It’s only been a few days since news broke about the fancy new publicist Calvin Klein hired for his 22-year-old lover, Nick Gruber. After years of appearing in headlines for his work in gay porn, cocaine addiction, infidelities and blood baths, Mr. Gruber is getting an expensive “image remake” courtesy of “pro publicist” Matt Rich.
Why? Because he wants to be a fashion model.
Cleaning up Gruber’s image will undoubtedly be tougher than cleaning the post-Pride streets of New York City with a child’s toothbrush, but Rich has already hit the ground running by landing his client a fancy profile in NY Magazine. It’s great fun.
The interview begins like most mainstream fluff pieces—a trendy description of what most people would call a pompous asshole, Nick Gruber ordering coffee at an expensive downtown eatery that’s “historically fabulous” and blah blah, something about Anna Wintour, Donna Karan, and Vera Wang.
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Perhaps what’s most interesting about Nick’s first interview as a squeaky clean model—a “courtesan” was the most shocking word used to describe him—was an admission that he’s “not gay.” Pair this with a traumatizing story about his mother’s heroin addiction, a downplay of his work in porn (a blatant misprint of his “porn name”), and a failure to call him out on being a famous gold digger (Calvin Klein is just his “friend”), and voila, instant publicity!
Here’s some of our favorite parts of the interview, conveniently translated by Queerty:
“And they showed up, glad for their old friend’s bliss, and maybe just a touch luridly curious about how, after all these years of being so scrupulously un-public about his romantic life, Klein would pick this often-sweet, rough young man to so openly adore.”
Translation: Calvin Klein threw a birthday party to announce that he was having sex with somebody 48 years his junior. Famous people showed up to gawk and be jealous.
“It’s easy to feel sympathy for Gruber, or at least understand why he’s looking for someone to take care of him…He was born in Northern California, near Sacramento, and his parents split when he was very young, his mother moving with him to Florida and sliding into drugs. “As a child, I would walk in the house, I would see her on the floor with a needle in her arm. Like, in seventh grade, she was on the floor, like, shooting up heroin, and then she played dead. Like, she started to have a seizure and convulsion, and then she said something like, ‘What if I was dead right now? What would you do?’ ” Eventually she went to prison, he says.”
Translation: Everything that’s ever happened to Nick Gruber is his mother’s fault. Got it.
“Then after his mother got out of prison (she’s clean and churchgoing now, he says), he moved back with her to California and joined the Army, training as a water-treatment specialist.”
Translation: His mother is now religious, and don’t forget Nick served in the Army! What a great guy!
“He misses church: “the community, how friendly people are, the spirit. You know you could feel the energy, and everyone is so happy and loving.”
Translation: So very religious! Get a load of this guy, America!
“But Fort Riley, Kansas, where he was stationed, became a perilous place for him. “I mean, basically what happened was that the gay community—” he pauses to adjust. His sexuality is clearly undefined, even to him (he’s also dated women and tells me, “I plan to have a child when I’m 30 years old”). “I’m not gay, but I don’t believe in labels, I believe in love. So the gay community in Fort Riley, Kansas, was really bad”—he means this in the sense that it was dangerous to be gay there.”
Translation: Look, America! This guy had sex with Calvin Klein, but he is not gay. Doesn’t that make you like him even more?
“Gruber was already, in his way, Internet famous, thanks to a career, detailed in various gossip blogs, doing gay porn under the name Aaron Skyline, as well as building a revealing “modeling” portfolio on ModelMayhem.com under the name Nick London. On Facebook, he was reportedly known as Nick Oo.”
Nope, sorry NY Mag. His “modeling” name was actually Zeke, and he jerked off at SeanCody.com.
“‘I hate Google,’ Gruber laments in frustration.”
Ha!
To read the rest of this interview, visit NYmag.com
[Photo via NY Mag]
Sohobod
He’s as thick as shit.
Dev.C
OMG could Calvin Klein’s life mirror that of Liberace’s and more? This is just embarrassing for them both.
I just really despise gay boys who pretend they are straight pretending to be gay, Walking Contradiction!
Mike
For some reason, this makes me think of the guy who murdered Versace.
tallskin2
Yep Sohobod is correct, this boy is “thick as shit”
Cute though- nice to look at
and it’d be fun to have him draped over your soft furnishing, and lying around the house wearing not very much. Just make sure his mouth is stuffed most of the time, so he cannot speak.
Perhaps have him wear a slave collar when you have friends round just so everyone realises who’s boss.
Polaro
I was so willing to cut him some slack. My bad. Its not PR that he needs, it serious psychological therapy. There is not enough PR to cover up the stink of red-neck denial.
Polaro
@Mike: Oh, click.
Bear Aspirin
Obviously Calvin Klein has a fetish for Muppet-mouths.
Captain proton
and water isn’t wet. Don’t believe me? here’s proof:
http://cache.hydepark.co.il/upload0708/200958_145259158_ideology.jpg
QuintoLover
The author doesn’t call him a gold digger BUT claims he’s looking for someone to take care of him and that he’s not gay…. So sleeping with an old man for dependence and to further a superficial career isn’t gold digging?
Stache1
@Dev.C: I think for the price he’ll “pretend” to be whatever you want. Unfortunately, these older wealthy guys don’t want the out, proud and gay. They want the down low types or “straight acting”.
mykelb
Skanks in need of talk therapy 6 days a week shouldn’t give interviews.
dvlaries
Did Diana’s death and a subsequent marriage turn Camilla Parker-Bowles into a beloved British figure? Did a handbag line and a diet company endorsement take the joke out of the name Lewinsky? In other news, one of Anthony Weiner’s texting squeezes now has a solo porn video at Vivid.
*
Good luck with this here rehabilitation.
Stache1
Ok I read the article but I’m a bit confused.
I get that the place you were stationed was very homophobic. However, if your so totally straight as you say you are then why did you need to leave for you safety and also get dishonorably discharged in the process. No clarification there.
I think it’s fair to say that Klein met him due to his adult work. Why not just come out and say it instead of this BS story of meeting through mutual friends. Yeah, I’m sure you both were running in the same circles.
“I can’t tell you how many flight attendants end up on Fifth Avenue,” notes a society figure who knows Klein. “They learn.” Gruber didn’t, at least not fast enough for Klein, at least according to this friend….Poor guy though. Losing that $250,000 Bentley. I’d be crying myself after having to give that up.
“he moved to Los Angeles, became involved with another older man, named John Luciano, and was squired around L.A. by a third, another designer, named Lloyd Klein”
…..I guess everyone has to try the Gruber out or at least if you’ve got the $. At least once.
Katbox
No he’s not gay. He’s just a white trash looking for a free ride.
Nothing special about this guys- thousand of better ones out there.
Stache1
Last thought. He needs to fire his “PR guy” because he sucks. Honesty is the best way to improve your image. Fall on the sword and not this “my mom was a crack ho. I’m just looking for love. No one understands me!!” ….BS.
Mr. E. Jones
I plan to have a child when I’m 30 years old
I already pity that unborn child.
Daniel-Reader
Creeeeepy. Mike is right.
hf2hvit
@Mr. E. Jones: But he’s going to carry and deliver it himself!
hf2hvit
“I’m not gay”…just like Larry Craig
D9W
Gold Digger = Trick. Now we know why he’s “not” gay- he’s just a pond sucking trick looking for a sugar daddy.
redcarpet
Why is Calvin Klein helping this guy? He is aweful! Must suck a mean dick.
B Damion
Awww..come on as long as he is str8-acting it’s fine, no walking contradiction here! . No fems,NO fats..he’s good. [email protected]. After all these are the labels perpetuated in the “gay community”.
He is a dime a dozen who gives a sh*t what he wants to be today or the next day.
1EqualityUSA
A baby at the age of 30…CK had better get hopping on his line of stretch mark creams!
Polaro
Does Calvin know he is not gay?
LeNair Xavier
Dear Queerty,
Why are you wasting time writing a story about this creature? Him and Calvin Klein are not a story we have not seen a billions times before:
Old financially well-off White guy buys off 20-something White, Asian, light-skinned Latino (or any other light-complexioned ethnic) to be their kept boy.
I can easily walk through the streets or gay bars/clubs of NYC, and see this any day or night of the week. And the story always ends the same — when the 20-something has either mooched off enough to go it alone, or the old guy has lost it all, the old guy gets dumped. So Nick Gruber is only back because his plan to go it alone did not work out as he had planned.
My point is giving him any attention feeds the monster. For while you are mocking Nick Gruber (as you should), there’s some dimwit in some media outlet who is so superficial that they are going to give Nick Gruber a shot that he does NOT deserve. With that in mind, also mock Calvin Kelin for being a stereotype.
ParkerSparx
Maybe he and Andre Leon Talley could get together and form a “straight dudes club.”
KEVINVENTION
It says an awful lot when virtual nobody-s have to hire a PR hack to “fix” their virtual nobody-ness. Ugh… 🙁
Daniel NYC
Krapola. I remember when Calvin Klein did the same thing in the 80s to distance himself from the AIDS epidemic. They deserve one another.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Oh my god it’s an epidemic!
Who’s next?
Quick someone place a cordon around Richard Simmons.
Teleny
I get so sick of these people who have gay sex and spout off about how straight they are. Straight people don’t believe it and neither does our community. Have some pride, dignity and responsibility and come out. This is 2013 not 1914!
Coward.
Doughosier
@LeNair Xavier: A lot of time the older man gets bored and drops the young lover as well.
Doughosier
Why rag on him? He came from nothing and has no apparent talent. He’s just beautiful. Can you blame him for using that to get a nice lifestyle?
Polaro
@Doughosier: No, but we can blame him for being a classless douche. Seriously, he gives whores a bad name. And he is only beautiful since Calvin paid for the plastic surgery, but I digress. Is it wrong of me to be a bit incredulous of a man who claims to be straight when I’ve seen him get boned in the butt and smoke the flesh cigar….multiple times. Just wondering if perhaps I missed something in the gay handbook about judging a man by his actions caught on film and still available on the Internet?
retropian
Lord, why do I find this worth commenting on? There must be some kind of connection between CK and this kid beyond sex for pay. Is CK codependent? Has he found a troubled young man whom he feels he can rescue? No doubt CK has hired the services of many young and troubled hustlers over the years, so why this attachment to NG? I can only guess that there is some sort of connection. Perhaps CK just feels paternal now, or guilty for giving NG a taste of the life and dropping him. Who can say for sure, but there must be more between them than NG being CK’s boy-toy.
KEVINVENTION
@retropian: I think the only “connection” CK feels for this vapid idiot (and keeps him foolishly — and pathetically — and desperately — coming back for more) is that he’s getting to the age now where he probably feels he doesn’t have a whole lot more time left to be the openly gay dude he should have been 40, 50 years ago… 🙁
TheMarc
Yeah, ya know snarky works when it’s smart. Not sure what it is with Queerty writers and this need to be snarky and cynical to the point of being juvenile no matter what the subject matter. Case and point; his porn name. Yeah, he did work at SC; but he did the majority of his work at NDS under the name…wait for it…Aaron Skyline. No misprint. You’ve done porn, you’ve done porn; no matter how many names you’ve done it under, which is probably why the writer of the interview did not mention his brief work at SC. Research is kind of an essential tool of journalism…FYI.
But to the actual subject matter…I don’t know what he is expecting from this reboot. From a “PR” perspective, I’ve yet to see one guy who did gay porn then claim he was actually straight that was able to successfully reboot their entertainment career. It seems that by saying he’s straight, he and his publicist believe that they can wipe out everything related to homosexuality that he’s done; almost to the point of disavowing his relationship with CK. Which doesn’t exactly endear him to the public at large. It just makes him seem like a gold digger who will sleep with anyone and do anything to become rich and famous. Which ya know works for some people; except they’re not so public about it. As to all the issues he’s had before, during and after his relationship with CK, I’ll just drop a little advice to all the would be gay sugar daddies out there…buy gay. These gay for pay guys seem to consistently have something in common with each other…mental instability, violence, drugs, etc. I know it can be thrilling but so can driving a sports car at top speed with no brakes. Fun…but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Cee
Sex with Calvin Klein? Pretty disgusting. Money talks though. I wonder if old guys like Calvin are delusional in thinking they could ever get younger guys if they didn’t have money. I think these older guys kid themselves. It’s like a desperate attempt to feel young again. I wish I didn’t know these things about Calvin Klein. I used to like his underwear. I have some of his jock straps I used to get fucked in. I’ve bought a lot of his cologne too, but not anymore. I never knew he looked like that either. Yikes.
Icebloo
I have absolutely no idea who this idiot is. I think the majority of people have no clue who he is. How interesting he thinks people care about him. How bizarre he feels he needs to hire a publicist. Really – nobody cares.
Poor, sad Calvin Klein. All that money and success could still not make him happy. He falls into that age old trap of old man chasing young kids to make himself still feel young and attractive. Money doesn’t buy class or intelligence does it Calvin ?
asby
there will always be guys like this around ..as long as there is always guys like calvin klein who are willing to pay and put up with it…….gruber seems to have alot of excuse for everything….he comes off as the type that will have “gay rage” one day and kill some old guy who is his “friend”
scoobydube
ONE; For a 22 y/o ‘twink’, he SURE is BUTT ugly. SECOND; Let’s give him about 5 – 7 years and see where this ‘beauty’ is. NO amount of BOVINE EXCREMENT is going to hide the fact that this DOUCHE BAG is just THAT. I wouldn’t ‘have’ him even with FOUR bags over his ‘pretty’ face. ROTFLMFAO !!!!!!
JJMNY
This guy is an effin tool.
Cam
Two comments…
1. The fact that his greatest goal in life is to be a fashion model is just kind of sad.
2. He isn’t gay…but he is having sex with a wealthy older man who takes care of him.
Well ok then, if you aren’t gay then you can’t even pretend it’s a relationship, that means you are 100% a prostitute. Thanks for clearing that up Nick.
Kathukid
Gay for Pay. Calvin, there is no fool like an old fool.
Stache1
@TheMarc: Now you know why he has such hatred towards google and complains of living in a fish bowl. That shit catches up to you no matter what.
Stache1
@Cam: According to Nick per the article..”love knows no gender”. He just fell in love with Calvin as only a straight man can do. Lol
Cam
@Stache1:
LOL!!! I think I can hear you rolling your eyes through my computer screen.
Spike
This kid really much know how to tie CK up and abuse him other wise why would he bother?
CAxlRose
Someone airbrushed the FUCK out of the pic above, because this exact story ran on HuffPost and the pic they used of Gruber was a LOT less flattering. When I saw the pic in the HuffPost piece I thought: “Damn! A 37-year-old boytoy? Only in America!”
Come to find out he’s only 23. I don’t know whether it was drugs or the weight of the world on his precious little shoulders but he looks deplorable for his age! I thought the whole “twink” thing centered on skinny, early-20-something gays who look like they just graduated high school in June.
Gruber looks old enough to remember where he was when the Challenger exploded, when he wasn’t even born yet.
Lay off the meth, kids!
Oh and Gruber—get a fucking job. Weren’t you trying to be a reality TV star? After that failed, weren’t you trying to write a tell-all about your totally-not-gay-relationship with your sugar grandaddy? Then CK swooped in with his lawyers and his checkbook and paid you off, thus proving the old adage that every lowlife has a price….and now you wanna be a model?
Translation: You’ll be using your high-powered publicist to go to the press every 8 months with your latest get-famous-quick scheme, which of course is nonsensical and futile since: 1) You have no absolutely no discernible skills whilst fully clothed; 2) You’re gonna get some rich old queen to pay your way anyway. But it doesn’t matter because: 3) You’re a press junkie and in your deluded mind getting recognized in public as CK’s ex-whore is better than not being recognized at all.
I have a better idea, you Pretty Young Thing. Since you’re only 23 and DADT is deader than your career prospects, why not re-enlist?
LadyL
@CAxlRose: LOL–First Prize!
*
Honestly, guys, I don’t know what’s been more entertaining–reading this laughable, lunatic story… or the waterfall of commentary snark that followed!
Cheers, everyone!
jmmartin
I hate to tell him this, almost everyone in the world assumes ALL fashion models are queer.
Bisexual-Transwoman
@Spike: Heh I also have heard that C K is a bottom.
martinbakman
@LadyL: I was thinking how this article struck a nerve (tho’ in my humdrum world I can’t understand why). Nevertheless, cheers Queerty.