Brad Renfro Once "Freaked Out" Over River Phoenix Death Photo

Filmmakers and actors who worked with the late Brad Renfro have been posting tributes on their blogs, notably Sir Ian McKellen and filmmaker Bruce LA Bruce.

Ian McKellen recalled working with him in Apt Pupil (pictured above, with director Bryan Singer): " In Hollywood he was a teenage charmer, chaperoned by his beloved grandmother and by his admirers who protected him as best they could from the dangers of being a child in a careless adult's world. On set, he was blusteringly confident although it was obvious he would have benefitted from training as an actor. Yet, as Todd, the disturbed teenager in Apt Pupil, he tapped into an inner demonic world and carried the film on his young shoulders. Off the set he played football, played his guitar and one magical evening I shall never forget, invited me to his home in the Hollywood Hills. We chatted a bit about acting and his dreams to direct films, to write music and to return to Tennessee. When he heard a dog barking wildly across the valley, he mimicked the animal and the dog replied; a kid at play but capable of growing into someone special. He longed to belong in the alien world which perhaps in the end overwhelmed him. He was only 25 and it is dreadful we shan't see all that he might have achieved."

AFTER THE JUMP, an excerpt of an article from Canada's Exclaim magazine in which director Bruce LaBruce relates the story of an evening he spent with 17-year-old Brad Renfro and actress Dominique Swain, which ends with a bit of sad foreshadowing:

James Dobson: Ted Haggard Gay Cure Could Take "4 or 5 Years"

Wednesday night almost seems like ancient history, but James Dobson's appearance on Larry King Live is too rich to overlook.

Dobson told King that he excused himself from the "three person restoration panel" overlooking his "close friend" Ted Haggard because it might be 2010 before Haggard is heterosexual:

"I called my board of directors, we talked about it at length and they were unanimous in asking me not to do that, because this could take four or five years and I just have too many other things going on."

Dobson says he hasn't talked to his "close friend" since it happened. Dobson also told King that liberals have no values, Congress was "courageous" in trying to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case, and the separation of church and state is not in the Bill of Rights.

Meanwhile, in Miami over the weekend, gay escort Mike Jones sat down with author David Leddick who is writing a new book called Escort, featuring escorts, their profiles, and photographs. Said Leddick: ''Forty profiles with photographs of men who sell sex. I'm not taking a moral position myself. It's fascinating." Jones is to be the centerpiece of that book.

Jones told the Miami Herald that he has received plenty of criticism from other escorts angry that he disrespected the privacy of the escort/client relationship. But he said the hypocrisy was too much: "All the escorts are [angry] with me. This was such a unique situation. I could have ruined many careers in my day. A lot of politicians and athletes and clergy. But none of them got up and ranted and raved about homosexuality."

He has also been criticized for the tumult created within the pastor's family by going public. His response: "People have scolded me for that, particularly right-wing people. But did Ted Haggard go to his wife and say, 'I'm going to have a gay affair. Is this going to hurt you and the kids?' I don't want to have this guilt over my head."

Jones also wants to make sure the public knows he's not a prostitute: ''I was an escort, all right? Not everyone I went with wanted sex. I think I give escorts a good name.''

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