Ben Affleck wants out of the closet

Date: 09 Jul 2003 10:28:44 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.gossip.celebrities
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NY POST....
HOLLYWOOD is calling on "Take Me Out," Richard Greenberg's Tony Award-winning
Broadway play about a gay baseball player who comes out of the closet. Ben
Affleck is first among several Hollywood heavyweights who are said to be
pursuing the movie rights.
Affleck, a big fan of the play, would like to star in and produce the movie,
which Greenberg would write.
"I'm too close to the play to let anybody else adapt it," Greenberg said
yesterday. "I want to screw it up myself, at least at the beginning."
Affleck would not, of course, play any of the gay characters.
Hollywood heartthrobs don't take such risks with their careers.
He'd play Kippy, the gay baseball player's best (but straight!) friend, who
acts as the narrator.
The role might have to be beefed up for Affleck, though Greenberg said he
considers Kippy one of the play's major characters (the others are the gay
superstar, his nerdy gay accountant and the team's homophobic pitcher).
"There are four characters at the center of the play," he said. "I always
considered Kippy the lead - he represents the audience's point of view - but an
argument can be made for the other three as well."
On Broadway, meanwhile, "Take Me Out" is showing real box-office strength.
Ever since it won the Tony in June, weekly grosses have not dipped below
$300,000.
Before the Tonys, the show seldom grossed more than $250,000 a week, despite
strong reviews, media attention and almost total lack of competition from other
non-musical plays.
Advance ticket sales are nothing to get excited about (to be fair, they're
pretty weak all around the street), but walk-up business is strong, which is an
encouraging sign since it means that not every tourist wants to see a big dopey
musical.
Or maybe it's just those sensational shower scenes.
Plans are in the works for a national tour of "Take Me Out" next year, and you
can bet that once the rights become available, every regional theater in the
country will want to mount its own production.
Add to that the impending movie sale, and "Take Me Out" is fast becoming a
booming little concern (no thanks to the Pulitzer Prize judges who passed over
this fine play in favor of some obscure piece called "Anna in the Tropics,"
which I hardly think Ben Affleck is ever going to make into a movie).
Greenberg is pleased with the fattening of his royalty checks.
"I'm finally digging my way out of poverty," he says.
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