Marcus Pierce – known to the community as Lance Leopard – tragically passed away in Brisbane last week, along with his mother Carmel. Lance was a well-known member of Sydney’s LGBTQI+ community and was a whipsmart and brilliant columnist for Star Observer in the 1990s. Star Observer mourns the loss of this community icon, and we send our deepest condolences to all of us who loved him.
SOCIETY SCRIBE’S SLEAZE SECRET by Dominic O’Grady (former Sydney Star editor) Lance Leopard, love child of Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward, was a terrible singer but a fabulous entertainer who wrote for the Star and Capital Q about life as a raffish man-about-town. He was a confidante and bon vivant with a taste for cravats and martinis. Lance pronounced the word beautiful with four syllables, like a true homosexual connoisseur.
He was the people’s columnist who wanted to be queen of hearts, if only he could wrestle that crown from 1997’s real Queen of Hearts, the adorable Chelsea Bun. “I must be able to find some dirt to discredit her”, Lance wrote, “ and present it in a way that makes me come out smelling like a rose”. “You know me – if I see a dog, I’ll pat it.
If I encounter a baby, I’ll hug it. If I see a ribbon, I’ll cut it. And if you hand me a glass – by God – I’ll drink it.
That’s polite. Because I don’t really like champagne. You didn’t know that, did you? Well, now you do.
“My secrets are your secrets. And I’ll let you in on a big one. I don.
