Weaver's 'Prayers' deals with gay issues

DETROIT, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- The upcoming U.S. cable TV movie "Prayers for Bobby" may offer enlightenment to parents, an official with a gay family support group says.

Mike Neubecker, vice president of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said the Lifetime channel movie features Sigourney Weaver in the role of real-life mother Mary Griffith, whose gay son committed suicide, the Detroit Free Press reported Sunday.

Griffith's struggles to accept her son's homosexuality and suicide were depicted in a 1995 book by author Leroy Aarons. Neubecker hopes parents across the country can learn something from the TV adaptation.

"I hope the message of this movie is to listen to your children and seek out accurate information," Neubecker said. "It's a story that needs to be told."

For Weaver, who has been nominated for three Academy Awards during her lengthy career, one glimpse at the script was enough for her to relocate to Detroit to begin filming. The movie premieres Saturday.

"Once Lifetime gave the producers the OK, they came to me very quickly. I read it quickly and I said 'yes,'" she told the Free Press.