George Clooney & Dustin Lance Black team for Prop 8 play

Robert Nesti READ TIME: 2 MIN.

Oscar-winner George Clooney is teaming with Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black for the LA premiere of Black's play about the federal court trial overturning Prop 8, the ballot measure that denied LGBT Californians the right to marry.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the production, directed by Rob Reiner, will one night only at Los Angeles' Wilshire Ebell Theatre on March 3. Proceeds will benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights in its national fight for marriage equality.

"It is astonishing that gay and lesbian Americans are still treated as second-class citizens," Clooney said about the play. "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."

According to the Hollywood Reporter, "opponents of Proposition 8 have called on the court to unseal the video of the federal trial for the public to see. A ruling is expected soon. In the meantime, the limited showing of 8 will have to suffice."

"People need to witness what happened in the Proposition 8 trial," says Black, the Oscar-winning writer of the Harvey Milk biopic Milk as well as this year's J. Edgar, "if for no other reason than to see inequality and discrimination unequivocally rejected in a court of law where truth and facts matter."

The move west follows a successful performance of the play in New York in September featuring a cast including Morgan Freeman, Ellen Barkin, John Lithgow and Bradley Whitford. In the L.A. version, Clooney will be joined by another all-star cast who will play the roles of the legal teams, plaintiffs and witnesses for both sides of the case, which is now on appeal. Additional cast members will be announced soon.

"This play will continue to show Americans -- one by one -- that prejudice and fear cannot stand up to truth and justice," said AFER Board president Chad Griffin. "Our Constitution neither knows nor tolerates the treatment of gays and lesbians as second-class citizens."


by Robert Nesti , EDGE National Arts & Entertainment Editor

Robert Nesti can be reached at [email protected].

Read These Next