Curb Your Transsexualism?

So I was flipping through the onscreen TV guide and the summary for an upcoming episode of "Inside Edition" was "A model shares her experience as a transsexual" -- so of course I set my DVR to tape it. My first thought was that it was probably going to be about that nearly (in)famous tranny who supposedly worked undetected as a model in the '80s, appearing in the "Some Like It Hot" video by the Power Station.

Much to my surprise, the segment was on one of New York City's (Tranny) Finest: Miss Candis Cayne. If you've ever been part of the New York nightlife scene, then you've seen Candis Cayne perform: she's gorgeous and those legs! Cyd Charisse, eat your heart out.

But then to my even bigger surprise, they never referred to her by her "real" name, opting for the less campy first-name-only identification "Candis." Although the piece was very flattering and even featured her twin brother (who knew?), her handsome husband, Marco, and their daughter (from a previous relationship of Marco's), it really struck me as disingenuous the way the producers deliberately shied away from who Candis Cayne really is (or at least was): New York's premier transgendered performer. Instead, they played up her mainstream acting and modeling credits (hence the description above), and showed her quiet life living in a nice house in suburban Pleasantville, N.J. Perhaps "Inside Edition" was hoping to avoid exploiting Candis and wanted to leave her drag queen East Village roots out of the story to play up the "Trannies Are Just Like Us" angle of it all (and really, aren't they?), but it really felt like they were trying to clean up a story that didn't need any cleansing.

The biggest eye-opener of this story, for me at least, was realizing Candis' striking resemblance to Larry David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" wife, Cheryl Hines --who, I might add, is one beautiful woman herself (almost as gorgeous as Miss Candis Cayne!) ...