August 2001
Drama Queens
by Angelo Ragaza
Now you can watch full-grown queers act just as deliciously juvenile as the hormonally charged kids on The Real World. Bravo’s The Gay Riviera probes real-life escapades in New York City and Miami. Among the guys, there is gym-buff HIVer Mark Nelson, who confesses, “I’ve capped my teeth, colored my hair, taken steroids. I’m an illusionist just like the next person.” And South Beach scenester Gregory, 44, off HIV meds for a year because he can’t afford them. Gregory loses his keys, breaks down his roommate Sabrina’s door, then screws tricks in her bed. Sabrina, a makeup diva, is not having it. She tells him to “go back to your little goddamn ditch where you came out of.” With roommates like these, who needs Friends? The Gay Riviera (Sunday nights through August) is guilty, fly-on-the-wall fun.
