Kristen Stewart is en route to Sundance (cannot wait!), but so far, it's the dudes who are stirring up the trouble! Specifically, James Franco and Jon Hamm, who star in Howl, which was the opening night selection for the festival.
Franco plays Allen Ginsberg, a gay beat poet who was put on trial because his published poems (like "Howl") were apparently deemed obscene, mainly due to the references to drugs and homosexuality. Hamm plays Franco's attorney.
When we caught up with the hunks earlier today, we had to bring up what's a pretty good parallel to Howl's depicted trial—Prop 8. Here's what the actors had to say on the most recent court ruling, which made gay marriage illegal in California:
"What can you say," Franco, highly exasperated, told us after the Howl press conference. He entered into deep, furrow-browed thought, which he dives into like Sarah Palin does idiocy. "Like I said before when Milk was coming out, I hope we'll get to a time soon where we'll look back and say, 'I can't believe that we were discriminating against this whole group of people and saying, 'You don't have the same rights as everybody else.'"
Pretty-boy James continued:
"I hope that the time comes very, very soon, when we can all look back and say that was ridiculous."
The equally articulate Jon Hamm explained how the media may be the best tool we have right now for advancing gay rights.
"There's a line in the movie [that says] 'I think that publicity engendered by this trial is going to bring this poem to a much wider audience than it ever would have had,'" a still scruffy and still delicious Hamm said.
"I think that argument can certainly be made for the Prop 8 situation, where publicity engendered by all this brings to light the absurdity of ascribing second-class status to an entire group of people. The more people that see that...I just think in a lot of ways the publicity and press surrounding these issues will only serve to help."
From your gorgeous mouths to the Supreme Court's ears, boys.
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Catch up on the movies making a splash at the fest in our 25 Buzz Films of Sundance gallery.