Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss is a 1998 American independent, gay-themed romantic comedy film written and directed by Tommy O'Haver and starring Sean P. Hayes, Brad Rowe, and Meredith Scott Lynn. The film was a breakthrough performance for Hayes, who would go from this film to his role as Jack McFarland on the hit television show Will & Grace.
Billy Collier (Sean P. Hayes) is an aspiring photographer in Los Angeles who has had little artistic success and much romantic frustration. He comes up with the idea of recreating iconic screen kisses from Hollywood movies (such as Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's in From Here to Eternity) using drag queens in the female roles. While out for coffee with his roommate Georgiana (Meredith Scott Lynn), he meets Gabriel (Brad Rowe), the server. That night at a party, Billy's friend Perry (Richard Ganoung) agrees to finance Billy's Screen Kiss project and Billy serendipitously runs into Gabriel. Billy recruits him to model and the two develop a friendship (although Gabriel says that he has a girlfriend in San Francisco).
Billy quickly becomes infatuated with Gabriel, but cannot figure out if Gabriel is really straight; Gabriel does little to help, continually sending ambiguous signals. At Perry's invitation, the two attend an exhibit by photographer Rex Webster, who tries to poach Gabriel as a model (and potential trick). Webster offers to take Gabriel to Catalina Island for an underwear ad shoot, sparking Billy's jealousy. Back at Gabriel's place, Billy and Gabriel seem to be getting closer but their rapport is interrupted by a phone call from Gabriel's girlfriend Natalie.
Billy shoots his first setup with Gabriel, the Lancaster-Kerr kiss. Following the shoot, Gabriel tells Billy that his relationship with Natalie is over. Billy mentions the Kinsey scale, on which Billy describes himself as a "perfect six," but Gabriel admits he does not know where on the scale he falls. Back at Billy's apartment, they continue to talk and drink and Gabriel asks if he can spend the night on the couch. Billy suggests that Gabriel sleep in his bed (ostensibly because of Gabriel's height), to which Gabriel eventually agrees. When the two are in bed, Billy makes tentative overtures, to which Gabriel seems to respond initially; however, Gabriel suddenly pulls away, after which Billy apologizes and gets up to sleep on the couch.
Gabriel gets the underwear modeling job and goes to Catalina. Billy follows after him to Catalina with Georgiana, who, on the rebound from her boyfriend, Andrew (Christopher Bradley), hooks up with drug-addled island resident "Gundy" (Carmine D. Giovinazzo). Billy crashes Rex Webster's (Paul Bartel) underwear shoot looking for Gabriel, but does not find him.
The film is a remake of writer/director O'Haver's earlier short film Catalina.
Cast
Sean P. Hayes as Billy Collier
Brad Rowe as Gabriel
Richard Ganoung (actor) as Perry
Meredith Scott Lynn as Georgiana
Matthew Ashford as Whitey
Armando Valdes-Kennedy as Fernando
Paul Bartel as Rex Webster