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Brad Pitt, George Clooney Star in Gay Marriage Play—but Did Kirk Cameron Steal the Show?!

Find out what your favorite stars were saying about same-sex unions—and Kirk Cameron!

By Marc Malkin Mar 05, 2012 7:09 PMTags
George Clooney, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Martin Sheen, John C. Reilly, Brad Pitt Michael Buckner/Getty Images

Less than 24 hours after Kirk Cameron was spewing anti-gay rhetoric on CNN, Hollywood superstars like George Clooney and Brad Pitt gathered in an L.A. theater for a one-night only reading of 8, a play about the court battle to overturn California's gay marriage-banning Prop 8.

No surprise, but folks were more than disappointed by the former Growing Pains teen idol's ultra-conservative views...

"It's a very closed-minded, very homophobic view point," said Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson. "It's also surprising coming from someone who was probably brought up in the business among many gay people. It's just very sad."

"He was a such a cute little boy," said Jane Lynch, who played anti-gay activist Maggie Gallagher in the play. "He was a such a little sweetheart."

The play, written by Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black and directed by Rob Reiner, uses actual transcript from the closing arguments before the federal court that found Proposition 8 unconstitutional. Readings of the play (it debuted in New York last month) benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

Pitt played United States District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker. Clooney and Martin Sheen were the plantiffs' lead cocounsels David Boies and Theodore B. Olson.

Other performers included Matt Bomer, Matthew Morrison, Kevin Bacon, John C. Reilly, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christine Lahti and George Takei.

Chris Colfer said he didn't read any of the transcripts until he signed on to participate in the one-night only event.

"Unfortunately, I was one of those Americans who was so angered by it, I tried to stay from it a lot and hoped and prayed and crossed my fingers that all would come out well," the Glee star said.

In the audience were Darren Criss, Barbra Streisand, Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet, Jesse Bradford, Charles Carver of Desperate Housewives and Garry Shandling.

Morrison said of gay marriage, "I'm excited because I feel that [federal recognition of same-sex unions] will happen in my lifetime."

Colfer said he never thought about getting married until recently. Looking down at his hand, he smiled, "It's funny because as I get older I do have this urge to have a ring on my finger."

Ferguson said he and boyfriend Justin Mikita have talked about getting married. "I'm all about something very simple with a small select group of people," he said, before cracking, "I think Justin has different ideas. He's more of a Kardashian-size wedding."

Reiner told me that he and Black have been talking about developing a movie adaptation of 8. For now, you can watch Saturday night's performance at afer.org.