Made for TV Movies: December 2006 Archives

OK, so you are a regular reader of Out in Hollywood and already know that my two favorite topics the last few weeks have been "Dreamgirls" (I got an email from one reader today saying 'Enough already!") and the A&E movie "Wedding Wars."
Anyway, if you live in LA or New York, you can see "Dreamgirls" as soon as Friday while the rest of you will have to wait until Christmas Day. But if you missed Monday night's airing of "Wedding Wars" starring John Stamos and Eric Dane, have no fear. Here are the dates and times for future airings:

Friday, Dec. 15: 8 a.m. EST, 2 p.m. EST.
Saturday, Dec. 16: 10 p.m. EST.
Sunday, Dec. 17: 2 a.m. EST, Noon EST

Obviously, for those of us on the West Coast, subtract three hours and ENJOY!!!.

It was nice to be able to watch A&E's "Wedding Wars" starring John Stamos and Eric Dane on a big screen at The Arclight last night at the premiere co-hosted by GLAAD. My friend Michael and I got in late since I was out doing red carpet interviews so we had no choice but to sit in the very front row. Good thing about the Arclight is that there is no bad seat in the house - the front row is still a good distance from the screen.
The movie is about a gay man (Stamos) who enthusiastically plans his brother's wedding. But shortly before the nuptials (to the daughter of a conservative governor, played by the lovely Bonnie Somerville (pictured, right), he goes on strike after the governor (James Brolin) speaks out against gay marriage.
His brother (Dane) is the governor's speech writer and it somewhat stuck in the middle but is definitely alkso lackiing a sensitivity chip and who at one point, Stamos refers to as "Darth Brother."
Stamos' character is genuinely hurt when he learns that his brother wrote the speech for the governor against gay marriage: "So, it's OK for me to PLAN your wedding, not OK for me to have my own?"
Stamos starts picketing the governor's mansion and at first looks silly: "1,2,3,4, Don't you close that closet door! 5,6,7,8, open up the marraige gate!" But after awhile, he gets more articulate and confident: "Why can my brother get married and I can't? If you don't treat people equally, this essentially stops being America." He starts to get national attention and his strike leads to a nationwide "Day Without A Mexican" scenario, only with gays, where gay people go on strike and life as we know it comes to a halt.
Stamos is terrific as a gay man on-screen. He just delivers his lines so effortlessly and wonderfully with a gay man's flair but not over the top. In the early scenes when he is walking around the govenor's mansion with definite ideas about what to do for the wedding, he was terrific. And when he's supervising his future sister-in-law's hairstyling, he says: "No Farrah Fawcett! Give us a little Jaclyn Smith!" And when he learns he won't be his brother's best man: "If I can't be the most important man at the wedding, at least I'll have the best pecs."
But also terrific were the scenes between Stamos and Dane whose conflicts are not resolved easily. They sing together, the argue, they physicially fight, they play pranks.
And while Stamos is fighting for the right to get married, the movie also shows him as a flawed person who has not even come out to his parents despite being in a live-in relationship with an extraordinarily handsome federal prosecutor played well by Sean Maher (pictured, right).
But both the brothers grow as people in the film and in the end, when Shel (Stamos) says, "I'm not the same person I was before," you believe him. and after the governor refuses to change his anti-marriage stance, Shel tells his supporters: "We may have lost the battle but in my heart,. I know we'll win the war...and we're going to make marriage stronger and more beautiful than ever."

Some other points: Much has been made (especially by me!) over the two kisses between Stamos and Maher. Well, they were just brief smooches, kisses like gay man who are close but platonic friends give each other as a greeting. So, it was not very steamy and far more sexy was the scene at the wedding reception when the two men are dancing together. THAT was hot because they looked so in love. The actors are all strong and make the movie quite watchable and not really heavy-handed. Another treat, you get to hear Stamos sing an old Michael Jackson song (from the days when he still had his original nose) and let me say, Stamos sings one helluva number. I hope he goes back to Broadway soon, once the season of "ER" wraps.
Anyway, with same-sex marriage such an important right for gays and lesbians and such a political hot potato for most politicians who are driven by polls and not their own values, I'm glad to see a movie like "Wedding Wars" get made and that it was able to attract top-flight talent. Directed by Jim Fall, it is executive produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, the team behind the screen adaptations of "Chicago" and "Hairspray," and all deserve major kudos for getting the movie made and for doing such a first-rate job.