Even Christian music can't redeem Maple Palm

A tacky gay-rights flick to make Ed Wood proud features the voice and music of a Christian singer – a singer who for years served on worship teams at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church.

But even the Christian music angle can't redeem this film's soft-porn touch: One film poster show’s a bird’s eye view of two naked women embracing in a bathtub. The film’s trailer shows multiple scenes of lesbian love and clichéd moments, such as the now overly ripe scene of lovers eating grapes together. According to the story-line Maple Palm is about a lesbian couple of fifteen years who have been living with the secret that one of them is an undocumented immigrant. “After visiting the Statue of Liberty, the girls return home to Los Angeles, unaware that a routine security check at the icon of freedom was about to strip them of their own.”

The producers of Maple Palm – which was filmed in just two weeks - admit that they are playing the religion card, describing the film’s soundtrack that features Rebecca Hansen and Katy J as “an edgy, eclectic mix of Christian music and alternative rock.” Reads one press statement, “Rebecca, a devout Christian known for religious ballads, is excited to see her music featured in a lesbian love story where her lyrics take on a profound duality in meaning.”

“I get angry at discrimination. Maybe part of that was being raised by a father who was a bigot,” says Hansen, a divorced mother of two young adults. “All people have the right to get married – white, gay, Hispanic or black,” she says, adding that while she isn’t gay she is “a liberal Christian.”

The film’s producers say their film highlights the immigration discrimination that affects “nearly 100,000 same-sex partners.” The film is set to open Nov. 10 in Los Angeles in limited