It was kiss of death back then (Harry Hamlin says playing a gay character in 1982 ruined his career)

Actor Harry Hamlin insisted for 24 years that playing a gay writer who beds a married man in the film Making Love didn't hurt his blossoming movie career. Now, as Making Love is released on DVD (Fox, $15), Hamlin tells the truth: ``I can't say it more emphatically -- playing that part ended my feature-film career.'' ''You get an Oscar today,'' Hamlin said, referring to Brokeback Mountain stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, both currently nominated for Academy Awards. After Making Love, Hamlin never again met with movie executives from a major studio. ''It was over,'' said Hamlin, who the year before Making Love had starred in 1981's big-budget Clash of the Titans. Studio heads asked, ''How can we put this guy in a movie when he has to be a romantic lead when he has [Making Love] behind him,'' said Hamlin, 55, who settled for a fruitful career in television. ``I ended up doing L.A. Law.'' Hamlin now appears as slimy Aaron Echolls on UPN's Veronica Mars. 20th Century Fox's Making Love, co-starring Michael Ontkean as the gay married doctor and Kate Jackson as his wife, bombed at the box office in '82. There was no nudity or explicit sex. But mainstream audiences weren't ready to watch two actors kiss each other full on the mouths. ''We did two takes of the scene. It was the first take that ended up in the movie,'' Hamlin recalled. ``I said, `Let's at least make it a gentle kiss, rather than a torrid mouth-wrenching kiss. We don't need to use any tongues because it was a first kiss.' ``All the [studio] brass came over to see the scene. [Method-actor Ontkean] put his hand behind my neck so he could hold my head. Suddenly his tongue was right down. It was major. I was mortified, but it was what was required for the scene. He was holding my head so I couldn't break away.'' It was at the movie's L.A. preview that Hamlin realized he'd made a bad career move. ''I was mortified. Certainly my friends were mortified,'' Hamlin said. ``When we walked out of the screening, I hung back and talked to a friend of mine. When I got to the parking lot, [the others] were all gone.'' Making Love screenwriter Barry Sandler had a similar experience. He took his aunts and uncles in Miami to see the film on opening day. ``We drive up for the 7 o'clock show and there was a huge line. Mostly straight couples. I said, `Wow! Do they have any idea what this movie is about?' ``Gradually, the men show a little more intimacy.'' Then, the kiss. ''When that happens, you would have thought a bomb went off in the theater. There were a couple of hundred people who stormed up the middle aisle,'' perhaps an exaggeration. Gay audiences had a different reaction. ''They burst into applause,'' Sandler said. Sandler, who co-wrote Making Love with future Pulitzer winner A. Scott Berg (Lindbergh), takes pride in the film. ''It was the first movie that came out of a major studio to deal with this in a positive way,'' Sandler said. Until Making Love, gay men and lesbians were shown as ''victims and suicides and killers and butts of jokes,'' said Sandler, now a a film professor at the University of Central Florida. Making Love depicted ''a positive image of a gay person,'' he said, ``and the gay person is presented as your son or your brother or your doctor or your husband.''

Actor Harry Hamlin insisted for 24 years that playing a gay writer who beds a married man in the film Making Love didn't hurt his blossoming movie career.
Now, as Making Love is released on DVD (Fox, $15), Hamlin tells the truth:
``I can't say it more emphatically -- playing that part ended my feature-film career.''
''You get an Oscar today,'' Hamlin said, referring to Brokeback Mountain stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, both currently nominated for Academy Awards.
After Making Love, Hamlin never again met with movie executives from a major studio. ''It was over,'' said Hamlin, who the year before Making Love had starred in 1981's big-budget Clash of the Titans.
Studio heads asked, ''How can we put this guy in a movie when he has to be a romantic lead when he has [Making Love] behind him,'' said Hamlin, 55, who settled for a fruitful career in television. ``I ended up doing L.A. Law.''
Hamlin now appears as slimy Aaron Echolls on UPN's Veronica Mars.
20th Century Fox's Making Love, co-starring Michael Ontkean as the gay married doctor and Kate Jackson as his wife, bombed at the box office in '82.
There was no nudity or explicit sex. But mainstream audiences weren't ready to watch two actors kiss each other full on the mouths.
''We did two takes of the scene. It was the first take that ended up in the movie,'' Hamlin recalled. ``I said, `Let's at least make it a gentle kiss, rather than a torrid mouth-wrenching kiss. We don't need to use any tongues because it was a first kiss.'
``All the [studio] brass came over to see the scene. [Method-actor Ontkean] put his hand behind my neck so he could hold my head. Suddenly his tongue was right down. It was major. I was mortified, but it was what was required for the scene. He was holding my head so I couldn't break away.''
It was at the movie's L.A. preview that Hamlin realized he'd made a bad career move.
''I was mortified. Certainly my friends were mortified,'' Hamlin said. ``When we walked out of the screening, I hung back and talked to a friend of mine. When I got to the parking lot, [the others] were all gone.''
Making Love screenwriter Barry Sandler had a similar experience. He took his aunts and uncles in Miami to see the film on opening day.
``We drive up for the 7 o'clock show and there was a huge line. Mostly straight couples. I said, `Wow! Do they have any idea what this movie is about?'
``Gradually, the men show a little more intimacy.''
Then, the kiss.
''When that happens, you would have thought a bomb went off in the theater. There were a couple of hundred people who stormed up the middle aisle,'' perhaps an exaggeration.
Gay audiences had a different reaction.
''They burst into applause,'' Sandler said.
Sandler, who co-wrote Making Love with future Pulitzer winner A. Scott Berg (Lindbergh), takes pride in the film.
''It was the first movie that came out of a major studio to deal with this in a positive way,'' Sandler said.
Until Making Love, gay men and lesbians were shown as ''victims and suicides and killers and butts of jokes,'' said Sandler, now a a film professor at the University of Central Florida.
Making Love depicted ''a positive image of a gay person,'' he said, ``and the gay person is presented as your son or your brother or your doctor or your husband.''

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