Kissing Reese Witherspoon: Kissing Jessica Stein director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld guides the newly minted superstar through the think-pink sequel Legally Blonde 2.

Talk about a dog-eat-dog town. A minute ago filmmaker Charles Herman-Wurmfeld (Kissing Jessica Stein.) was striding happily through a Santa Monica, Calif., coffeehouse when a large sheepdog shot out from his master's table and bit him in the tush. "And now here I am dropping my pants in front of everybody," the 36-year-old director remarks as he lowers his jeans to assess the damage. "lt's just another day in Hollywood."

Ironically enough, dogs--specifically, a certain charismatic Chihuahua named Bruiser--figure prominently in Herman-Wurmfelds new film, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde. This time around, Reese Witherspoon's sorority girl-turned-legal eagle, Elle Woods, heads to Washington, D.C., where she champions "Bruiser's Bill," an animal rights amendment named for her loyal purse-size pooch. "Some might see it as a frivolous piece of fluff," he says of the film, "but it's also about First Amendment issues and people's right to say what they believe."

"Charles had great ideas about the importance of the movie's message, but he also understands that you still have to have fun," says Witherspoon. "He's a very smart sensitive director."

Though Herman-Wurmfeld had nothing to do with the 2001 original, he recalls feeling a connection to its irrepressible heroine. "I think the reason the first Legally Blonde did so well, particularly in the gay community, is because Elle Woods dares to be herself," asserts the director-actor-banjo player. Of course, Elle's fabulous-in-fuchsia fashion sense didn't hurt either. "The whole movie was just kind of queer," says Herman-Wurmfeld, who shares a house in Los Angeles's Silver Lake neighborhood with his lover of five years, actorwriter Jason Bushman. "My favorite thing in the new movie is probably Elle's pink sequined cell phone. It looks like a little high-heeled shoe."

Herman-Wurmfeld's journey to the land of pink cell phones began in Manhattan, where he grew up the son of an architect father and a documentary photographer mother. After studying theater at Ohio's Oberlin College, he landed in San Francisco, made his first feature (Fanci's Persuasion), and then woke up one morning and thought, I can't have a career as a filmmaker here. I have to go to L.A. A week later, armed with his trusty banjo and a $20 tent from Kmart, he hopped on his bicycle and literally pedaled to Hollywood, sleeping in the tent en route.

Soon after, Herman-Wurmfeld be-friended Jennifer Westfeldt and Heather Juergensen, the stars and writers of Kissing Jessica Stein, while slinging java at their neighborhood coffeehouse. The director's deep connection to the story--at 21, Herman-Wurmfeld fell for a college friend who ended the relationship after six months because he wasn't gay--convinced the pair that he was the right director for their baby.

The film became a sleeper hit, not only garnering Herman-Wurmfeld a job helming The Facts of Life Reunion TV movie ("Tootie actually had to say the line 'Ooh, there's going to be trouble,'" he recalls) but attracting the attention of a certain up-and-coming superstar. "I got a call from my agent saying, 'Reese Witherspoon loves Jessica Stein and wants to meet you,'" he recalls. The pair had coffee together, and a few months later Herman-Wurmfeld received the offer to direct Legally Blonde 2.

"I want to do fight by Reese," he says when asked if he feels pressure to deliver a big summer hit. "I'd also prefer not to be known as the director who sank MGM."

As for being out in Hollywood, Herman-Wurmfeld believes there is indeed a professional closet. "And I'm supposed to be in it," he laments. He cites as an example the fact that his live-in-relationship with Bushman keeps being mysteriously omitted from his studio-prepped bio. "They say, 'You know, it's not normal to put that in there,' and I go, 'Do you think that Reese Witherspoon doesn't mention her husband, Ryan Phillippe, in her bio? I'll bet she does. So what are you saying?' "

Herman-Wurmfeld drinks the last of his free tea--part of his dog-attack compensation package--then brings his point home. "Homophobia is real in the world, and the only way that it will stop is when people stand up and say, 'I'm gay. I'm proud. Come talk to me about it if you have a problem.' That's what Elle Woods would do."

Hensley is the author of Screening Party (Alyson).