George Clooney: “Gay and lesbian people are born equal in dignity and rights”
Superstar George Clooney came out in support of gay and lesbian rights as he became the first actor to accept a role in Dustin Lance Black’s Los Angeles production of “8,” which reenacts the courtroom drama of the Proposition 8 trial.
READ:Â On Our Radar – Dustin Lance Black And “8”
“It is astonishing that gay and lesbian Americans are still treated as second-class citizens,” Clooney said. “I am confident that, very soon, the laws of this nation will reflect the basic truth that gay and lesbian people — like all human beings — are born equal in dignity and rights.”
The Huffington Post adds that the “Oscar-winning actor will appear in the one night only event on March 3rd at LA’s Wilshire Ebell Theatre, leading an as of yet unnamed cast of co-stars in a Rob Reiner-directed production.”
Black, who won an Oscar for writing “Milk” and penned this year’s “J. Edgar,” produced a version of the play in New York City that starred Morgan Freeman, Ellen Barkin, John Lithgow and 18 other stars. The drama centers on the defense of gay marriage pressed by former Solicitor General Theodore Olson and attorney David Boies, onetime political rivals who came together to fight the ban in federal court.
Featuring a cast in directors chairs and a barebones set, the play is more of a script reading, a representation of a trial that did not have its transcripts made public at first by the federal court.
Clooney has devoted a good deal of time to humanitarian causes, like resolving the Darfur conflict, and opposing the Iraq War.
In September, “8” played in New York and starred Morgan Freeman, John Lithgow, Bradley Whitford Christine Lahti, Anthony Edwards, and Rob Reiner played witnesses. (Rob Reiner is a co-​founder of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the sole sponsor of the Olsen-​Boies federal court Prop 8 challenge.)
Image: Clooney at a 2007 press conference
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