richard?

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Actually Karen had several boyfriends throughout the 70's. But she had a tough time keeping any around as she was always on the road touring... she even dated a few of the guys that were in the Carpenters' road band.

Her best known boyfriends include David Alley, Terry Ellis (co-founder of Chrysalis Records) and Thomas Bahler (who worked on Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album and wrote the song "She's Out Of My Life", which many have said was written about Karen Carpenter).

http://carponline.proboards21.com/index.cgi

A friend of mine from New York insisted that Karen Carpenter and Olivia Newton-John had a lesbian affair. Actually, in this film, there is a scene (following a description of Karen's friendships with people like Olive) with Karen and a blonde woman kissing each other passionately. Maybe Todd Haynes heard that same Karen/Olivia gay rumor. A lot of the die-hard and obsessive Carpenters fans get very offended when suggestions that Karen might have been gay circulate on the internet, but the rumor seems to pop up every now and then. We'll never really know what went on in Karen's mind or even much about her personal life, or what specific forces/pressures led to her seek solace in the relentless pursuit of thinness.

Richard Carpenter married his first cousin, Mary Rudolph, within a year following Karen's death. Karen was said to have disapproved of their relationship when she was alive. Interestingly, in the authorized biography of the Carpenters, author Ray Coleman never mentions this tidbit. One thing is for sure, though: Richard marrying his cousin is made slightly more disturbing when one considers the many Carpenters album covers with Karen and Richard posing cheek to cheek.

Karen Carpenter is an enigma. This movie raises more questions than answers about her. However, this is not so important in the long-run, since this film is actually more about how a "social disease" like anorexia nervosa can become much more common under the right historical and cultural influences.