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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 5, 2001)
•v*c> ***rl » rOG\ .2 vxùJflfii The P erfect Valentine's Heather had two mommies February 16 & 17 RELATIONSHIPS THAT LAST Friday, 7 PM - 1« PM & Saturday, 10 AM - 3 PM $50 per couple includes Sat. lunch The 7 best kept secrets o f successful life-long relationships A new cable film exam ines a lan d m ark custody case by S teve W arren Facilitated by Casey A Berdell Mojjett-Chaney Registered Domestic Partners - 17 years . Enhance Your Spiritualityl i ■ I Cent«?i* fo r Worship/ (Ârow+h & Leodtirship I omedm Revs. Casey and Berdell Moffetl-Chaney (5 0 3 ) 481-7591 4828 NE 33rd , Portland www.godconnection.org Sunday Services 10:00 AM B ible Interpretation Study 9 :0 0 A M i Leadership Program Growth Classes Stimulating Workshops Support Groups Weddings, etc. It’s love at first sight for Brooke Shields (left) and Cherry Jones Honoring Diversity GLBTS —/ i JANUARY 1 9, 2001 î a r t is t s r e p e r t o r y 'T h e a t r e 1516 SW ALDER PORTLAND 97205 • WWW ARTIST5REP 0RG with systemic lupus, which is said to be treat f you think the Elian Gonzalez affair and the able and “not usually fatal.” presidential election made Florida look bad, This being the story it is, Sandy’s case is wait till you see What Makes a Family! obviously not usual. The medical drama eventu Rarely does as much as 15 minutes go by ally evolves into a legal case, and the screenplay in this Lifetime original movie without a by Robert L. Freedman is unabashedly partisan. reminder that Florida is the only state in the If I weren’t on the same side, I’d really come country with a law forbidding adoption by down hard on it for its heavy-handedness. The homosexuals. That point is the crux of this true grandparents turn into monsters who will say custody story, which achieves its aims as both a or do anything to keep their granddaughter. tearjerker and a call for reason and compassion W ith so much crammed into two hours, in awarding children to the most loving and the effect is somewhat melodramatic, but deserving parent without letting sexual orienta director Maggie Greenwald and her excellent tion or even blcxxl relationships be the sole cast make each individual moment ring true. determining factor. Janine’s first clue that she’s no longer in the The film has a formidable list of executive bosom of her partner’s family comes when she producers: Barbra Streisand, Cis Corman, reads Sandy’s obituary in the paper and she’s Whoopi Goldberg, Craig Zadan and Neil not mentioned. She sighs, “I would have set Meron— essentially the team that made Serving tled for ‘longtime companion.’ ” in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story. Unlike Philadelphia, in which Tom Hanks Their new film is another powerful story of a and Antonio Banderas rarely touched, the lesbian fighting injustice. women in What Makes a Family are affection Brooke Shields, establishing her dramatic cred ate, exchanging several passionate kisses. Tony once and for all, stars as Janine Nielssen, who is Award winner Jones has been out for years, and introduced outside the Pinellas County (St. this might be the first role that’s allowed her to Petcrsburg/Clearwater) courthouse soliciting the be both sexual and sexy. help of powerful civil rights attorney Terry Harri son (Goldberg). She tells her story in a flashback An impressive Shields holds her own that takes up about two-thirds of the picture. opposite her in their dramatic scenes. Meara brings what humanity she can to what is Janine wasn’t even out when she was cruised by Sandy Cataldi (Cherry Jones) in a essentially a wicked role, and if Goldberg coasts through the part of the attorney, I’d store. Her wealthy, conservative parents had rather watch her coast than come down so hard on her over watch most actors act. her first crush at age 12 that she had suppressed all sexual feel You might feel a sense of ings since then. O n their first “been there, seen that” as you date, Sandy takes her to a dance watch W hat M akes a Family, at the queer Sunnyview C om but I think that’s less from see munity Church, and next thing ing similar movies than from you know they’re having a holy reading news reports year after V union at the same church. year o f lesbians and gay men Beaming in the front row embroiled in similar battles for the custody o f children they’ve and supporting them enthusias parented. I hope this film will tically are Sandy’s parents, Eve Whoopi Goldberg lyn (A nne Meara) and Frank give them strength and comfort (A1 W axman). T hat support doesn’t wane when, years later, they learn they’re going to be grandparents: Sandy is pregnant by artificial insemination. The donor, she says, “is everything you’d want in a man— if you wanted a man.” At the christening of their daughter, Heather, Sandy passes out. She’s diagnosed and perhaps move and enlight en the people with the authority to rule on what makes their families. j n W hat M akes a F amily premieres at 9 p.m . Jan. 22 on Lifetime. S tev e W arren is a free-lance writer.
