Last year, Rolling Stone published a detailed account of Matrix co-director Larry Wachowski’s fascinating personal life, as the filmmaker fell in with a high-profile Los Angeles dominatrix named Ilsa Strix and began dressing as a woman, taking on the name Lana. The pair appeared together at the 2003 premiere of The Matrix Reloaded, a film that was criticized for trading action sequences for sentimal religiosity. “Some in Hollywood put all this down to sophomore slump,” writes Peter Wilkinson. “Others saw a different reason: Larry Wachowski’s mind was elsewhere. Says a bondage-world source, ‘Larry was totally concentrating on Ilsa.’”

As both parties’ marriages began to crumble in the wake of Wachowski and Strix’s relationship, the two hit Cannes together, where Wachowski’s “face looked feminized; his eyebrows were plucked, he wore large teardrop earrings, and a knit cap covered his head. His fingernails were manicured. … The press, including columnist Liz Smith, reported that Larry might be taking female hormones, in anticipation of sex-change surgery.” This week rumors began to fly that Wachowski had indeed completed this operation, and that he commited to an interview on Dateline NBC to explain the situation. A spokesperson for Dateline tells Rolling Stone that no such interview has been scheduled, and Fox News’ Roger Friedman reports today that Larry Wachowski is still Larry Wachowski (and shooting the live-action Speed Racer film in Germany). To revisit Rolling Stone’s in-depth story, click here.