The West Coast premiere of "8", the stage play written by Academy Award-winner Dustin Lance Black ("Milk"), will star George Clooney. The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), which is funding the legal team fighting Prop. 8, announced that Clooney will perform at a March 3 staged reading scheduled at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.
The play is based on the 2010 trial that ended with Prop. 8 being struck down (it's still the law of the land of course). The dialogue is based on the trial transcripts and interviews with the plaintiffs and their families.
AFER didn't say specifically who Clooney would play, only that he and other actors to be named later will portray members of the legal team, plaintiffs and witnesses from both sides.
A similar performance at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City in September featured a smorgasbord of A-Listers, including Morgan Freeman, who played attorney David Boies, and John Lithgow as Ted Olson. AFER says that performance raised $1 million for the fight against Prop. 8.
George Clooney is having one helluva year. His performance as a distant father suddenly presiding over a family crisis in "The Descendants" has generated plenty of Oscar buzz. He also directed and stars in "The Ides of March."