Bret Easton Ellis, who first gained fame with his novel "Less Than Zero," and then outright notoriety with "American Psycho," is back in the gossip news with his latest book "Lunar Park."

A very long full-length article on Bret in Sunday's New York Times made the preposterous suggestion that in his earlier books, he described a lot of meaningless sex. We have read the books. Whether in them or out of them, sex is never meaningless, in our humble, horned up opinion.

One curious feature of Lunar Park is that while it is not a direct transcription of the author's life, it does feature characters with the author's own name and those of his illustrious editors and fellow literary stars, such as Jay McInerney. Because the book describes such things as crystal meth binges, celeb orgies and the character Bret Easton Ellis having dates with both Christy Turlington and George Michael, wagging tongues want to know which events are true and which are invented.

One thing that's not at all invented is Bret's reluctance to come out of the closet in real life. The guy had a male lover for six years, who sadly died, causing Bret a major depression, and still he won't declare his sexuality. The Bosh says: "C'mon Bret! Come on out!!! The air on this side of the closet door is perfumed with liberty and high self-esteem and yes, juicy gossip. (By Scott Rose)