Phillipe & Jorge: Who will get the children?

Joe Kernan
Posted 10/16/14

After three newspapers, a lawsuit and 35 years of “superior behavior,” Rhode Island’s most famous fictional couples may just pack it in and head for Florida to retire surrounded by the …

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Phillipe & Jorge: Who will get the children?

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After three newspapers, a lawsuit and 35 years of “superior behavior,” Rhode Island’s most famous fictional couples may just pack it in and head for Florida to retire surrounded by the memorabilia they have accumulated over the years. Phillipe & Jorge, the alter egos of Chip Young and Rudy Cheeks, have had their perennial venue pulled from beneath their feet as the last edition of the Providence Phoenix hits the stands today.

“When we started in 1979, there was a lot of discrimination against gay people,” said Cheeks, aka Bruce McCrae, “Options [the magazine] hadn’t started yet and gay people didn’t have the acceptance we see now. I remember a lawyer I knew appeared on television speaking about gay rights and his landlady saw it and kicked him out of his apartment and he had no legal recourse.”

Times, as Bob Dylan so obviously noted, are a-changin’ and the union of Phillipe and Jorge is in serious jeopardy now that the Phoenix is folding.

“I wish I could report otherwise, but it’s true,” said Phoenix editor, Phil Eil, last Thursday. “The Providence Phoenix will be shutting down after 36 years in operation. Next week’s issue, distributed Thursday, October 16, will be our last.”

The nature of communications has fundamentally changed in the digital age and the demise of yet another print medium reflects that. Alongside those changes, attitudes about gay people have been dramatically changed. Gay men do not get evicted just for being gay (although the high jinxes purported to be afoot at Casa Diablo could be grounds for eviction). The satiric premise of “Phillipe and Jorge’s Cool, Cool World,” in the Phoenix played a large part in changing those attitudes locally. That was the intention when Young and McCrae assumed the persona of a gay couple “cohabitating” at Casa Diablo, their erstwhile residence. They endlessly sipped Pernod and grapefruit juice and gave prominent politicians and personalities nicknames, like Al Z. Heimer for Ronald Reagan, referring to his limited attention span, and the Gerber Baby for former Governor Ed DiPrete, for the cherubic face and little wave pompadour.

All the while, Phillipe and Jorge championed gay rights and defended the freedom to be whoever you were without being hassled. There is no question that gay people were being hassled, to say the least, when Casa Diablo invited us in.

Their light-hearted and funny send-up of consumer culture and the strange political shenanigans of politicians did not mock homosexual behavior so much as make it seem a more or less ordinary way of life, in spite of their claims of “superior behavior.” This was years before Will and Grace and Modern Family made gay couples just so much fodder for comedy. Phillipe and Jorge wanted to make “superior behavior” accepted and ordinary and easily tolerated by mainstream society.

Cheeks recalled that the Gay Pride Parade, now an annual and spectacular event, had only about 200 people participating the first year.

“We had a float in the Pride Parade, and Chip predicted, ‘If we do this right, the Pride Parade will be like Mardi Gras’ and he was right.”

Of course, if they limited their column to just gay topics, the column would not have become the alternate press watchdog of politics it became. It was more like hipsters looking at the straight world but with a very definite and unapologetic liberal bias. Many people picked up the Eagle, the New Paper and the Providence Phoenix just to read Philipe and Jorge. In fact, when Young and Cheeks decided to move the column to the New Paper, the Eagle’s owner, Vin Suprynowicz continued to publish “Cool, Cool World” with an anonymous author, claiming that it was trademarked and property of the Eagle. Aside from being a terrible imitation of Cheeks and Young’s style and a personal affront, the “superior correspondents” believed the ersatz column was hurting their reputation. They took their grievance to court in 1987. Judge Paul P. Pederzani agreed.

In a story by Tracy Breton in the Providence Journal, she reported that Pederzani concluded: “…McCrae and Young were the originators of the column and the substance of what went into it. The ideas and the writing style in the columns since they left the Eagle are not the same as the originators’ work. This, he said, was harmful to the columnists’ professional reputations.”

The Eagle desisted and Phillipe and Jorge persisted, and it came to pass that no public figure in Rhode Island really arrived until he or she was pilloried or praised in “Cool, Cool World.”

At a celebration of 25 years of Phillipe and Jorge at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet, the heretofore-reserved Sheldon Whitehouse appeared on stage in lime-green pants and haute-wasp resort wear and complained to their face about the merciless way they portrayed “my people.”

Of course, Cheeks and Young had day jobs while they wrote the column - Cheeks as a radio host and occasional musician and Young as a spokesperson for a variety of agencies and causes, from Save the Bay to the Rhode Island Commissioner of Education. So, it’s likely that they will continue to be a presence in Rhode Island. The absence will be the Providence Phoenix itself. There has been talk of “Cool, Cool World” moving to another newspaper but nothing definite so far. But no matter where the column ends up, the column will never be the same as it was.

“It is unquestionably sad to see the Providence Phoenix cease publishing and realizing the void it will leave,” said Phoenix Media/Communications Group COO Everett Finkelstein. “I’m, however, somewhat gratified, knowing we’ve left an indelible mark on our loyal readers who for 36 years have turned to us for our unique coverage of the rich culture, politics, and lifestyles of our community.”

“The Providence Phoenix’s Farewell Issue will look back at the paper’s history, with comments from past writers, editors and other luminaries. The issue will also include a portfolio of longtime Phoenix photographer Richard McCaffrey’s best shots and more,” according to Eil.

Below is the full text of Mindich’s statement to Providence Phoenix staff:

“About a year and a half ago when the decision to shutter the Boston Phoenix was made, it was my deep desire to keep publishing the Providence Phoenix and keep its extraordinary legacy alive…There is no adequate way to thank everyone here today, and all of those who over the years have devoted their efforts and amazing talents to this marvelous enterprise and to our Phoenix family.”

As for Jorge, he says he will continue to speak out for the outsiders and the disenfranchised.

“We have seen the country come to accepting marriage equality and a lot of the most outrageous discrimination against gays has stopped, but there is more and other issues that have to be addressed,” said Cheeks. “More recently, we have been focusing on income inequality and how that threatens the existence of this country.”

No matter where they carry on the good fight, Phillipe and Jorge and all the rest of us will sadly wish it were still in the pages of the Providence Phoenix.

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