Globe's Beam gets bonked

by Nancy Gaines

In what some newsroom denizens are calling "Eileen McNamara, part deux," Boston Globe editors appear to have caved in to objections from art critic Christine Temin and pulled a column by writer Alex Beam that Temin apparently felt intruded on her turf. The action, which angered numerous Globies and was said to have infuriated Beam, came four weeks after McNamara objected to a column by colleague Steve Bailey that criticized a column of hers. As a result of that tiff, Globe editor Matt Storin told writers to keep intramural criticism in print to a minimum.

BANGers and WANGers bare all As the season warms up, a not-very-visible (albeit exposed) subset of a subset of local society is coming out. For the past several years, groups of gay male nudists -- or naturists, as some prefer to be called -- have gathered at private homes and clubs in the Boston area to celebrate the "clothing optional" lifestyle. The founder of one such group, the three-year-old Bare Bottoms/Boston, estimates that some 300 people around New England participate in the movement, which, he says, revolves around "non-sexual" recreation. "Of course," says Paul, 49, a state employee who does not want his last name disclosed, "people who meet in our setting may decide to get together in another way, just as with any other social group." Paul's group has 125 members throughout the region, he says. The Boston Area Naturist Group (BANG) numbers about 90, and a smaller South End group of "bears" has 20 active participants. In addition, he says, the group Pilgrim Naturists admits gay and straight people of both sexes. Farther west, Worcester Area Naked Guys (WANG), a secretive year-old group with a special focus, now claims 30 members. They are mostly middle-aged professionals who are not out of the closet, says its founder, a 66-year-old who did not want to be identified. WANG offers a protective, often therapeutic social setting in which they can mix and mingle. Naturists can be found, in summer, at places such as the Cummington recreational area in Western Massachusetts, at private Boston Harbor Islands outings, and at "clothing optional" guest houses on Cape Cod. According to one participant, they occasionally rent health clubs for all-nude swims. Most of the groups have Web sites; Spike's Naked Planet (http://gypsy.rose.utoronto.ca/planet) provides worldwide online listings for gay nudists.

In this case, Beam penned a column critical not of Temin but of the new Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, which Temin was scheduled to review in an edition two days later. Sources say that when Temin learned she would be pre-empted, she complained. Mary Jane Wilkinson, the Globe's deputy managing editor for features, said she "looked at what would best serve readers" and decided Temin's piece should run first. "All I know is I visited North Adams Friday [May 21] and didn't have a column in the paper on Wednesday [May 26]," said Beam. "And I wasn't on vacation." To Globe sources, the event recalled a previous occasion when Temin objected to the treatment of her work and brought in her husband, a lawyer, to help argue her case. Editors acquiesced then, too.

Adding insult to perceived injury, Globe arts editor Scott Powers was said to have wanted Temin's piece to run before Beam's because he believed it "vital" for the Globe's art critic to have first say on the subject. (Powers wouldn't comment.) But Temin was beaten to the punch: both the New York Times and the Boston Herald published articles on the museum that ran before hers. Beam's piece eventually ran -- a week later than he intended, and well after other coverage.

'Ride-along' ruling halts TV filming

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision curbing the rights of journalists to "ride along" with police in action, Boston officials have stopped, at least temporarily, filming of the city's emergency medical teams for the Learning Channel's popular Paramedics program. The film crew had been in town since mid-May and was expected to stay through Memorial Day. A city spokesman said that although the court ruling did not address ride-alongs in public places, officials decided to interrupt the filming until the issue was further clarified. The hiatus will no doubt disappoint hundreds of hard-core local fans. Paramedics is a spinoff of the TLC show Trauma: Life in the ER, which has attained an almost cult-like status. Boston has yet to be featured on the often gory Trauma or on Paramedics. But radio station WXLO, based in Worcester, recently formed a fan club for Trauma, which immediately attracted 300 members and has a waiting list of 700. The station had to cut off membership, said a spokesman, when it staged an event in Marlborough featuring real paramedics and expensive giveaways such as hospital scrubs, stethoscopes, and surgical gloves. The fan club, the brainchild of DJ Jay Bailey -- and believed to be the first of its kind -- has its own Web site, touting the show's "no actors . . . no script . . . no room for error" heroics.

Not-so-ancient Hibernian

For the thousands of Karma and Avalon patrons who spin lustful fantasies about what the clubs' star dancer, Violet, does in her spare time, consider this unusual endeavor: she is an official in the secretive Irish organization called the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the oldest of its kind in America. A fourth-generation participant in the Lynn chapter of the social and charitable group, Violet, whose non-stage name is Christina Buckless, recently returned from the annual Hibernian convention in Hyannis. She won't divulge details about the group, which meets monthly, but she admits she's been known to engage in a little Irish step-dancing at events. "It's a private thing," says Violet, who is also a model, "and no, I'm not going to do Irish dances on Lansdowne Street."