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Arts & Entertainment

George Clooney Signs On For Dustin Lance Black-Penned Proposition '8' Play

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Photo courtesy of Focus Features

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George Clooney has signed on to perform the Dustin Lance Black-penned script "8" when the play is premiered in Los Angeles this spring.

Black is the screenwriter for "J Edgar," "Big Love" and he won an award for his work on "Milk." His play "8" chronicling the challenge to Proposition 8, which made gay marriage in California illegal.

The play about California politics actually premiered in New York this fall, but Angelenos will have a chance to see it at the Ebell Theater this spring as a part of a fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights. Clooney's participation in the project is the first announcement about the cast.

“It is astonishing that gay and lesbian Americans are still treated as second-class citizens,” Clooney said in a statement. “I am confident that, very soon, the laws of this nation will reflect the basic truth that gay and lesbian people — like all human beings — are born equal in dignity and rights."

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