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Double Take on Castro Street
San Francisco author Frank Robinson ("Waiting," "The Power") sends along this dispatch from the just-wrapped "Milk," the Harvey Milk biopic directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Sean Penn as the SF supervisor and Josh Brolin as his assassin, Dan White. Robinson worked (sort of) as Milk's speech writer and was asked to play himself.
"I was living on Red Rock Way, on a hill above Castro, working on 'The Glass Inferno' (which became 'The Towering Inferno' as a film). Used to walk down to the Castro for breakfast. Harvey had his camera shop and 'Kid,' his black mutt who would be outside humping anything that was warm and wiggled. I'd stop to pet the dog and fell into conversation with Harvey. I found out he was running for supervisor (a major political office in a major city! The guy was charming but obviously nuts). He found out I was a writer and invited me to join in some speech writing for him. 'It'll be a hoot, we'll stir a lot of shit.' We managed to 'stir a lot of shit' but it didn't become a hoot until they started filming the movie. Now, THAT was a 'hoot'!
"The first chance I got, I ad-libbed a dirty joke on camera and they made me a member of SAG. I have something like 17 scenes, including marches. Have no idea what will end up on screen. I ad-libbed my way through it, except for my one word -- "dogshit!" -- in my last scene. A great crew and literally thousands of extras (open call for the funeral march, etc.). Penn, Brolin, James Franco, Emile Hirsch ('Into the Wild'), Joseph Cross ("Running with Scissors"), etc.
"I read the script by (Dustin) Lance Black twice -- great script, story-teller's script. Should be out in late October. They consider it a political film. My last day, Van Sant gave a little thank-you speech and it was hugs and kisses all around. Penn a love to work with, ditto Franco. I'll really miss it.
"Summary: Van Sant's biggest film and you'll have seen nothing like it. Penn looks EXACTLY like Harvey, slightly shorter and voice somewhat lower. All of us who knew Harvey did a double take. Ditto actor playing Mayor Moscone and actor playing Senator Briggs. Doppelgangers ... ."
Speaking of Portland's own Van Sant: Check out his latest,"Paranoid Park." It's his best work since the Columbine-inspired "Elephant." Mesmerizing, disturbing, deeply felt.
Contact Lovell at glovell@aol.com
"I was living on Red Rock Way, on a hill above Castro, working on 'The Glass Inferno' (which became 'The Towering Inferno' as a film). Used to walk down to the Castro for breakfast. Harvey had his camera shop and 'Kid,' his black mutt who would be outside humping anything that was warm and wiggled. I'd stop to pet the dog and fell into conversation with Harvey. I found out he was running for supervisor (a major political office in a major city! The guy was charming but obviously nuts). He found out I was a writer and invited me to join in some speech writing for him. 'It'll be a hoot, we'll stir a lot of shit.' We managed to 'stir a lot of shit' but it didn't become a hoot until they started filming the movie. Now, THAT was a 'hoot'!
"The first chance I got, I ad-libbed a dirty joke on camera and they made me a member of SAG. I have something like 17 scenes, including marches. Have no idea what will end up on screen. I ad-libbed my way through it, except for my one word -- "dogshit!" -- in my last scene. A great crew and literally thousands of extras (open call for the funeral march, etc.). Penn, Brolin, James Franco, Emile Hirsch ('Into the Wild'), Joseph Cross ("Running with Scissors"), etc.
"I read the script by (Dustin) Lance Black twice -- great script, story-teller's script. Should be out in late October. They consider it a political film. My last day, Van Sant gave a little thank-you speech and it was hugs and kisses all around. Penn a love to work with, ditto Franco. I'll really miss it.
"Summary: Van Sant's biggest film and you'll have seen nothing like it. Penn looks EXACTLY like Harvey, slightly shorter and voice somewhat lower. All of us who knew Harvey did a double take. Ditto actor playing Mayor Moscone and actor playing Senator Briggs. Doppelgangers ... ."
Speaking of Portland's own Van Sant: Check out his latest,"Paranoid Park." It's his best work since the Columbine-inspired "Elephant." Mesmerizing, disturbing, deeply felt.
Contact Lovell at glovell@aol.com
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