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Van Sant Spills About Milk

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 23, 2008 4:58 PM CST

(Newser) – What do President-elect Barack Obama and a 1970s gay activist have in common? Grassroots backing and a yes-we-can ethos, Rachel Abramowitz writes in the Los Angeles Times. “I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living,” said Harvey Milk, a San Francisco supervisor and gay-rights activist played by Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant’s upcoming movie, Milk.

The voluble Milk, gunned down by a colleague in 1978, encouraged gays to come out and pursue public office. “He was really idealistic,” said Van Sant, 56, who is gay. The director acknowledges his idiosyncratic films don’t feature the “Ozzie and Harriet” of gay life: “People that live just like straight people except they're gay. I haven't done that story.”

[Images (4)]

[Videos (2)]

In this photo provided by Starpix, Sean Penn, left, and Gus Van Sant attend a special screening of "Milk" hosted by Focus Features with the Cinema Society in New York. (AP Photo/Dave Allocca, Starpix)

Gus Van Sant, director of the film "Milk," arrives at the premiere of the film at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

American director Gus Van Sant speaks during a press conference for the film "Paranoid Park," at the 60th International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on Monday, May 21, 2007. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

In this image released by Focus Features, Sean Penn portrays gay rights activist Harvey Milk, left, and Victor Garber portrays San Francisco Mayor George Moscone in a scene from, "Milk." (AP Photo/Focus Features, Phil Bray)

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The trailer for Gus Van Sant's "Milk." (buzzinfo)

In his own words: Harvey Milk implores everyone to come out (1978). (bstewart23)

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