People talk 9/11/03

Former idol reveals he's gay in new memoirs

NEW YORK -- Former teen idol Tab Hunter is writing his memoirs, in which he acknowledges he's gay and discusses co-stars including Natalie Wood, Lana Turner and Gary Cooper.

"For anyone curious to know my story, I wanted to be sure that they're getting it from the horse's mouth," the 72-year-old Hunter, star of such 1950s films as "Battle Cry" and "Damn Yankees!" said in a recent statement issued by his publisher, Simon & Schuster.

The book, currently untitled, is scheduled for release in 2005.

The tall, blond actor was a favorite among young filmgoers in the 1950s. He also had a No. 1 song, the ballad "Young Love." His career faded in the 1960s, although he later starred in John Waters' 1981 cult classic "Polyester."

Robert Redford talks paint, politics

WASHINGTON -- Paint helped turn Robert Redford into an actor.

"I was first sort of recognized as a person through my art," said Redford, who began his career as a painter and was in town to deliver a speech at the Kennedy Center on supporting the arts.

"I spent a lot of time in school finding things more interesting out the window or not coming in at all, so I was always getting in trouble. I spent a lot of time at the blackboard, either being punished, or drawing because that's something I could do," Redford said in an interview with AP Radio.

"There was no real program in school at that time," he said. "I was fortunate that it went that way for me because God knows where I'd be without that support."

Also, Redford is throwing his support behind something he has shunned in the past -- a sequel. He and Larry Gelbart are co-writing a script that follows up on 1972's "The Candidate."

Redford doesn't ever do sequels because he says he has too many other stories to tell, but he was intrigued by the thought of where character Bill McKay would be 30 years later.

"The thing that really pushed it across for me already having said no was the idea that the character I am today would be president, looking at an ad running against him of himself as a younger man when he stood for something he no longer stands for," he said. "He's so far removed from that person. Me looking at myself as a younger person just felt kind of good."

"The Candidate" was about how politics stresses style over substance. So what about Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Redford said he was opposed to the California gubernatorial recall in general, but was staying neutral when it comes to Schwarzenegger.

"I don't know Arnold, but he's a colleague. The only thing I would say is that I think given his money and whatever celebrity he does have, he'd probably be more effective out of politics and doing what he wants outside rather than inside."

Johnny Cash returns home from hospital

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Johnny Cash has been released from Baptist Hospital, where he had been treated for an unspecified stomach ailment for two weeks.

Cash, 71, was admitted to the hospital Aug. 25. It forced him to miss the MTV Video Music Awards in New York City, where his video, "Hurt," a song about drug addiction written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, won for best cinematography.

"He's home resting," Nicole Bates, a hospital spokeswoman, said Tuesday night.

Cash, whose hits include "I Walk the Line" and "A Boy Named Sue," suffers from autonomic neuropathy, a disease of the nervous system that makes him susceptible to pneumonia. He's been in the hospital several times in recent years.

-- From wire reports