Hollywood Star

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Hollywood Star, vol 1 no 10, circa 1978

The Hollywood Star was a highly idiosyncratic gossip magazine published in Hollywood, California in the mid-1970s by William Kern, who wrote much of the magazine under the pseudonym "Bill Dakota". Initially published in a newspaper format (and sold in newsracks), the paper was revived in the late '70s in a smaller stapled magazine format, as Hollywood Star Magazine.

Hollywood Star Magazine, vol 1 no 1, 1979.

Inspired by Confidential and other gossip magazines of the 1950s, The Hollywood Star had a homosexual subtext (Kern's other paper was called Gayboy) and printed nude photos and sexually-oriented gossip with a frankness that had never been seen in gossip magazines. In addition to naming stars who were gay or bisexual, for example, the magazine published lists of male celebrities based on whether they were or were not circumcised. In one cover story, Dakota issued a sworn and notarized account of having being picked up and paid to perform a sex act with Walt Disney. Charles Manson went on record with Dakota about various celebrities that he had been involved with, leading Frank Sinatra to threaten Dakota (one of Sinatra's daughters had been named by Manson). The threats, of course, were published in full.