this is my vote for reading Puig's novel, The Kiss of the Spider Woman. Leni R. figures tangentially, as her name is used for the femme fatale hero in a Nazi propaganda film much loved for its shmaltz by Molina, the gay character, and much loathed for its politics by the "straight" Marxist character, Valentin. Puig, I think, makes an elegant argument for our final inability to 1) separate politics and aesthetics, and 2) say that they are absolutely inseparable. How's that for walking a line? Oh, it's a wonderfully complex and sensitive book (and very different from Babenco's film adaptation of it). Check it out! Susan Crutchfield