Hollywood player's fling with straight men drinking mixed gin (7,8)
I believe the answer is:
casting director
'hollywood' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'player's fling with straight men drinking mixed gin' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'fling' could be 'cast' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'cast' is present in the answer.
'straight' could be 'direct' (similar in meaning) and 'direct' is present in the answer.
'men' could be 'or' (military abbreviation for Other Ranks) and 'or' is located in the answer.
an anagram of 'gin' is 'ing' which is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for casting director that I've seen before include "Film executive" , "I assign players roles" .)