Is this true? Bob Hope leaves in his will $$$ for Gay group?

[romantico]

On the radio,they just said Bob Hope in his will gave a large sum of money to a gay organazation.They also said he was a supporter for gay causes for years because his son is gay.If this is true,I admire him even more.Just because he was a Repub he wasn't preasured into doing everything they would have wanted.The Dj said this is just breaking he has no link,but said someone emailed it to him from Rueters.

What do you think? True or BS?If I find a link, I will be sure to post it!

[CMT]

1. haven't heard anything about it . If it is true I'm sure it would be

widely reported. My guess is that his charitable contributions would be to the USO. If it is true--it is wonderful.

[romantico]

3. link

http://www2.commercialcloset.org/cgi-bin/iowa/portrayals.html?record=794&searchwords=BOB,HOPE

Not to him giving money, but still reading this makes me now wonder that the above story may in fact be true!

[SoCalDem]

2. From Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/work/careers/2003/08/04/cz_pn_0804hopeedit.html

Bob Hope: Just Another Centimillionaire
Peter Newcomb, 08.04.03, 12:00 PM ET

With the passing of Bob Hope last week, reports of the comedian's immense wealth are flying once again. "As much as $500 million," reported the St. Petersburg Times. "$400 million to $700 million," declared The Dallas Morning News. Fox News Channel's Terry Keenan said, "You can bet it is in the hundreds of millions, perhaps maybe $1 billion."

So just how much was Leslie Townes Hope worth? Many of the estimates being kicked around are based on a Time magazine story from 1967 that said the comedian owned "8,000 acres in Palm Springs, 4,000 to 5,000 acres near Phoenix, more than 7,500 acres in Malibu," and more. Hope was thought to have enough land to make a principality nearly 50 times the size of Monaco, with just as fine a climate.

In 1983 Forbes placed Hope on the Forbes 400, with an estimated net worth of $200 million. But Hope thought the estimate a gross exaggeration. Shortly after publication, he issued Forbes a challenge: "If my estate is worth over $50 million, I'll kiss your ass. I mean that."

We took him up on the challenge (though it wasn't the best deal in town). Reporter Richard Behar spent weeks tracking down Mr. Hope's land holdings. After consulting with a handful of real estate brokers and land appraisers (as well as poring over reams of county tax records) all we could find was about 8,600 acres, much of it inhospitable canyon land. For all the talk of Hope's massive real estate portfolio, it turned out to be just another Hollywood myth.

By the mid-1980s Mr. Hope, then in his 80s, was already tidying up his estate and liquidating much of his property in an orderly manner. Forbes ultimately estimated his remaining land holdings to be worth just $85 million. Throw in another $30 million he had in miscellaneous investments and you arrive at a net worth of $115 million--not quite the $200 million we had estimated a year earlier, but more than enough to collect on Mr. Hope's bet.

He never paid up.