue and when it's news. ^ Gunfight A circuit court on Aug. 22 upholds a Multnomah County ban on assault weapons. The ban was opposed by the NRA, who argued that weekend hunters needed the military- style firepower. Back in the USSR It was the three days that shook the world, or at least the Kremlin. While Mikhail Gorbachev vacationed in the Crimea, a dastardly band of hard-liners executed a shocking rebellion which inevitably resembled the film, "What if they had a coup and nobody came." The coup was an unmitigated fiasco, with the perpetrators fleeing after 72 hours as Russian President Boris Yeltsin carved a firm place in the country's future. Unluckily, a coup in a much smaller nation in the Caribbean the next month nei­ ther received the same atten­ tion nor the same results. "Speaking of success, it is the market itself which pro­ vides some hope that in true Marxian fashion, film con­ sumerism will breed its own contradictions. In 1984, after all, Americans cast 54 million votes for Ronald Reagan but rented 54 mil­ lion X-rated videotapes." —Alexander Cockburn, Candid Camera Two local video producers accuse Portland police of not allowing them to film arrests. Police claim the pair of photographers inter­ fered with the arrests. Coming on the heels of the graphic footage of Rodney King's beating in Los Angeles, the issue raises the question of what the Portland police, who are accused by some of being trigger-happy, have to hide. AMERICAN FILM, AUGUST, 1991 ► All in the Family Demi Moore graces the cover of August's "Vanity Fair." Pregnant and nude, she stands in semi-profile with one hand cradled beneath her belly and another across her breasts. Remarkably, the cover causes an uproar, with many stores banning the mag's cover from their shelves. Calmer heads prevail as most people see the portrait as a natural and evocative pose, and not in the least unseemly or exploitive. The next month "Spy" magazine produces a more eye-raising cover, with a nude and pregnant Bruce Willis moonlighting as a beaming father- to-be. ^ Free, Freer, Freest ► Harold and Maude Diane Walden, a 40-year-old Portland day-care director, and Peter Rudge, a 13-year-old day-care employee, disappear in late August. First thought kidnapped, they are found six weeks later in Atlantic City by a suspicious casino guard. Walden returns to Portland to face a felony charge of custodi­ al interference and 20 misde­ meanor charges of having sex with the teen. LON MABON-IACKEY ED CASAVANT While a national education survey concludes that few campuses erupted into "political cor­ rectness" battles, the question of free speech and expression permeates PSU. In the school year, the homophobic Portland State Conservative Alliance and Student Publications face challenges some call censor­ ship.