Somewhere in New York magazine’s first-ever Men’s Style Issue, there’s a photo of Troye Sivan, soaking wet, eyes closed, hands in his hair. The man standing behind him emptying a blue bucket over his head is Sam Nivola – the White Lotus heartthrob who has said on the record that he’s straight.
It’s one frame from “The Boys in the Baths,” a portfolio shot by photographer Ryan McGinley at the Russian & Turkish Baths on East 10th Street, the East Village’s last surviving bathhouse.
The magazine brought in 19 men and put them in towels, swim briefs and designer shorts. About half are openly queer, and most of the others have wives or girlfriends, which makes for a pretty interesting steam room.
The Straight Guy With The Bucket
If you watched the third season of The White Lotus, you know Sam. He played Lochlan Ratliff, the youngest son in the family, and yes, he was in that scene with his on-screen brother, Patrick Schwarzenegger.
Sam, who turned 23 last week, is the son of actors Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola. He has been dating Iris Apatow since 2024. And when Variety asked him about that kiss, he said it felt odd because Patrick is a good friend: “And, you know, I’m straight, he’s straight. It’s already weird.”
He’s also a regular at the Baths. Sam told the magazine about sitting in the Russian room with his friend Maya Hawke in a silent contest to see who could stand the heat longest: “It was like, Who’s gonna break first? And neither of us was saying anything about it.”
Next up for him is Hulu’s Phony, opposite Connie Britton, on October 20. In the meantime, his solo shot from the shoot, in a felt sauna hat and striped shorts, is doing numbers:
Troye, Soaked And Newly A New Yorker
Troye, 31, has been openly gay since his 2013 coming-out video. According to the magazine, he had just moved to New York when the shoot happened around Labor Day.
He’s also in the middle of an album rollout. His new single “Party,” which samples Madonna’s “Music,” came out on September 17, and the album She’s the Best follows on October 9.
“I would say, in general, my new album is not coming from a place of peace. I think it’s coming from a place of longing,” he told the magazine. “There’s a lot of manifestation on the album, where I write these love songs to this guy I don’t know.”
The photos people keep passing around, though, are the ones with Sam. Here are the two of them with buckets on their heads, the bucket moment itself, and a bonus shot in matching sauna hats:
Who’s Out, Who’s Not
We sorted the lineup going only by what each man has said or made public himself:
- Openly queer: Troye, Brandon Flynn, Isaac Cole Powell, playwright Jeremy O. Harris, Booker-shortlisted novelist Marlon James, Boots actors Jack Cameron Kay and Angus O’Brien, performance artist Miles Greenberg and Elliot Page, who describes himself as a queer trans man.
- Wives, girlfriends and partners: Sam, Christopher Abbott (who welcomed a baby with Aubrey Plaza this summer), Gilded Age actor Ben Ahlers, choreographer Justin Peck, artist Rashid Johnson, writer Eddie Huang and painter Francesco Clemente, who used to come here with Jean-Michel Basquiat in the ’80s.
- No public label: Mike Faist and musicians Del Water Gap and Porches. We’re not going to guess for them.
The East Of Eden Brothers Share A Bench
The pairing with the best timing is Mike and Christopher, who play brothers Charles and Adam Trask in Netflix’s East of Eden. All seven episodes drop this Thursday, October 1, with Florence Pugh as Cathy.
Mike, the Challengers and West Side Story star, told the magazine he once watched a video of another actor doing a monologue he was preparing, and decided he’d “just steal what this guy’s doing.”
“It was Chris Abbott, who ends up being my brother in East of Eden,” he said.
Christopher’s take on working with him: “It’s like being at war but no one’s really getting hurt.”
Here they are, towels and all:
Fun footnote: Christopher already had a stage brother this year. He played Biff to Ben Ahlers’ Happy in the Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman, and now they’ve both turned up at the same bathhouse.
“Naked Church” And Socks In The Steam Room
The Baths still keeps men-only hours on Sundays and Thursdays, and New York magazine notes they “have become gay meetups.”
Brandon, the 13 Reasons Why star who married playwright Jordan Tannahill in 2024, is a Sunday regular.
“I live really close and come on Sundays,” he said. “It kind of feels parallel to a church experience. It’s like naked church.”
Isaac, who played Tony in the Broadway West Side Story, called the bathhouse “the great equalizer,” adding: “You have to be radically comfortable with everything about your body here.”
Here he is by the pool with Del Water Gap and Brandon:
Jeremy had a complaint about the straight guys – just not the ones in this shoot. He wants an end to “young men who are obviously sort of like on a no-homo tip, very much in finance, wearing full socks and shoes in the steam room with their gym shorts.”
Watch The Boys Behind The Scenes
The photos are only half of it. Ryan posted a 96-second behind-the-scenes video tagging all 19 men, set to Troye’s “Party”:
And Yes, Elliot Page Is There Too
Most outlets led with Elliot this week. His own contribution is sweetly low-key – he’s a bathhouse newcomer: “I went to a bathhouse recently. I’ve only in the past couple of years been like, Yeah, that sounds nice, to like go somewhere and sit around in your body like that.”
He also revealed his shower song. It’s Cher: “‘Do you believe in life after love?’ That’s one I’ll belt out.”
Want to see everyone? New York magazine’s own carousel has 12 photos from the shoot. Swipe through the whole steam room:
The magazine sums up the Baths’ history as the émigré years, the gay years, the Mafia years and the flophouse years. With this crowd on the benches, the gay years look like they’re back – and the straight boys are welcome, as long as they bring a bucket.