and those were the ones I needed to live by. I needed to figure out what I valued. When I did, that's when my career began."

The obligations of newly minted stardom include photo shoots like the one the next day in the Toronto studio of photographer Chris Chapman. In between shots, Paige does handstand pushups. Feet against the wall, arms extended, palms flat on the floor he pumps the muscles of his chest and shoulders as adeptly as any Calvin Klein model. He is shirtless, his muscular alabaster torso rising from a pair of trashy black leather pants selected by a stylist The makeup artist has smoothed and buffed the skin of his face, highlighting the wide planes of his cheekbones. He looks like a star today, lit by both the studio lights and the sunlight streaming through the dirty industrial glass of the studio windows.

"It's very flattering," says Paige in response to a question about how he deals with his new, higher profile. For years he went out dancing to get cruised, to be noticed. Now the experience is double-edged. "It's an incredibly vulnerable feeling as well," he adds. "They have a lot of information about who I am and what I do, and I literally have no idea who they are, so it's a very uneven playing field."

Although both of his parents were supportive of him when he came out, he says, “There are likely various elements" to his mother's take on the show: "There is seeing your son's success, seeing your son get semifamous, seeing your son become a poster boy for alternative sexuality - and other things that parents and kids aren't supposed to feel comfortable talking about. She's expressed real pride in my candor and in my lack of apology."

For Paige personally, the as-yet-un-defended border is the line not between who he was then and is now but between who he is and who - and what - he is perceived to be. How it will affect his primary relationship, the one with his boyfriend, is anybody's guess and likely nobody's business. Lately the two have spent more time apart than Paige considers healthy. "Of course it puts stress on the relationship," he says softly. "I think the notion that any two people can be apart for nine months and not have it be a challenge is absurd."

And Paige realizes he won't be returning to Los Angeles as the anonymous actor he was when he left in July 2000. "I know [my boyfriend] has concerns about what it will be like for us to go out and not have it be what it was. I don t