Travolta gay rumors pulp fiction?

John Travolta has been plagued by gay rumors since he first strutted to fame as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever. His marriage to actress Kelly Preston in 1991 appeared to have quelled them some, though they persist to this day. They've even intensified in the past few weeks when the blogosphere, taking their queue from the National Enquirer, have published reports of Travolta's involvement with LA's secret gay sauna culture.

The source of the latest assault on Travolta's straightness is a new self-published book by writer Robert Randolph that exposes LA's gay sauna cultured. Entitled You'll Never Spa In This Town Again, the book names Travolta (amongst others) as being serviced at the City Spa & Health Center. The author even goes as far to claim that Travolta's taste in men evolved from black men to Hispanics, Korean and Middle-Easterns. And that he's a bottom and size queen.

A story on Gawker The Secret Sex Life of John Travolta highlighted Randolph's claims. "In recent weeks" the article reads," Randolph has been busy talking with tabloids such as the National Enquirer and Star, about what he witnessed. (He says the Enquirer even subjected him to a lie detector test, which he says he passed with flying (rainbow) colors.) But mainstream tabloids have generally been skittish about printing some of the more explicit details from Randolph's days on the spa circuit."

The article goes on to say that Randolph witnessed Travolta having sex and was even propositioned by the actor. "We were both next to each other in the steam room and he started stroking his dick. It was hard," Randolph says. "He undid my towel and said, 'Let's have some fun.' I said no. I told him I wasn't comfortable."

Book’s claims disputed

Whether or not Randolph's claims are true is a matter of conjecture. They were disputed this week by LA Weekly. "Problem is," the publication reads, 'for us anyway, is that City Spa doesn't seem to be on the "cruising" map for gay men. It's often described as a co-ed spot where Koreans, Armenians and Russians go for macho, old-school sauna sessions.

"Even gay sites consider it off-the-grid: "You won't find any cruising or sex acts at City Spa. Instead, customers come simply to relax and rejuvenate.. .in the nude, of course," reads a review at GayCities."

What everyone reporting the story is in agreement about is how Scientology may play into this situation. Travolta, who has been a member of the church since 1975, is said to have married and stayed married because of threats by the Church to expose that he's gay. (The same has been said about Tom Cruise, though a recent tabloid biography pretty much decimated those gay rumors.)

According to Gawker: "Critics of the church claim that information culled during "auditing sessions"-a process in which members clear themselves of "negative influences" and occasionally brings up details of sexual liaisons-is used to keep celebrities in the closet and in the church. Scientology's position on homosexuality, needless to say, is controversial. Indeed the church's hard-line stance has lost them a number of prominent members in recent years."

Would an actor of Travolta's stature put himself in such risk by exposure in a public club? You would think not, though he had no qualms with locking lips with a bodyguard in a photo that made the rounds last year. Randolph even claims that Travolta flaunts his celebrity as part of his seduction: "In the beginning, he would come in and people would recognize him and he would let people approach him," Randolph says of Travolta's seduction technique. "He's very personable, and he would use the fact he's a star to reel guys in." Eventually, he took that for granted. "It got to the point where he wouldn't even look at a person's eyes, he'd just stare at their cock and then follow them off to a more secluded space. That's how he operates now. For the last couple of years, he's had no discretion."

Travolta, by the way, expects the birth of his third child with Preston at the end of the month. Whether or not the publication of Randolph's book at this time is a coincidence is open to question, though it was delayed from an earlier date out of deference to Travolta's loss of his teenage son Jett in January 2009. On his website, Randolph claims adeath threats have been made against him.