Guilio is most likely the weirdest man I have ever met!

Recently we had dinner with him and his companion for the evening, Paulette, at the Carlton Hotel (pictured below).

It was early September and the weather was cool but just warm enough to enjoy al fresco dining
on the patio.

It was a boring experience except that Guilio’s "provenance" and predilections render him
the type of middle-aged rake who is quite interesting.

Like so many other inhabitants of this storied part of the world, Guilio comes from wealth, his father being rich and the owner of a 19th century villa in Monte Carlo. Guilio seems
to have unimpeded access to this villa for his many parties of excess.

I call him a rake while the other description that comes to mind is louche — the French term for dissipated and going to seed. He doesn’t seem to work very much at anything other than his relentless search for deviant sex. And in particular, females who will join with him in the enjoyment of what many call pleasure and what others describe as prurient. His phone book is legendary, encompassing all ages and reaching all around the world. In addition, he works it ceaselessly! He keeps in touch with countless (mostly young) very good looking women regularly (some say weekly) — in Prague, Milan, New York, Toronto, The Bahamas, Los
Angeles, Miami, and of course Cannes.

Guilio is a semi-attractive man in his late forties or early fifties, but he is not that attractive to seemingly have at his fingertips such a bevy of beauties to stock his parties and to apparently do his outré, sexual bidding while enlivening them. Is this the Riviera version, but one or two steps beyond, of the Hefner mansion? I don’t know — I’ve never been to either place although Guilio at least invites me!

But back to the Carlton patio where we were feasting on rack of lamb and being regaled by Guilio as he, with great pleasure, pointed out that Paulette had just emerged from under a most famous surgeon’s knife with a pair of enhanced breasts that truly were for the ages.

At one point I was a little anxious that the beaming and not one little bit embarrassed Paulette would actually display these recently manufactured wonders for the inspection of the entire dining room. But, mercifully, Guilio and Paulette restrained their enthusiasm and demonstration to mere description and a prod or two!

However, their actions did take me back some 30 years to the same spot during the Film Festival  – maybe the same table – where Edy Williams, star of "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" (a classic of its soft-porn type) and wife of Russ Meyer, (King of the "Nudies"), at about 10:00am, decided to strip utterly nude and dance on the same Carlton tables to the amazement and delectation of the hung over movie crowd trying to eat their petit dejeuner! This impromptu performance concluded when Edy stumbled off into the hinterland of the Carlton lobbies where, I suspect, producer/director Meyer lurked.

But back to Guilio, who, along with Paulette, presumably are at the wealthy end of the very wide spectrum of individuals that enjoy wild sex, pornography and recreational activities where the size of human appendages assume a deep importance in the pursuit of this particular sort of pleasure.

For this reason I thought it appropriate to discuss what I think to be an excellent but reviled (as well as an overlooked I think) movie made of a true story, "Wonderland" starring Val Kilmer in an excellent performance as the tragic porno star John Holmes, whose claim to fame was a penis of legendary proportions.

Movie Review:

Wonderland

Directed by James Cox
Starring: Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, and Lisa Kudrow

Leonard Maltin says that the movie "Wonderland" is "sordid, violent and filled with characters it’s impossible to care about." I have seen other critical comments that are far harsher and it seems that the critical consensus for this movie is that it is very badly done, serves no purpose whatsoever including that of entertainment, and is in general an offensive dud.

I disagree!

It is certainly true that a chronicle of the final days of the famous porn star John Holmes (known as Johnny Wadd and for a 13 in. penis), linked to a "Rashomon-type" telling of the brutal and grisly murders that occurred on Wonderland Avenue in Hollywood is not crying out to be told. Particularly since "Boogie Nights" had already fictionalized this stuff quite successfully. But as far as I’m concerned, "Wonderland" (set in the Laurel Canyon Hills area, in the year 1986) presents a very credible and chilling look at the real world of the drug-addled.

And this world exists, in considerable capacity, all around us — witness Guilio and his pals described previously. I lived one street over from the murder site in 1986 and I can tell you personally that it was simultaneously shocking and unsurprising.

At that time in Hollywood (and I suspect all over the Western world) drugs and pornography were a big deal. Violence and sexual license were rife and John Holmes was a movie star. This movie, to me fits into the category of "a cautionary tale," or let’s drag out the Christian maxim, "There but for the grace of God go I" (minus the famous appendage although many email users are being besieged with enhancement offers).

So the story is relevant and intense — is it told well? I think so. The cast is very good — Kilmer does as good a job as he has done anywhere, and as well Bosworth and Kudrow. The players include Eric Bogasian, Janeanne Garafolo, Josh Lucas, Carrie Fisher, Paris Hilton and Dylan McDermott.

"Wonderland" is a very good movie about a subject that is very close to home whether you know it or not, and I think you will "enjoy" the viewing experience. It says something about the sleazy world we’ve created. Some of the sleaze can be seen as humorous (again Guilio and company) but the sleaze of the "Wonderland" variety is not — and it is definitely not pretty.

I recommend "Wonderland."