Hudson Getting French Drug for AIDS : Rock Hudson Gets HPA-23 in AIDS Fight

Rock Hudson is being treated with the experimental drug HPA-23 developed by scientists at the Institut Pasteur to combat AIDS, the deadly disease that breaks down the body’s immune system, officials said today.

It was the first confirmation of the treatment being given Hudson, who flew to France to seek special treatment for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The actor’s spokeswoman announced Thursday that Hudson had the usually fatal disease for more than a year. (Story, Page 3.)

“Doctors from Pasteur are treating Hudson, following the treatment of HPA-23, the French drug that stops reproduction of the virus cells,” said a high-level institute doctor who declined to be identified.

Hudson spokeswoman Anne Caroline, today said that the 59-year-old actor was doing well.

She said there was no information on where he contracted the disease, which affects mostly homosexual men and intravenous drug users.

“We have no idea how he got AIDS,” she said. “I have no idea if he knows how he got it.”

The San Francisco Chronicle said Hudson had long been reported to be homosexual and quoted former Chronicle columnist Armistead Maupin as saying in 1976 he suggested to Hudson that he publicly discuss being gay.

“Rock seemed to take to the idea and said, ‘One of these days I’m going to have a lot to tell,’ ” Maupin told the newspaper. “I thought it would be a good idea because he was exactly the same in private life as on the screen--very masculine and natural.”

Maupin said: “Rock had learned his lesson well in Hollywood. And he played by those rules. Those rules say that you keep quiet about (being gay and) everyone will lie about it for you. The gossip columnists will make up girlfriends for you and everyone in Hollywood will know you’re gay--except the public.”

Another San Francisco friend, Ken Maley, said Hudson’s 1955 marriage to Phyllis Gates was arranged by Hollywood studio executives after a fan magazine privately threatened to expose his homosexuality.

“The studio arranged the whole wedding--the publicity, the honeymoon, everything,” Maley told the Chronicle. “He frequently said he was bitter about it.”

Gates filed for divorce in 1958, charging Hudson caused her “grievous mental distress, suffering and anguish.”