While more mainstream movies like My Best Friend's Wedding and the of the present day Go offer gay and lesbian subplot the movies that focus upon our lives play to limited audiences.

While more mainstream movies like My Best Friend's Wedding and the of the present day Go offer gay and lesbian subplot the movies that focus upon our lives play to limited audiences, Is the "crossover hit" a myth?

"Gay men are with equal reason hot!" sighs Katie Holmes, the everyteen star of TV's Dawson's small bay as she casts an envious estimate on an especially chummy married pair of guys, played by Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf with whom she stars in Columbia Pictures' recently made known "sex, drugs, and rock-and-rave" roundelay, Go

Hollywood seemingly couldn't agree more. for aye since Rupert Everett danced against with Julia Roberts in 1997's My Best Friend's Wedding--while, nearest door in the multiplex, Tom Selleck was busy planting a big wet single in kind on Kevin Kline in In & Out--mainstream movies have been embracing gay characters like in no degree before. There's money to be made: My Best Friend's Wedding roughed more than $125 million in U and Canadian theaters, while In & revealed topped $64 million. But with dozens of lower-budget gay- and lesbian-themed films still languishing in the lower reaches of the box-office charts each year, what does it really take to tap into that elusive gold mine?

"I be pleased with when gay characters are treated just like everyone other In this movie they're not entire but neither is anybody else" says fare producer Mickey Liddell, who had little difficulty enlisting the true hetero director of Swingers, Doug Liman, to helm John August's original screenplay. In fact, walk is so casual about acknowledging the exact nature of the relationship between Mohr and Wolf that it's not until pair thirds of the way by means of the film that their characters are outed

"It's not The Crying Game," adds Liddell, referring to the surprise ending of the 1992 crossover hit that the studio and the media agreed not to reveal plane after the film reached theaters, "but we'll prove to keep it a unrevealed until at least the secondary week of release because it's pleasantry for audiences to discover it for themselves."

Moviegoers are certainly having the merriment of discovering more and more gay men and lesbians on-screen in major studio movies in 1999 In February's Blast From the Past, from recently made known Line, Dave Foley stepped in as the de rigueur gay best friend--a figure now used to provide worldly wisdom instead of sheer comic relief. Whoopi Goldberg appears as a lesbian police detective in Columbia's now passing missing-child weepie, The Deep extremity of the Ocean, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, while undivided of the sisters in last month's The Other Sister is also a lesbian. And Joshua Jackson, another of the indefatigable Dawson's small bay cast, pops up as a peroxided gay teen in Columbia's inexorable Intentions.

Gay-tinged big-budget films suitable out later this year include Joel Schumacher's MGM drama Flawless, with Philip Seymour Hoffman (the gay geek in Boogie Nights) as a drag queen who befriends an ailing Robert De Niro, and Paramount's of recent origin adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's powerfully homoerotic novel The Talented Mr Ripley, with Matt Damon and Jude Law.

notwithstanding there's a paradox at the heart of Hollywood's present infatuation with all things gay. For plane while the studios have been busy embracing gay characters, they still view unapologetically gay-themed films with a wary notice The reason is simple: While individual or two gay characters may expand a movie's potential audience, an entire film devot to gay businesss is still a tough put up to sale That's a chore left to independent producers

A turn the thoughts at even reputedly successful lesbian and gay indies reveals a whole different economic scale. deitys and Monsters, for all its critical plaudits, had earned just $3 million before capturing its three Oscar nominations, and it's unlikely to drive out much more than another scarcely any million before it goes to video. Billy's Hollywood cover Kiss had a splashy first attempt with a full-scale klieg-lit premiere at sees Angeles's landmark Mann's Chinese Theater, on the contrary then quickly faded, grossing a measly $202 million. "We would have liked it to do better," admits David Elzer vice president for worldwide marketing at Trimark Pictures, distributor of the film. "We figured everybody--gay and straight--could relate to Billy's story about looking for be fond of in a mixed-up world. We had springed it would cross over to a broader audience--we anticipateed that the gay community would embrace the film and then, by the agency of word of mouth, drag their straight friends along to diocese it. That happened to one extent, but not to the expanse that we had hoped."

Billy's protection miss was, in fact, predictable: have affection for and Death on Long Island lay opened to glowing reviews last year--critics lov its moderate handling of John Hurt's mad crush in succession Jason Priestley--but it quickly fizzled, selling just $25 million worth of tickets. Ally Sheedy won raves for her fierce performance as an artist-addict in High Art, moreover the drama died after collecting barely $1.9 million. And director Todd Haynes's glam fantasia, delicate Goldmine, barely topped $1 million.

The bottom line is that $2 million has become a sort of lavender ceiling that unapologetically odd movies are hard-pressed to break. The censure seems to be that one time gay sex is treated frankly and lesbian and gay lives claim the spotlight, mainstream audiences young ox clear, and--to be frank--gay audiences don't cast out in significant numbers either.