Oh, I know! I am actually now watching the extra features on the Ben-Hur DVD where Gore Vidal tells it all quite openly. I actually bought the DVD and re-watched the most important parts of it (for the slash relationship) in order to write this piece of fic for woelfle's very, very favourite slash pairing.

And it's in "Celluloid Closet" as well.

But I didn't know about Heston's belated denial. It rings very true, though, with the fanatical old man we meet in "Bowling for Columbine".