Out and proud actor Leslie Jordan, 53, has a new memoir coming out that’s supposed to be full of tales of his debauchery including plenty of sex and drugs. The Emmy-winning actor known for being the bitchy nemesis of Karen on Will and Grace writes that he’s had crushes on his co-stars. Billy Bob Thornton was especially appealing to him after he heard from John Ritter that the guy was hung like a rope. Considering the late great comic John Ritter gave him this information, you have to think that he was putting him on:

“Dean Cain was stunning, and the sight of him strutting about in his Superman outfit was truly magnificent,” Jordan gushes, recalling his cameo on “Lois and Clark.” “I showed up on the set determined not to ‘­peter-gaze,’ or at least not to get caught at it.”

He became obsessed with Billy Bob Thornton while filming “Hearts Afire” after co-star John Ritter hinted to him about the size of Thornton’s manhood.

Ritter explained that he’d gone surfing with Thornton and later hit the showers. Ritter told Jordan the sight of Thornton’s “rope” would cause him to “fall in love.”

Jordan laments that he never got the chance: “There are probably a lot of things I’ll go a lifetime without seeing - the Mona Lisa, the Taj Mahal, the pyramids. And I’ll probably never see Billy Bob’s wiener, either.”

[From The NY Daily News

Jordan’s memoir is called “My Trip Down the Pink Carpet,” and is available for pre-release through Amazon.

I read an interview with Jordan from 2006 on AfterElton.com, when he was promoting a series of autobiographical plays he was doing with Delta Burke. He said that it saddens him to see young men addicted to drugs and you can tell that he’s been through a lot and is wiser for it. His biography is sure to be interesting if this is how he talks:

“I’m sitting here, 51 years of age,” he says. “I survived growing up in the ’50s. I survived the ’60s where I was a hippie smoking dope. I survived the ’70s where I was staggering around in Elton John platform shoes, swallowing quaaludes and going to Studio 54. I survived the ’80s where I made a whole lot of money and did a whole lot of cocaine. Then crystal meth came on the scene — that was me in the ’90s.”

He continues: “And now I’m sober. I buried an entire phone directory of friends to AIDS. And yet I survived. I feel I have to give back. I’m still at the AIDS walks and the marches.”

“You know what really saddens me?” he asks. “In the early ’80s you’d be walking down the street and you’d see someone you hadn’t seen in a while, and they were gaunt and really white. It was just heartbreaking. You thought, ‘Oh my God — it has got them.’ And now in this day and age, it’s almost the same thing. You see someone walking down the street and they are gaunt. Crystal’s got ‘em. It’s a huge problem in our community. It really messes with you.

“I see these young, beautiful gay men jerking and twitching and thinking they look so fabulous, yet their eyes are completely dead. I do a lot of work with recovery programs and houses. It’s sad so many young men are getting wrapped up in it.”

He adds: “But one thing I’ll say about gay people: We take care of our own. We learned that in the AIDS crisis. And we’ll take care of this.”

[From AfterElton.com]

Jordan also said he was glad to get work as an openly gay actor and didn’t worry about being typecast and just accepted the paychecks.

Do you think Billy Bob Thornton is hugely endowed though, or was John Ritter just messing with Jordan? He seems like the type to make something like that up. Has Thornton been nude for any roles so that we can see for ourselves? Frantic googling didn’t produce any results.

Billy Bob Thornton is shown outside the Late Show on 9/13/07 and at The Astronaut Farmer premiere on 2/20/07. Those jeans are too loose and I’ve looked through plenty of photos and he just doesn’t wear tight jeans. Maybe that’s for comfort purposes. Leslie Jordan is shown at the GLAAD media awards on 4/26/08. Thanks to WENN and PRPhotos.

The jury in the $67 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by John Ritter’s widow and four children ruled today that his two doctors were not at fault for the actor’s death. Actress Amy Yasbeck, Ritter’s widow, gave incredibly emotional testimony during the trial, along with many of his family, friends, and coworkers. Everyone spoke about what a wonderful, friendly, and loving man John Ritter was, and the extent he’d gone to in taking care of his health – specifically his heart – over the years. However the jury ruled 9 to 3 in favor of the doctors.

John Ritter’s tragic death cannot be blamed on a pair of doctors. So a jury essentially decided Friday in rejecting a wrongful death claim made by the Ritter family.

The split, 9-3 verdict in the civil trial in Glendale, California, comes after weeks of testimony frequently marked by tears from Ritter’s former coworkers, friends and his widow, actress Amy Yasbeck. At issue in the $67 million lawsuit, brought by Yasbeck and Ritter’s four children, was whether a radiologist, Dr. Matthew Lotysch, was negligent in a body scan he performed on Ritter in 2001, and whether a cardiologist, Dr. Joseph Lee, was negligent in care he provided for Ritter on the night he died in 2003. The jury found that, in the case of Lotysch, the radiologist, after looking at the scan results, told Ritter to follow up with a doctor, advise Ritter apparently didn’t take.

[From E! News]

The testimony in the trial was incredibly emotional – but also incredibly complex, in terms of the medical technicalities. As a layperson, I was pretty swayed by what I heard, but I couldn’t help but feel heartbroken for everyone involved. While this obviously doesn’t provide any closure for Ritter’s family, hopefully they’re moving forward with their lives and know that they did the best they could.

Here are John and Amy and their daughter Stella along with John’s three kids from his first marriage Carly, Tyler, and Jason at the “101 Dalmatians II” premiere on January 11th, 2003. Header of John and Amy at ABC Televisions 75th Anniversary Celebration on March 16th, 2003. Images thanks to PR Photos.