I Now Pronounce You Unaffiliated with Gay Film Fest

As we noted earlier, gay classic Parting Glances will be screening as a part of Outfest -- but there's another gay-interest film whose premiere will actually be competing with the event.

The movie boldly diverting the gay mafia crowd from the opening night of the festival's landmark 25th year is none other than I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, a film that one would think might want to take the attentions of gay Hollywood into consideration.

The Advocate notes that Universal has made no attempts to tie the film with the festival, even though that might seem to be an ideal promotional opportunity -- not to mention one designed not to step on the toes of the city's oldest gay film fest. Opening films at films fests is a common practice, even when this kind of obvious synergy doesn't present itself: I've been to premieres of House of Wax and Spiderman 3 at the Tribeca film fest, which otherwise has no affiliation with melting teenagers or radioactive spiders.

The article points out:

Some industry insiders, however, are raising their eyebrows over why Chuck & Larry didn't marry itself to the Outfest schedule or move out of the way to accommodate the gays. Sandler, James, and Dugan all declined to speak to The Advocate for our Summer Movie Preview. Universal also failed to provide anyone who could speak on behalf of the film.

Interesting. The PR efforts thus far with this film have been a bit unsettling (to this point we've also been unable to get interviews or comments from those involved with the film, despite numerous attempts). An in-theatre Regal First Look segment showed an incredibly nervous-looking pair of male leads mumbling their way through some awkward guy-banter, and their appearance on last week's Showbiz Show finale bizarrely did not have either Sandler or James saying a single word about the movie.

Why the skittishness, particularly when GLAAD has spoken up in (qualified) defense of the film?