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There's A Beatle In My Closet by Joanne Peterson
17 April 2010
11.53am
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Joe
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According to Amazon, There’s A Beatle In My Closet, a memoir by Joanne Peterson, is to be published in December. It’s been spoken about since at least 2005, but it seems she’s finally got a publisher/publication date.

 (the only link on Amazon.com says it’s out of print/with limited availability, but I presume that’s not the case).

As Joanne Newfield, she was Brian Epstein’s assistant in the 1960s. She was among the first people to find his body after he died. According to web snippets I’ve seen, in the book she promises to reveal that at least one of The Beatles had a sexual relationship with Epstein (and I think we can guess which one that was, right?).

Presuming it’s not just gossip, it could be a real insight from someone who was there. We’ll see. brian-epstein

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17 April 2010
3.45pm
TheGrandInquisitor
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If I boughtJoe said:

According to Amazon, There’s A Beatle In My Closet, a memoir by Joanne Peterson, is to be published in December. It’s been spoken about since at least 2005, but it seems she’s finally got a publisher/publication date.

 (the only link on Amazon.com says it’s out of print/with limited availability, but I presume that’s not the case).

As Joanne Newfield, she was Brian Epstein’s assistant in the 1960s. She was among the first people to find his body after he died. According to web snippets I’ve seen, in the book she promises to reveal that at least one of The Beatles had a sexual relationship with Epstein (and I think we can guess which one that was, right?).

Presuming it’s not just gossip, it could be a real insight from someone who was there. We’ll see. brian-epstein


If i bought such a book it sure wouldn’t be to find out whether a certain Beatle had an affair with Brian Epstein. The author hints about 

this probably with the sole purpose of selling books, which i find kind of slimey, I would love to hear about Epstein doing business deals all over the globe on the Beatles behalf, maybe hear about the debacle in the Phillipines (sic) where the Beatles were lucky to escape with their lives

but, see, the problem with talking about sex is that both of these people are gone, they can’t defend themselves, so what is stopping

this Newfield lady to exaggerate the situation. this has already been hinted about in past years so is this a bombshell, no! its just a chance to sell some books.a-hard-days-night-paul-11

17 April 2010
3.58pm
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MrBig
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(and I think we can guess which one that was, right?)

 

Enlighten me.

"The best band? The Beatles. The most overrated band? The Beatles."

17 April 2010
4.02pm
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Joe
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I guess the clue is that people have largely just hinted about it in the past. As she worked so closely with Epstein it’s possible she really knows what happened, if anything. I understand your skepticism though, particularly with a title like that.

Don’t write off the book just yet though – it may contain the info you’d like to know. Joanne Peterson undoubtedly has some interesting tales to tell, and she’s appeared in documentaries over the years about Epstein with some revealing insights. I didn’t get the impression she’s particularly interested in the salacious stuff, although that’s what people will focus on when the book comes out.

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17 April 2010
4.26pm
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MrBig
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I still don’t know which beatle you’re talking about. Paul?

"The best band? The Beatles. The most overrated band? The Beatles."

17 April 2010
4.50pm
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Joe
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17 April 2010
10.51pm
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Celebrated_Mr_K
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Brian was gay.  John was not.  Yet they went on holiday together to Spain as friends.  Maybe something happened.  Maybe not.  Big deal.

Either way, I couldn’t care less about a book by Brian’s secretary.

19 April 2010
7.16pm
Marcelo
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Nothing would change if this lady has information about a private matter like this, if the rumours are proved to be true.

John was straight at least most of his life (again, if something happened between him and Brian), as his two marriages and incountables conquests can testify.

Anyways, what happen if John was gay? Would he be the first or the only rock star that happened to be gay?

I'd like to say "thank you" on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition.
John Lennon

15 July 2010
7.58pm
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RufusWild
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Yes, there are no gay rock stars or professional athletes or actors or politicians.  It would utterly change our world if Brian's secretary even hinted such a thing.  The walls would tremble.  The heavens would part.  A monkey would run screaming from my butt.a-hard-days-night-paul-11

"We were just a band, who made it very very big, that's all."

15 July 2010
8.15pm
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GniknuS
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RufusWild said:

Yes, there are no gay rock stars or professional athletes or actors or politicians.  It would utterly change our world if Brian's secretary even hinted such a thing.  The walls would tremble.  The heavens would part.  A monkey would run screaming from my butt.a-hard-days-night-paul-11


 

Lol, that's pretty funny.

I am pretty interested in this book though, Brian's life and struggles were fascinating so hopefully this will shed more light on the enigma that was Brian Epstein.

I sat on a rug, biding my time, drinking her wine

15 July 2010
9.12pm
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mithveaen
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Well if what this lady is true, that would make John bisexual, not gay. Right?

 

Whatever. I think John was hot.

Here comes the sun….. Scoobie-doobie……

Something in the way she moves…..attracts me like a cauliflower…

Bop. Bop, cat bop. Go, Johnny, Go.

Beware of Darkness… 

15 July 2010
9.31pm
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MeanMrsMustard
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John's hotness is not a matter of opinion. It's a fact.

If I seem to act unkind, it's only me, it's not my mind that is confusing things.

15 July 2010
10.11pm
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Von Bontee
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mithveaen said:

Well if what this lady is true, that would make John bisexual, not gay. Right?

 


 Not even that, necessarily. It was the '60s, people were experimenting. 

Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.

         

15 July 2010
10.16pm
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MrBig
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Von Bontee said:

mithveaen said:

Well if what this lady is true, that would make John bisexual, not gay. Right?

 


Not even that, necessarily. It was the '60s, people were experimenting.
 


Yeah. He could have been high on LSD or heroin or something like that.

"The best band? The Beatles. The most overrated band? The Beatles."

15 July 2010
11.40pm
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GniknuS
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MrBig said:

Von Bontee said:

mithveaen said:

Well if what this lady is true, that would make John bisexual, not gay. Right?

 


Not even that, necessarily. It was the '60s, people were experimenting.

 


Yeah. He could have been high on LSD or heroin or something like that.
 


No this was pretty early, the only thing John would have been high on was brian-epstein.

I sat on a rug, biding my time, drinking her wine

16 July 2010
1.06am
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MeanMrsMustard
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GniknuS said:

MrBig said:

Von Bontee said:

mithveaen said:

Well if what this lady is true, that would make John bisexual, not gay. Right?

 


Not even that, necessarily. It was the '60s, people were experimenting.
 


Yeah. He could have been high on LSD or heroin or something like that.

 


No this was pretty early, the only thing John would have been high on was brian-epstein.
 


Well, in the article about John and brian-epstein's holiday, it sounded like John was tired of brian-epstein bothering him. 

If I seem to act unkind, it's only me, it's not my mind that is confusing things.

16 July 2010
1.07am
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mithveaen
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MeanMrs.Mustard said:

John's hotness is not a matter of opinion. It's a fact.


 

Amen!!!

Here comes the sun….. Scoobie-doobie……

Something in the way she moves…..attracts me like a cauliflower…

Bop. Bop, cat bop. Go, Johnny, Go.

Beware of Darkness… 

21 July 2014
10.34am
GeorgeLuvr
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I know this thread is several years old but I thought I would just say that I’d actually purchased this book from amazon.  You know, one of those “pre-order” for when it comes out type of things.  About a month after I had, I received notification from amazon that they were crediting the money back to me as the book was not going to be available.  I tried for a while to find out just what happened since it was not available anywhere else either.  It looks like it just didn’t get published, but I’ve no clue why.  Perhaps she was blocked from actually publishing it by Paul or Ringo (or perhaps even Yoko or Olivia).  It’s quite the mystery!

21 July 2014
12.55pm
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Joe
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There’s some info on this page, an interview with the writer of The Fifth Beatle, though it doesn’t give any insight into why Joanne’s book might have been cancelled.

The other person I’ll just name check is Joanne Newfield, now Joanne Peterson. She was Brian’s personal assistant in the 1960s. She was really his right hand woman, if you will. Literally the person who was there when they knocked down the bedroom door and found out he had passed away in his sleep. She was there by his side throughout. She lives in Australia now and has been a tremendous amount of support to me, a source of insight, and a lovely human being. And that was the beginning of the rabbit hole. It started with a couple of books I had a hard time tracking down and then tracked down a few people who knew Brian.

Some years ago, there was a bit of a controversy over a tell-all book that Joanne Peterson was said to be working on. You said that you became friends with Joanne, and I assume that a lot of what was going to become her memoir was imparted to you. IsThe Fifth Beatle in some way a realization of that book?

You know, I’m not aware that there was controversy over it. I know that she talked about putting her memories into a book that I think she was going to call There’s A Beatle In My Closet. When I did meet Joanne, which is a decade ago, she told me that she was working on a book, but never did the work on her book impact her forthcomingness with anything I had to ask of her. She was always completely willing to tell me anything I wanted to know and offered stories about Brian without my asking,

The controversy specifically was that it was being solicited that the book would reveal which Beatle Brian Epstein had a homosexual relationship with. It was a very tabloid-like headline.

That’s not Joanne’s style at all. I think if she knew something like that she would either not want to talk about it or would talk about it with the utmost discretion. She is not the type of person who thrives from controversy. And without putting words into her mouth, she is definitely not somebody who would give two wits about selling books. If she put her memoir out it would not be to make money, because I don’t think she cares about that. I think it would be more about telling a story before it is lost in time. That sounds like a fabrication of the British press in particular.

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21 July 2014
1.34pm
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Ron Nasty
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It is the interesting lost book. I tried to get it at the time. I wonder whether the publisher went under. After all, it does have a publisher – Atria Books, a publishing date of December 2010, ISBN numbers.

I wonder if this…

51AV8J5M4ML.jpgImage Enlarger

…ever made the shelves!!!

"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty

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