Lifetime Movie on Teen Sexuality

By LYNN ELBER

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- In "The Truth About Jane,'' a teen-ager's voyage of self-discovery leads her into conflict with her friends, her parents and herself.

The reality for a high schooler who realizes she's lesbian is harsh -- but not hopeless -- as painted by Lifetime's movie starring Ellen Muth as Jane and Stockard Channing and James Naughton as her anguished parents. The film debuts 9 p.m. EDT Monday.

"It's hard enough having sex for the first time with anyone,'' a plaintive Jane says in a narrative voice-over. "But when you do it with a girl, you're just asking for it.''

Even making a film about lesbianism can be asking for it, according to writer-director Lee Rose. She shot the project in Phoenix, where she found the weather balmy but the welcome less so.

"Almost no public school would let us shoot there, which blew my mind,'' she said, crediting "one courageous principal,'' James McElroy, for allowing filming at Phoenix's Caesar Chavez High School.

Casting was equally touchy, Rose said.

"The famous teen-age actresses, most of them wouldn't go near it out of fear, or their parents wouldn't let them do it,'' she said.

Muth, an 18-year-old whose credits include "Dolores Claiborne,'' rose to the challenge. She and the reliably superb Channing are effective foils as a battling mother and daughter, with Muth veering believably between adolescent cockiness and despair.

"She's a smart, wonderful, talented kid. She has a gay friend and it never occurred to her to be frightened of doing this,'' Rose said of the young actress.

Alicia Lagano, 23, plays Jane's first romance, Taylor (brief scenes show them kissing and sharing a bed). RuPaul Charles, clean-scrubbed and out of his drag costume, offers a sensitive turn as a family friend.

The film was made with guidance from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the support group Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).

"It's too rare to have the opportunity to do a story like this and I wanted to get it right,'' Rose said. There was another, equally important reason for the latter group's involvement.

"PFLAG has never really had a movie where they had a big part in it, so it was really important to them,'' Rose said. "And it was really important to me that kids and parents watching it knew where to get help if they were in trouble.''

Although homosexual characters and themes have become the stuff of mainstream shows like "Will & Grace,'' social tolerance has not kept pace, Rose contends. When vulnerable youngsters come out as gay or lesbian, she said, they risk hostility and even violence.

"Regardless of whether the media has gay sitcoms and gay movies, the real world doesn't reflect that,'' Rose said. "As long as we can't shoot a movie about a gay teen-ager in a public school in Phoenix and the Matthew Shepards are killed and other people kill themselves because of abuse from peers, then I'm not so sure how far we've moved forward.''

Shepard, 21, was a gay University of Wyoming college student beaten to death in 1998 partly because of his sexual orientation. He is listed in the dedication for "The Truth About Jane,'' and Rose and Channing helped honor his parents at a Washington, D.C., PFLAG event.

The gathering was a harsh reminder for Channing of the ugliest side of anti-gay fervor.

"A lot of the parents stood up and bore witness to what had happened to their kids, and it was chilling and very moving,'' the actress said. "These people were talking about their own struggles and what their kids had gone through, and some had lost kids through suicide or violence.''

"The Truth About Jane'' does not dwell in the darkest corners of homophobia. The tender relationship between Jane and new student Taylor is affected not by violence but by the intolerance of Jane's parents.

The most bruising moments are between Jane and her mother, whose enlightenment ends when the issue of homosexuality crosses her own threshold.

"How do you know what you feel? You're a 16-year-old kid,'' she snaps at Jane after her daughter's revelation.

It isn't until Janice is faced with losing her daughter or accepting her that the two try to find a way to heal their rift. "When did you first feel that you were, uh ...?'' a discomfited Janice asks.

"A lesbian? It's OK, you can say it without becoming one,'' Jane says.

If her film errs on the side of optimism, Rose said, that's OK.

"I think people are still not really good about accepting a difference in someone else,'' she said, noting incidents of gay bashing and racially motivated attacks like the dragging death of a black Texas man.

"I keep trying to make sense out of it in movies, because I can't make sense out of it in the real world,'' Rose said. If even one parent and one child finds comfort or answers in her film, she said, "I've succeeded.''

· Lynn Elber can be reached at lelber@ap.org

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