Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss is a 1998 independent gay-themed romantic comedy film written and directed by Tommy O'Haver. The film features a breakthrough performance by Sean Hayes who would go from this film to his co-starring role as Jack McFarland on the hit television show Will & Grace. Sean Patrick Hayes (born June 26, 1970) is an Emmy award-winning American actor, best known for his role as Jack McFarland in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. ... This article or section contains information that has not been verified and thus might not be reliable. ... This is a list of film-related events in 1998. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This is a list of film-related events in 1998. ... For other uses, see Gay (disambiguation). ... Romantic comedy films are a sub-genre of comedy films as well as of romance films. ... Sean Patrick Hayes (born June 26, 1970) is an Emmy award-winning American actor, best known for his role as Jack McFarland in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace. ... John Philip Jack McFarland (born in 1969) is a character on the American television sitcom Will & Grace, played by Sean Hayes. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Will & Grace Will & Grace was a popular American Emmy Award winning television situation comedy that focused on Will Truman, a gay attorney and his best friend Grace Adler, a straight Jewish woman who runs her own interior design firm, as well as...

Plot summary

Billy (Hayes) is an aspiring photographer in Los Angeles who's had little artisitic success and much romantic frustration. He comes up with the idea of recreating iconic screen kisses from Hollywood movies (such as Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's in From Here to Eternity) using drag queens in the female roles. While out for coffee with his roommate Georgiana (Lynn) he meets Gabriel (Rowe), the server. That night at a party, Billy's friend Perry (Ganoung) agrees to bankroll Billy's Kiss series and Billy serendipitously runs into Gabriel. Billy recruits him to model and they also start to develop a friendship (although Gabriel says he has a girlfriend in San Francisco). Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... ... Burt Lancaster Burt Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American film actor. ... Deborah Kerr Deborah Kerr CBE (born 30 September 1921) is a Scottish actress and a recipient of an Academy Honorary Award for a motion picture career that has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance. ... Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in the famous beach scene in From Here to Eternity. ... Drag queens Luc DArcy and Jerry Cyr and friend at Montreals 2003 Divers/Cité pride parade. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ...

Billy quickly becomes deeply infatuated with Gabriel but can't figure out whether he's really straight or not. They go to an exhibit by photographer Rex Webster, who tries to poach Gabriel as a model (and potential trick). Webster offers to take Gabriel to Catalina for an underwear ad shoot, sparking Billy's jealousy. Back at Gabriel's place, Billy and Gabriel seem to be getting closer but their rapport is interrupted by a phone call from Gabriel's girlfriend. Catalina may mean: Santa Catalina Island, California, an island 26 miles off the coast of southern California PBY Catalina, the United States Navy designation for an American and Canadian-built flying boat of the 1930s and 1940s Catalina Yachts, a yacht manufacturer Tomcat Catalina, the Jakarta Tomcat version 4. ...

Billy shoots his first set up with Gabriel, the Lancaster-Kerr kiss. Following the shoot Gabriel tells Billy that his relationship with Natalie is over. They talk about the Kinsey scale and Gabriel says he doesn't know where on the scale he falls. Back at Billy's apartment they continue to talk and drink and Gabriel asks if he can spend the night on the couch. He's too tall to sleep on the couch so Billy invites him into his bed. Billy makes some tentative overtures and Gabriel seems to respond initially but pulls away, so Billy goes to the couch. The Kinsey scale attempts to measure an individuals sexual orientation, from 0 (exclusively heterosexual) to 6 (exclusively homosexual), in terms of the biological sex of their former sexual partners. ...

Gabriel gets the underwear modeling gig and goes to Catalina. Billy follows him to Catalina with Georgiana (who, on the rebound from her boyfriend Andrew, hooks up with drug-addled island resident "Gundy"). Billy crashes the underwear set looking for Gabriel but doesn't find him.

That night at Rex's party, Billy does run into Gabriel and they talk on the beach. Billy tells Gabriel that when he came out he was very confused and he swore that if he could ever be there for someone else going through the same thing he would be. He says that if Gabriel's not sure what he's supposed to want, Billy is there to help him figure it out. Before Billy can finish his thought, one of Gabriel's fellow models comes up. Billy realizes that the two of them are together, and Gabriel gently tells him "I'm pretty sure what I'm supposed to want." Gabriel tries to soften the blow but Billy rebuffs him. Later, Perry tries to console him, telling him that a few years earlier Perry had fallen for someone who didn't feel the same way, confessing that that man was Billy. The next morning Georgianna has ditched Gundy and they head back home. Coming out of the closet (very often shortened to coming out in winking reference to the public introduction of debutantes) describes the voluntary public announcement of ones sexual orientation, sexual attractions, gender identity, or (less commonly) paraphilia. ...

Some time later, Billy is having his first exhibition, "Hollywood Screen Kiss," including the photos of Gabriel. Perry shows Billy a magazine ad featuring Gabriel and suggests Billy give him a call. Billy demurs, saying he needs time. In the film's final moments, Billy meets Joshua, suggesting that along with his artistic success Billy is at last going to find romantic fulfilment as well.

The film is punctuated with Billy's fantasy sequences of himself and Gabriel in pastiches of romantic film scenes, including the aforementioned From Here to Eternity and the films of Fred Astaire. Billy carries a Polaroid camera with him everywhere and his reminiscences are illustrated with Polaroid photographs. Balanchine[1] and Nureyev[2] rated him the greatest dancer of the 20th Century, and he is generally acknowledged to have been the most influential dancer in the history of filmed and televised musicals. ... Polaroid (a trademark of the Polaroid Corporation) is the name of a type of synthetic plastic sheet which is used to polarise light. ...

Notes

Billy narrates the film, demonstrating awareness that he's in a film and breaking the fourth wall.
The film features cameos by Paul Bartel as Rex Webster and Warhol "superstar" Holly Woodlawn.
This film is a remake of writer/director O'Haver's earlier short film Catalina. The fourth wall is the imaginary invisible wall at the front of the stage in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. ... Paul Bartel (August 6, 1938-May 13, 2000) was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an American actor, writer and director well known for his 1982 hit black comedy Eating Raoul, which he wrote, starred in and directed. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Holly Woodlawn Holly Woodlawn (born October 26, 1946) was a Warhol superstar, who appeared in his movies Trash (1970) and Women in Revolt (1972). ...

DVD release

Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss was released on Region 1 DVD on December 22, 1998 DVD (also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) is an optical disc storage media format that can be used for data storage, including movies with high video and sound quality. ... December 22 is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

Awards and nominations

• Deauville Film Festival Grand Special Prize (nominated)
• Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize - Dramatic (nominated)
• Verzaubert - International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival Rosebud Award for Best Film (won)

Deauville American Film Festival is a film festival for American movies that occurs every year since 1975 in Deauville, France. ... The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival in the United States, and ranks amongst the top five events of its type in the world. ...

CD soundtrack listing

• Ramsey Lewis - Do What You Wanna"
• Nina Simone - Love Me or Leave Me
• The Harem of Guadaloupe/Mystic Tango*
• Petula Clark - Happy Heart
• The Love Slave of Catalina*
• Petula Clark - This Is My Song
• Theme for Rex Webster*
• Moon Over Quito*
• Xavier Cugat - Cuban Love Song
• Gabriel's Room*
• Petula Clark - Happy Heart (Junior Vasquez remix)
• (hidden track: Carmine Giovinazzo - She Calls Herself Georgina)

* original score written by Alan Ari Lazar Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr. ... Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known as Nina Simone (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist and activist. ... Love Me or Leave Me is a popular song. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Xavier Cugat (January 1, 1900 - October 27, 1990) was a Catalan-Cuban bandleader who many consider to have had more to do with the infusion of Latin music into United States popular music than any other musician. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Junior Vasquez is a famous New York club DJ and remixer/producer. ... Carmine Giovinazzo (photo credit: Emilia Sparagna). ...