Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 4, 1995 TAG: 9502090007
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SUSAN KING LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: HOLLYWOOD LENGTH: Medium
Now NBC is telling the whole story in a movie produced by Barbra Streisand and starring Glenn Close. ``Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story'' airs Monday night (at 9 on WSLS-Channel 10).
In 1989, Cammermeyer was an Army nurse with 24 years of service and a Bronze Star she earned in Vietnam. A divorcee with four sons, her life abruptly changed when she applied for the job as chief nurse of the National Guard. Cammermeyer, in response to questions asked in a top-secret security clearance, told the truth - that she was a lesbian. Three years later, she was dismissed from the National Guard under the 1981 Department of Defense regulation that required the discharge of any person in the military whose acts or statements indicated a ``propensity'' to engage in homosexual behavior. She became the highest-ranking officer ever to be booted from the military because of sexual orientation.
In 1993, after six months of heated negotiations between the military and his administration, President Clinton announced the ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy. On June 1, 1994, a federal judge in Seattle ordered the National Guard to reinstate Cammermeyer, ruling her discharge based on sexual orientation was unconstitutional. That decision is currently on appeal.
Barbra Streisand makes her TV movie-producing debut as executive producer of ``Serving in Silence.'' Close (``Sarah, Plain and Tall''), Cis Corman (who is president of Streisand's Barwood Films) and Neil Meron and Craig Zadan (``Gypsy'') are also executive producers.
``Barbra had read an article about Grethe and immediately said we have to do this film,'' Corman recalls. ``She felt that this was one of the most important social issues today and wanted to pursue it immediately.''
Cammermeyer, Corman says, was at first reluctant. ``Barbra had said to Grethe, `How do you feel about seeing yourself all over the television?''' Corman says. ``She said she didn't think she would like that, but after spending two hours [with Streisand] she absolutely felt confident with Barbra and knew her involvement would mean this would be a film with dignity and honesty. Once we were on board together, Barbra's choice to play Grethe was Glenn.''
Close, currently starring on Broadway in ``Sunset Boulevard,'' was not very familiar with Cammermeyer's case. ``I think I was aware of her, but I don't think it was something I pored over newspapers about.''
But once she talked with Meron and Zadan, she knew she had to be involved. ``This woman is such an exemplary person,'' Close explains. ``She is kind of like the purest case for why no gays in the military is such a misguided and wrong policy. Her personal story is so compelling.''
The producers knew the film would reach its widest audience as a TV project. ``I don't think we ever discussed this as a feature film,'' Corman says. ``We wanted a network. We knew that, hopefully, we would have millions of viewers tuning in.''
``We also wanted to make it [for TV],'' Meron says, ``because if you develop it as a feature film you are not quite sure you are going to be able to make it.''
Cammermeyer didn't realize she had romantic interests in women until 1988. That year, she and her four sons were vacationing with friends in Oregon when she met artist and teacher Diane Divelbess, played by Judy Davis in the movie. As depicted in the film, when Cammermeyer meets Divelbess, she falls unexpectedly in love with her. While she realized she was gay, Cammermeyer didn't publicly acknowledge it until the security-clearance interview. The people she believed would turn against her - her sons, her strong-willed father and her co-workers - all rallied around and supported her. It was the military that dismissed her.
Emmy Award-winning writer Alison Cross (``Roe vs. Wade'') traveled to Seattle, where Cammermeyer lives and works nearby at the Veterans Administration hospital in Tacoma. Cross spent time with Divelbess, Cammermeyer and her children, her superiors in the military, her subordinates, her boss and her attorney.
``Grethe is such an amazing woman,'' Cross says. ``What I find so amazing about her is that she is eloquent without being glib. She gives you a thoughtful straight-from-the-heart answer, which she did in the original interview with the military. Not everyone would have done that. It would have been easy to sidestep the question. She didn't because it would have been untrue at the core.''
by CNB