Federal Gay Marriage Challenge Has Hollywood Style
A handful of political filmmakers led by a Democratic consultant have crafted a gay rights challenge they hope will reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
The case which has its first hearing in a federal San Francisco court on July 2 could quickly make gay marriage a national right, or, some veteran gay rights advocates fear, cripple the movement.
The team has political experience, winning referenda in California in particular, and has brought together real-world firepower in the form of Ted Olson and David Boies, the lawyers who faced off in the 2000 election vote recount that led to George W. Bush’s presidency.
What sets them apart is the willingness to take on a court case that advocates steeped in the cause have avoided.
“Patience is a virtue I’ve quite frankly never possessed — if patience is a virtue,” said Chad Griffin, 35, who began his career in the political big leagues more than a decade ago as the youngest person to work on a president’s West Wing staff.
“History is on our side, law is on our side,” added Griffin, who is gay.
Rob Reiner, the “When Harry Met Sally” director and advocate for children’s health, and Bruce Cohen, the producer of “Milk,” a film about the first openly gay elected politician in California, are two of the six-member board of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, founded for the court challenge.
HIGH STAKES
Despite losses in California courts and at the ballot box, gay rights advocates have made major strides in recent months with marriage and domestic partner rights in a number of states, especially in the Northeast.
President Barack Obama’s Justice Department this week argued in a federal case against recognizing same-sex marriage, but Obama on Wednesday extended some federal rights to gay partners of federal workers in what he called a first step to end discrimination against gays and lesbians.
The federal judiciary is widely seen as conservative, and gay rights movement leaders have argued that a gradual approach to change public opinion and win in states would be crucial preparation for a challenge in the Supreme Court, which gauges public opinion in such morality-linked cases.
But with a swing vote in the nine-member Supreme Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy, already ruling in favor of gays in two important cases — and no signs of court conservatives retiring soon — the Los Angeles-based filmmaker group decided to act.
“You get into the habit, which I think is a good one, of going for it,” said Cohen. “From the political world we bring the knowledge that there is no such thing as a sure thing. From the Hollywood world, everything is a one in a million chance.”
Gays and their allies were astounded when California, considered trendsetter for social change, ended a summer of legal same-sex marriage last November by passing Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment that limited marriage to man-and-woman couples. The state’s top court, which opened the way to gay marriage last year backed the ban in late May.
Griffin, expecting the state court’s rebuff, had been talking to friends who led him to one of the most conservative lawyers in the land — Olson, who won Bush his presidency. But Olson passionately believed gays should be able to marry and believed the lawsuit, arguing Prop 8 was unconstitutional on equal rights and due process bases, could win.
“Half way through that conversation I realized that I was perhaps sitting across from someone who, if we decided to proceed, could become one of the most eloquent, important spokespeople in this movement for equality,” Griffin said.
Olson suggested to Griffin that he work with David Boies, who represented former Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in the landmark Supreme Court case that led to Bush’s presidency.
Jarrett Barrios, incoming president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said the pair could help his cause. “It’s transcending politics and where we can transcend the politics of blue and red we will achieve full equality,” he said.
But long-time national gay marriage advocates are wary of the lawsuit.
“The lawsuit has been filed. We all have an interest in it going as well as possible,” said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry. “The best way is to win more states and to continue moving more hearts and minds,” he said.
A loss could mean years before the Supreme Court revisited same-sex marriage, even if societal attitudes change. Moreover, an opinion backing marriage for only heterosexual couples could cause a backlash against gays in other legal fights.
It could take a couple of years for the case to wind its way up to the Supreme Court, which also could refuse to hear it. In the mean time, the public debate led by the super-lawyers may help the gay marriage cause.
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Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/06/18/arts/entertainment-us-gaymarriage-hollywood.html
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Woody Allen Eyes Carla Bruni For Film Role
Woody Allen would like to use France’s first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy for a film role, the U.S. director told RTL radio on Thursday.”I’m sure she would be wonderful,” he said through a translator. “She’s got charisma, she’s already acted so she’s not unknown to an audience. There are a lot of ways I could use her though I don’t have a story for her at the moment,” he said.
“But I’ll certainly talk to her about it and I’ll ask her if she’s interested.”
Bruni-Sarkozy, one of the world’s top models before starting a career as a singer and marrying President Nicolas Sarkozy last year, has appeared briefly on the big screen, playing herself in Robert Altman’s 1994 fashion satire “Pret-a-Porter.”
Allen, whose latest film “Whatever Works” comes out on French screens next month, plans to shoot a film in Paris next year, RTL said.
Something of a specialist in creating roles for women, he made Diane Keaton a star with “Annie Hall” in 1977 and has since worked with actresses ranging from his former wife Mia Farrow to Mira Sorvino and Scarlett Johansson.
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Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/06/18/arts/entertainment-us-allen-bruni.html
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Dress the Set With Tears: It’s a Wrap
A sign of the recession: 20th Century Props is set to close.
The rattan sofa from “The Golden Girls” awaits its next role from a shelf deep inside the 20th Century Props warehouse here. Nearby is the futuristic shower Tom Cruise used in “Minority Report” and an armchair that starred with Marilyn Monroe in multiple films. Overhead: Art Deco chandeliers from “The Aviator.”
On Tuesday, Harvey Schwartz stood amid it all, in tears, wondering how his prop shop, which offers a vast inventory of items to be used in film and television productions, became the latest victim of a rapidly changing Hollywood.
Mr. Schwartz, the owner of 20th Century Props, plans to go out of business next month and auction the inventory. Battered by the surge in out-of-state movie production and the demise of scripted programming on network television, the once-thriving business — one of a handful of its type remaining — is failing.
“I ran out of money three months ago, and I don’t know what else to do,” he said softly. “It’s terrifying. I’ve devoted my entire life to something that is over.”
Set decorators are equally upset. “The closing of 20th Century is a disaster for us,” said Melinda Ritz, who won three Emmy Awards for her work on “Will & Grace.” “Harvey is a great person, and it’s one fewer place that offers one-stop shopping.” She added, “The fabric of Hollywood is fraying so fast that it’s scary.”
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Battered by the surge in out-of-state movie production and the demise of scripted programming on network television, the once-thriving business — one of a handful of its type remaining — is failing.
Harvey Schwartz, owner of 20th Century Props, with a morgue tray used in “The X-Files.”
These chandeliers were made in a week for the film “Miracle on 34th Street.”
In the foreground is a desk that once belonged to Howard Hughes, used in the film about his life, “The Aviator.”
A scaled down version of Air Force One that was used in “Independence Day.”
This oversize champagne glass was used by Beyonce in one of her performances.
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Not long ago all movie and television studios operated their own prop houses. A dozen independent companies did a brisk business filling in the gaps — an unusual medical device here, a 1960s-era radio there. Outside prop suppliers like 20th Century also handled commercials and period needs (Mr. Schwartz has a large inventory of Art Deco items) along with special events like lavishly decorated premiere parties.
Studios started gutting their prop departments in the 1990s to free space on their lots. Mr. Schwartz’s inventory — at last count 93,752 items, ranging from teacups to a life-size submarine — includes the former holdings of 20th Century Fox, for instance. Walt Disney and Paramount have also jettisoned their props divisions. (Sony, Universal and Warner Brothers are the holdouts, and they’re open to outside clients.)
Independents like Mr. Schwartz and Omega Cinema Props stayed healthy — despite runaway production and the rise of reality television — largely because of special-events divisions. Such events made up a third of the revenue at 20th Century Props just two years ago, Mr. Schwartz said.
But the recession has turned off that spigot. Add in a strike last year by movie and television writers and a continued slowdown in production caused by a threatened actors’ strike, and 20th Century Props could no longer stay afloat.
Mr. Schwartz said annual revenue was off by 30 percent last year; so far this year the figure is closer to 50 percent. He said he has been seeking a way to keep the collection together — via an investor or a sale to another prop company — but has so far come up short. The business had 28 employees at the beginning of the year; now it has 7.
“I’m a dinosaur, I guess,” Mr. Schwartz said.
Great American Group will liquidate the company’s inventory during the last week of July. The holdings are insured for about $8 million, but the value of many of the props is difficult to pin down because of the premium that memorabilia collectors will likely pay for better-known items.
“He’s got a collector’s eye and has developed an inventory unlike anybody else’s,” Ms. Ritz said of Mr. Schwartz. “He’s got quirky, interesting pieces.”
Mr. Schwartz is a bit quirky himself. Trained as an aerospace engineer, he decided to go into the furniture business in the early 1970s, opening a small store near Beverly Hills and CBS Television City, a cluster of studios that is now home to shows like “American Idol.”
He developed a fondness for rattan (“Among other reasons, it was furniture I could lift by myself,” he said) and became an expert. He was an author of a 1999 book titled “Rattan Furniture: Tropical Comfort Throughout the House.” He favors his shirts unbuttoned to about midchest and has a habit of hanging his reading glasses there.
“I’m a little bit bananas, I know,” he said.
Walking through the 200,000-square-foot warehouse, which is hunkered amid a smattering of auto repair shops and porno stores in this seedy San Fernando Valley suburb, Mr. Schwartz comes off as the curator of a museum that just happens to rent out its treasures.
“Beyoncé has danced in this,” he said, motioning to a giant plastic Champagne glass. “See that chair way back there? Claudette Colbert sat in that in ‘Cleopatra,’ the 1934 version.” He paused to point out curved desks used at Ewing Oil on “Dallas” — he’s not certain if J. R. sat at one of them — and led a visitor through a maze of macabre items (jars filled with pickled piglets) to the spot where the morgue from “The X-Files” awaits another adventure.
Some of 20th Century’s holdings are antiques with famous provenances outside of the movies. For instance Mr. Schwartz claims to have Merv Griffin’s office chair and a giant Art Deco desk once owned by Howard Hughes (and subsequently used in “The Aviator”).
What are the most frequently rented items? Certain dining room chairs have gone out more than 500 times, Mr. Schwartz said. Also popular: a heart-shaped bed, which rents about twice a month. “We don’t ask too many questions with that one,” he said.
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Full article and photos: http://nytimes.com/2009/06/18/movies/18props.html
Cervantes 