Hammering homophobia. (the Buzz).

HERE'S ONE TO FILE UNDER "Can't Touch This": After the film Don't Ask, Don't Tell was rejected as "too hot" to handle by various film production companies, California-based Character Entertainment has announced it will begin preproduction on the project in conjunction with MC Hammer's World Hit Films. As the title suggests, the film addresses the issue of gays in the military, but screenwriter Lance Dow promises a twist.

While interviewing military brass about gays and lesbians in the armed forces, Dow says, the higher-ups "complained to me. They said their best people were being expelled out from underneath them. Their fighting effectiveness was being damaged by the military's expulsion policy."

Hammer's friendships with gays and lesbians--in the music industry, on the Oakland A's baseball team (through his friendship with out player Glenn Burke), and in his church--influenced his decision to participate in the film. "In my experience with all of this," Hammer says, "I thought this movie [would] open up a dialogue and make sure that people's rights are not being harmed in any way."

Calling the film a cross between Philadelphia and A Few Good Men, Dow says Don't Ask, Don't Tell is designed to "move the people in the middle" toward embracing a policy of inclusion for gays and lesbians in the armed forces.

Notes Hammer: "Self-righteousness has no place when it invades upon the free will and the rights of others, and that's very important to me."