Milk Movie

James Franco is loosening up. That may seem an odd way to characterize an actor who is pursuing an MFA in fiction writing at Columbia University, taking classes at two other institutions of higher learning and preparing to play Allen Ginsberg over the semester break early next year. But Franco, whose roles have generally followed the template set by his breakthrough performance as a brooding James Dean in a 2001 TV movie, has been showing off a lighter, softer side of late.

Long before making "Milk," the film due Wednesday about the life and death of openly gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, director Gus Van Sant imagined a scene in which the voluble, charismatic Milk was dressed as Ronald McDonald.

If you thought marketing a film about the forbidden love of two cowboys had some challenges, how about one about a gay political activist? Focus Features, the specialty film division of Universal Pictures, is no stranger to selling movies that touch a nerve with the public. In 2005, it successfully steered "Brokeback Mountain," a drama about two Wyoming ranch hands who fell in love that pundits said would never find a wide audience, into a hit.

For Cleve Jones, gay rights activist, initiator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and historical consultant on director Gus Van Sant's new drama, "Milk," a chance meeting on the streets of San Francisco more than 30 years ago changed the course of his entire life. "Everything that I've done, everything I've accomplished, everything I survived, so much of it really just goes back to meeting Harvey Milk on the corner of Castro and 18th," said Jones. "I think of that every day."

The sight may be a little shocking, Paul Boneberg warned a visitor. And it was. There, removed from tissue-paper wrappings in a storage box, were the wingtip shoes, striped suit and white shirt that gay activist and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk wore Nov. 27, 1978, the day he was assassinated. Dark bloodstains remained visible around the shirt collar, and small holes -- from bullets -- could be seen in the suit's blue and gray material.

One day this thought won't matter. One day this thought won't be relevant. Today is not that day. Today, the fact that "Milk" received eight Oscar nominations from the academy, including best picture, is significant and says much about where we are in our relationship, and comfort level, with the gay rights movement. In a word -- improving. Why? Director Gus Van Sant's "Milk" is not a tentative film, rather it is openly, unapologetically gay.

When producer Zvi Howard Rosenman arrived at the recent academy screening of "Milk," he found someone occupying his reserved seat: Jack Nicholson. The actor ended up sitting right behind Rosenman. When the film was over, Nicholson leaned forward, tapped Rosenman on the shoulder and said, "Boy, oh, boy, you did a good job." Having produced dozens of films over the years -- including "The Main Event," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Family Man" -- Rosenman is used to accepting accolades at movie premieres.