After offending gays, Asians, and audiences with its ignoble release last summer, the Adam Sandler gay marriage vehicle I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry has found itself back in the news this week with equally confounding results. According to the Washington Post (via Videogum), new legislation that could provide employee benefit programs to the partners of gay federal employees is under siege thanks to Office of Personnel Management deputy director Howard C. Weizmann, who cites the Sandler movie as reason enough not to put the plan into action:

Mexican audiences will be able to find out what all the bear-on-bear fireman fuss was about, as Los declaro marido y ... Larry—aka I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry—is finally getting a release there. (It rolled into Spain a few weeks ago, with the far catchier title Os Declaro Marido Y Marido, and an accompanying feeder-fetish website that hearkens to other classics of the genre.) In Mexico City to promote the opening, Adam Sandler appears to have fallen for the oldest wire reporter trick in the book—answering "Sure, why not?" to a seemingly innocuous but strategically phrased question, then waking up to headlines outlining your passionate commitment to fighting for gay rights:

From the moment Universal released the trailer for I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry—an edgier Adam Sandler vehicle in which he plays a fireman who comes to realize that his sexual and emotional needs can only be fully satisfied by the bear community—we were confident that the studio had not just a commercial and critical hit on their hands, but a watershed contribution to the Queer cinema canon. Shockingly, the nation's critics have completely missed the movie's point. What follows is a selection of headlines from today's reviews for this deeply misunderstood film, proving, at the very least, that not all of the marriage puns were used up trashing License to Wed:
· Adam Sandler Tops Himself with Chuck & Larry, Alas [palmbeachpost.com]
· 'Chuck and Larry' gay, not funny [StarTribune.com]
· 'Chuck & Larry' will lead you straight to exit [ABQTrib.com]

Fresh off her triumphant turn as I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry's featured fake-gay-home-wrecking plot device, bodaciously tata'd ingenue Jessica Biel is busily plotting her next career moves. Like fellow B-list fantasy object Jessica Alba, Biel is concerned her looks might be preventing her from winning the kinds of Serious Parts she feels she's ready to tackle. Talking to MTV News, she says she's ready to subject herself to the rigors of the prosthetic uglification process:

Despite having received the GLAAD Squeal of Approval™, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry has mostly underwhelmed critics, one of whom wrote, "[It] isn't just unfunny; it's racist, sexist and homophobic — and truly unpleasant to watch." (In fairness, we should mention that the Village Voice review declared it "as eloquent as Brokeback Mountain," and included the pull-quote ready, "This sodomite had a gay old time"— sure to become the centerpiece of the movie's print marketing campaign.) It's not just critics who find themselves offended, however: At a TCA week promotional party for NBC's fall slate, Heroes' teleporting office worker Masi Oka disapproved of Rob Schneider's turn as the fake-gay couple's slanty-eyed officiating officer. From the USA Today report:

Whatever progress Hollywood looked to be making in telling mature, well-observed stories of sheepwrangler-on-sheepwrangler action in Brokeback Mountain appears at first glance to have been set back considerably by the impending release of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, an Adam Sandler comedy about two straight firemen who unconvincingly masquerade as a gay couple in order to get into Jessica Biel's pants. Don't let the stereotype-laden and unfunny trailer that's been running ad nauseam since April give you the wrong idea, however. A GLAAD authority has seen the movie twice, and stamped it Gay Kosher:

In its current issue, The Advocate pointedly asks why I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry was scheduled to premiere opposite Outfest's opening night—the one night that was sure to siphon off at least some of the rose-tinted limelight away from the festival and towards the Adam Sandler and Kevin James comedy about healthy, American males masquerading as (ha ha!) betrothed sodomites: