One of the first extensive, insightful looks at the complexity of Hollywood movies' relationship to gay and lesbian characters and themes is Vito Russo's The Celluloid Closet, itself turned into a film in 1996. Both book and film deal particularly with portrayals of gays and lesbians (or same-sexuality, the term preferred by Open Secret author David Ehrenstein) onscreen, mostly ignoring the lives of the same behind the scenes. Ehrenstein's new book covers that subject almost exclusively, and as such, it both succeeds and fails. More an overview than a proper history, Open Secret deals mostly in the generalities of Hollywood same-sexuality. For Ehrenstein, this involves viewing the accepted concept of homosexuality as a social construct that first surfaced in the late 19th century. Of course, this thought doesn't originate with him, but his portrayal of how this construct works within, and is changed by, Hollywood is interesting. Unfortunately, Ehrenstein's own theories are often consigned to the background: There are so many personal testimonies—which run for page after page, echoing and repeating each other and themselves—that Open Secret threatens to turn into an oral history. True, the uninterrupted ruminations are often quite good: The always-revealing James Ellroy is a major character in Open Secret's early chapters, and numerous and varied coming-out stories shed light on what it means to be gay and in show business. This is all well and good, but ultimately disappointing in light of the fact that when Ehrenstein does assert himself, the book is even better, particularly in the closing chapter on Tom Cruise and what his sexuality—and, more importantly, public perception of his sexuality—means. Still, Open Secret conveys a sense of the state of queer Hollywood's past and present, even if Ehrenstein doesn't let his intellectual potential out of the closet often enough.