Gridlock will greet homebound Angelenos as Barack “Same sex couples should be able to get married…but I support the concept of states deciding the issue on their own” Obama makes his way to one of George Clooney’s palatial homes for a celebrity and high-donor filled event. The Los Angeless Police Department to residents of Fryman Canyon to stay home all day or make other plans, and whole business areas have “no parking” signs. The traffic situation is so bad it’s been dubbed Starmageddon, but hey, it’s expected to raise $15 million for Obama.

Obummer’s  calculated personal decision to support marriage equality (the day after North Carolina voted against it) is also expected to raise money. Oscar winning writer Dustin Lance Black, who previously was so angered by the President’s lack of action on LGBT issues that he spoke about sitting out this election (bad idea, everyone should go to the polls and vote for their local ticket!), is thinking about holding an all-star LGBT fundraiser for Obama and  said

I am moving from a position of little enthusiasm to a position of strong support, and that means you will see me contributing financially and repeating my efforts of 2008 by knocking on doors in states where he wants me to knock on doors. When you ask for something big and you get it, you have to show your gratitude.

Obama is the first Democratic president since Harry Truman to assert state’s rights. Dustin, please research what that phrase actually means. Because it kinda sucks. Massively.

photo 1 and 2: screen shots “Falling Down”

photo 3: screen shot: “Hollyscoop”

photo 4: Zazzle.com

You read FDL’s liveblogging of Prop 8 trial, now see the play!

“8″ Dustin Lance Black’s play about the Proposition 8 California Supreme Court trial directed by Rob Reiner will feature Brad Pitt as Judge Walker, George Clooney as David Boies and Martin Sheen as Theodore B. Olson, and will be livestreamed on YouTube from its reading at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles.The ticketed performance is a benefit for Americans for Equal Rights. AFER was responsible for putting together the plaintiffs’ team of  Boies and Olsen, the renowned attorneys who  faced-off in Bush v. Gore.

As Karen Ocamb points out in LGBTPOV/Frontiers:

With the 9^th Circuit’s decision not to release the District Court tapes of the Perry v Brown trial – after which Judge Vaughn Walker declared Prop 8 unconstitutional – this becomes a critical vehicle to get the word out about what actually happened during the trial, apart from the spin from Protect Marriage

From AFER’s press release:

The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) and Broadway Impact are pleased to announce the addition of Golden Globe-winner and Academy and Emmy Award-nominee Brad Pitt to the cast of the West Coast premiere reading of the play “8.” The reading is an unprecedented account of the Federal District Court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), the case filed by AFER to overturn Proposition 8, which stripped gay and lesbian Californians of the fundamental freedom to marry.

AFER and Broadway Impact are also pleased to announce that the performance will be streamed live on YouTube, beginning at 7:45 p.m. PST.  A pre-show will begin on YouTube at 7:30 p.m. PST.  Rob Reiner, director of Saturday’s performance, recorded a video explaining the reading of the play and inviting people to watch the live stream.  The live stream of the West Coast premiere reading of “8” and Rob Reiner’s video can both be viewed at www.youtube.com/AmericanEqualRights….

Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black’s play 8 covering the Proposition 8 hearings and starring Morgan Freeman, Anthony Edwards, Cheyenne Jackson, Christine Lahti, Rob Reiner, Yeardley Smith and Marisa Tomei hits Broadway on September 19th in a one-time staged reading at the Eugene O’Neil Theater to benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights. Tickets start at $500.

AFER was formed specifically to fund the legal challenge against Proposition 8. A previous fundraiser, featuring a full length concert with Elton John was held earlier this year in Los Angeles.

8 is based on the California Supreme Court trial transcripts, and Milk screenwriter Black, who spent six months writing the play, told the New York Times:

I mined the best arguments on both sides, trying to capture everything on their side that was a winning point and anything on our side that was a winning point.

Luckily Black didn’t have to deal with these kind of arguments found on Facebook.

Wow, what’s next, blaming gays for hurricanes? Oh wait the heterosexual Rick Perry’s buddy/partner in Jesuspalooza, James Hagee has already done that.

8 will also be staged at Carnegie Mellon University, Northwest, and the University of Michigan.

[Thanks, Pam Spaulding for FB tip; h/t OnTopMagazine]

photo: creative commons, Mary McTavish

Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk and the upcoming J Edgar, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as FBI chief Hoover) will adapt Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction book Under the Banner of Heaven for Warner Bros.

Ron Howard is attached to direct factual account of two brothers who–claiming the were following God’s orders–murder the wife and infant daughter of their youngest brother. The family were members of a splinter Mormon group, School of Prophets, which maintained a fundamentalist interpretation of the Book of Mormon, including direct contact with God and polygamy. The book is subtitled

The story of a violent faith

Considering the amount of grief other Christian sects get for their “Ooops!” moments (The DaVinci Code, The Crucible, The Scarlet Letter, Stigmata, and Fraility all come to mind), Mormons should just accept that their dirty laundry is gonna get aired. It’s part of being mainstream….

[HT Deadline]