{alltv} Palin, gays in screening duel

Friday, June 24, 2011

{alltv} Palin, gays in screening duel

Cultures clashed in a Midtown screening room this week when an upcoming documentary touting Sarah Palin's accomplishments was unveiled for conservative taste-makers directly across the hall from new gay romance "Weekend."

"It was quite a dichotomy," one attendee said of the worlds in collision.

Director Stephen K. Bannon booked his Palin documentary, "The Undefeated," into Magno, a regular haunt for New York's film industry, for a series of back-to-back screenings on Wednesday. Guests included a cross-section of Palin supporters, Bannon said, including members of a group called Jews for Sarah.

"The 'Undefeated' director was guarding the door to the Palin screening like a watchdog," said one "Weekend" audience member who peered into the Palin room. "He was pacing the hallway like a stalking lion."

But Bannon -- whose film was introduced by conservative pundits Tammy Bruce and Jedediah Bila -- said he was OK with the two very different crowds. "It was an interesting dynamic," he said. "You had your indie-scene, cutting-edge avant garde [types] and the non-avant garde. There was the downtown indie crowd for 'Weekend' and Wall Street guys, former political operatives and Jews for Sarah for 'Undefeated.' "

"Weekend," distributed by Sundance Selects, follows a gay man who picks up a stud in a techno club and embarks on a two-day affair "in bars and in bedrooms, getting drunk and taking drugs, telling stories and having sex," according to press materials.

Bannon said network producers also came to his screenings. "Undefeated" opens in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina before a release in AMC Theaters.

Meanwhile, "Weekend" star Tom Cullen was in town promoting the film and attending Christine Quinn's marriage equality rally Tuesday, followed by Nick Denton's Gay Pride party Wednesday. Cullen told us he hopes the GOP VIPs who saw the Palin doc will come back to check out his film.