Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Kevin
Bacon on Saturday led an all-star cast in the Los Angeles reading of
a play based on the trial over the constitutionality of California's
gay marriage ban, Proposition 8.
8, which was written by Milk
scribe Dustin Lance Black, was streamed live on the YouTube channel
of the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the group formed
specifically to support the legal challenge.
The 2010 trial, which was held in San
Francisco, resulted in federal Judge Vaughn Walker, now retired,
declaring the 2008 voter-approved amendment unconstitutional. A
3-judge appeals panel last month upheld Walker's ruling. Proponents
of the ban have asked the court for a wider review.
The Los Angeles reading of the play
also starred Jamie Lee Curtis, Matt Bomer, Martin Sheen, Jane Lynch
and George Takei, to name a few.
The star-studded reading raised funds
for AFER's ongoing legal challenge. The play's Broadway premiere
raised over $1 million for the fight to win marriage equality in
California.
(Video of the reading is embedded in
the right panel of this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)