Project Runway's demanding but
lovable celebrity judge Tim Gunn says he saw FBI director J. Edgar
Hoover dressed in drag as Vivian Vance, who starred as Ethel Mertz in
I Love Lucy, celebrity
gossip site Jezebel.com reported.
Interest
in Hoover's life has soared since news broke earlier this year that
Clint Eastwood is set to director Leonardo DiCaprio in a biopic about
the closeted crime fighter.
Gunn made his remarks during a lecture
at the 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew
Association, also known as 92Y, on Sunday.
On a visit to FBI headquarters to visit
his father, FBI agent George William Gunn, a young Tim Gunn and his
sister was introduced to Vivian Vance, who played Ethel Mertz on the
much-loved television sitcom I Love Lucy, in Hoover's office.
“Dad said to us, 'You're going to get
the biggest kick out of this. Guess who's in Mr. Hoover's office?'
'Who!' 'Ethel Mertz. Vivian Vance!'”
“So, my sister and I were escorted
in, and we met Miss Vance, who was lovely,” the openly gay Gunn
said.
Gunn recalls talking about the meeting
years later with his sister.
“I turned to my sister and I said,
'Do you remember the time we visited Mr. Hoover in his office and met
Vivian Vance?' And she said yes. And I said, 'You know, it strikes
me now as really weird that Mr. Hoover wasn't in the office!' And
those of you who know what Hoover looked like – picture J. Edgar
Hoover. Picture Ethel Mertz. Picture them side by side.”
“I can't prove it,” Gunn added,
“but it was odd.”