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May 27, 2005
Gay weddings in prime time
There are Jewish connections to a new hip and quirky television
series.
PAT JOHNSON
When she was a little girl, Donna Morris and her single mom used
to while away the hours planning Donna's dream wedding. But even
in their wildest imaginings, they probably never counted on this.
For one thing, the childhood fantasies involved a groom. When Morris
finally did marry in February, it was to her lesbian partner, Polina
Privis. To top it off, it was all done as part of a new TV series
set to air on Global. Now, all of Canada can share the pair's nuptials,
along with those of five other couples in the first season. The
show, titled My Fabulous Gay Wedding, is hosted by former
"kid in the hall" Scott Thompson and has a raft of Jewish
connections.
Though filmed in Toronto, the program is the brainchild of David
Paperny, a Vancouver filmmaker who is Jewish. The writer and senior
director is a Jewish former Vancouverite, Daniel Gelfant, and the
wedding planner employed by the program is Fern Cohen, a Toronto
planner who specializes in Jewish weddings.
For Cohen, the TV experience was exciting and gruelling. Usually,
she has six months to a year to plan a wedding. For the show, each
wedding was turned around in two weeks. And there was also a learning
curve.
"Until recently, all my clients were straight," Cohen
said. But she found the experiences similar.
"I don't think they're so different," she said, comparing
gay weddings to the more traditional variety. "Whether it's
a man and a woman or two women or two men, there really is no difference
because everybody has issues. If you marry a heterosexual couple,
the mother-in-law doesn't like somebody or this one doesn't like
somebody. I don't think the issues are any different."
Cohen is excited about the series and speculates about who the potential
audience might be.
"This is something that nobody has done," she said of
the unique new series. "I try to think about who's going to
watch it. I've told 6,000 people, so hopefully all my friends will
watch it."
Paperny, the film's producer, hopes the same. He said Global TV
started talking with him a year ago.
"Global said, well, among other things, we'd like to see something
hip, urban and gay," said Paperny, who is not gay himself.
"So we jumped on the idea of gay weddings as a hot topic, a
controversial topic, a topic filled with lots of opportunity for
emotional moments."
When Paperny attended the TV festival in Cannes, he was surprised
to find interest from around the world.
"I got a list of all the broadcasters at the TV conference
who watched our show and one of them was al-Jazeera," he said,
joking that he doesn't expect My Fabulous Gay Wedding to
air anytime soon on the Arab world's premier news channel. However,
they have sold it to MTV's new gay spin-off channel, which will
air the first six episodes in July to 12 million American households.
"If audiences like it and watch it, we'll do more," he
said.
Paperny's background is documentary filmmaking, but this takes a
lighter approach. Paperny opted for a funny bent. He nabbed one
of Canada's top edgy comedians, Thompson, who broke ground with
The Kids in the Hall.
"We knew we were dealing with a hot-button issue," he
said. "We didn't want to be preachy.... We wanted to add humor
to the show to make people laugh, make our subjects laugh, open
them up."
The show follows the couples through the process of planning the
wedding. They meet the caterers, get the rings, pick their music,
get their hair done and so forth – all with the assistance
of a team of half-crazed experts.
Reflecting on the experience of having their wedding planned, replete
with surprise guests and other assorted treats, Privis acknowledged
the lack off control can be disconcerting. The pair – Privis
is Jewish, Morris is not – were able to have some of their
suggestions followed. They broke the glass in the tradition of Jewish
weddings and there was some klezmer, but other aspects were far
from kosher.
"At one point there was a big roasted pig on a platter,"
Privis said.
She hasn't seen the episode yet and she's looking forward to watching
it.
"When you're having all this happen, it's hard to take everything
in," she said. In the end, though, she has no regrets.
"The whole thing was a wonderful experience."
My Fabulous Gay Wedding premières June 1 on Global.
Pat Johnson is a B.C. journalist and commentator.
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