I feel much better (w/semi-related update)

Semi-related update: Here's Ebert's take on the Oscar nominations. I hadn't realized till he pointed it out just how neat a hat trick George Clooney has accomplished:

Clooney scored a personal triumph with three nominations -- for directing, producing and co-writing "Good Night, and Good Luck," and as best supporting actor in "Syriana." Clooney could have been a four-time nominee, tying a record with Orson Welles and Warren Beatty, but he declined a producer's credit on "Good Night, and Good Luck."

Original entry:

Okay. At this point, I think most of you reading this know I've got this "lesbian themed" comic romance I've been working on a while. And that I'm kind of neurotic about similar pieces coming out (so to speak). It's as if I feel they're going to "beat me to it" or something.

What I try to do is keep in mind the example of "Big." You may remember that when that movie came out, it was at the tail-end of a whole slew of "body switching" movies. I remember seeing a quote by James L. Brooks, who was a producer on the film (and is one of my heroes as a writer). What he said was,

"It was our conscious decision not to rush and try to beat everybody, but to just do our movie like the others weren't happening."

And which of those movies is best-remembered (if the others are remembered at all) today? That thought warms me, as does the reassurance that it's not as though we've run out of straight-flavored variations of the comic comedy in the past 70 years.

Still, I twitch when I see ads for things like this new movie, "Imagine Me & You," which comes billed as "a romantic comedy about love hitting people at unexpected moments." Like "April's Shower," this appears to be about at least one woman character "suddenly...realizing" her homosexuality, with hilarious complications ensuing (on her way to the altar, yet).

Which reinforces for me, again, the determination that my characters are not "suddenly" realizing anything, and are no longer neurotic about being gay (to the extent that either of them ever were). They're neurotic about other things--all the best people are--but not that.

But what really makes me feel better about the film is this two-star review by Roger Ebert, which begins:

Romeo: "I'm straight, and really attracted to you."
Juliet: "Good! I prefer men."

Ever notice how in heterosexual romances the characters rarely talk about how they're heterosexual? There have been a few homosexual romances in which the sexuality of the characters goes without saying, but "Imagine Me & You" is not one of them. Here's a movie that begins with a tired romantic formula, and tries to redeem it with lesbianism. And not merely lesbianism, but responsible lesbianism, in which the more experienced of the two women does everything she can to preserve the marriage of the woman she loves.

You can read the whole thing if you wish (and you should), but as I said: I feel much better.