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(Deadline freelancer Sharon Swart is helping cover the Sundance Film Festival)
EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that Oprah Winfrey’s upstart cable network OWN has acquired Becoming Chaz, the Fenton Bailey/Randy Barbato-directed feature documentary that will make its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and follows the gender reassignment journey that transformed Cher’s and the late Sonny Bono’s daughter Chastity into their son, Chaz Bono. The network is prepping a soiree up at the festival, where OWN will likely make a formal announcement of this deal. The network has already acquired more than half a dozen documentaries. Oprah’s chief content officer Lisa Erspamer will be at the fest looking for more. 
More importantly for the film, Chaz Bono will be on hand for a film that makes its first festival premiere on Sunday, January 23. Bailey and Barbato are Sundance vets whose credits include The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Party Monster, and Inside Deep Throat. World of Wonder, the production shingle of Bailey and Barbato, previously set the Sarah Ferguson series Finding Sarah with OWN, and they are the executive producers of another doc at the fest this year, the Billy Luther-directed Grab.
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Much like Unstoppable I’m buying a ticket for this train wreck.
Thank you Oprah, your network blows but this is a coup.
An unusual story certainly but a “train wreck” is in the eye of the beholder. Hope the film avoids sensationalism and sticks with the humanity.
What a strong team OWN has. And it apparently it is a team. Lisa is not doing this alone.
A fat unattractive woman becomes a fat unattractive man. Not exactly a game changer. Cher could perform the surgery and I still couldn’t be less interested, nor will the hausfrau mafia she commands.
But Oprah doesn’t need ratings. She can put on shows because “she likes them.” Good luck with all those make-goods when your shows don’t perform for advertisers, Miss Koresh.
Why do you have to hate on Oprah? What exactly has she done that has had a NEGATIVE impact on your life? She hasn’t. It’s pretty simple, you don’t like her views, don’t watch her shows, and don’t read the books she likes. But when it comes down to it, Oprah has had a positive influence on millions of people. I’m not a huge fan, but I recognize and respect the good that she does.
Really, Oprah? The yuk factor is above the charts on this one, but it isn’t a surprise since she gave hate-monger Rosie O’Donnell a trip out of her hell hole.
It looks like The Oprah has a convoluted and weird agenda – and that rarely attracts viewers or ratings.
Lets see how much ratings she gets. And I see that you are also one of those hate mongers who doesn’t have the ***** to put your real name up here either. And unlike you, Oprah is a very intelligent, open-minded individual who usually knows what people want to hear.
If Cher wasn’t her mommy no one would give a rats ass. This is one step away from a Jerry Springer episode. Hey, no one says Oprah had to be classy to start a network. Pass.
Daaaaaaaaaa, of course people care more because it’s Cher’s child. A lot of us grew up watching them and feel like they were a big part of our lives and our society. That’s what makes it so interesting and great.
I certainly won’t miss this one. But I have to admit, there seems to be a huge level of Hollywood phoniness involved because Chaz kept saying he wanted his ‘privacy,’ and now we find out he had been making a documentary all along?? Obviously privacy wasn’t a major concern if he planned on giving everyone the details later on.
World of Wonder is such a terribly managed, miserable place. Randy and Fenton must be very talented to have so much success with such a shit company.
Have any of you even watched her talk show? This is exactly the type of stuff she has on there. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that her network is going to be the same thing, just on a larger scale. She’ll still get viewers. Though I can’t say I’ll be one of them.
If “she” didn’t change the chromosomal component of “her” DNA, it’s not “gender reassignment” – it’s mutilation.
So, how did “she” change her DNA?
The film may address this; should be interesting.
The above comments are offensive and hateful for really no reason at all.
As harsh as they are the responses above do have ring of truth to them, and that’s what you really don’t want to admit… do you?
She isn’t a man, nor will she ever be one. That is just the plain honest truth.
She might want to think that she is man now, and have others consider her to be so, but that doesn’t make it true.
That being said I do hope she finds some peace eventually in this life, but living a delusion most likely won’t help her do that.
And ignorance won’t help you through life either. How come it’s people like you, with negative things to say, who won’t put their real names up here? The delusion is trying to be what others want us to be and not ourselves.
I AM SOO EXCITED OVER THIS MOVIE. i CAN’T WAIT TO SEE IT. A FRIEND AT PRIDE LAFAYETTE MET CHAZ (HAD PIC TAKEN TOGETHER AND GOT AUTOGRAPH) AT SOUTHERN COMFORT CONFERENCE A FEW MONTHS AGO. I AM TRYING HARD TO BE ON CHAZ’S FRIEND LIST. HE IS MY BROTHER. ALWAYS, MARCI
I feel strongly a documentary on gender re-assignment will educate the public on a subject that touches so many lives. I feel sad to read statements that are hurtful and attacking to a persons physical being. We are adults watching/listing/ reading/and learning of a painful excistance such as chaz bono has experienced. I am not concerned of chaz bono’s body type, and I am not sure why anyone else is either. I could never imagine being forced to live as a women on the outside and knowing I am a man on the inside. The simple things most of us take for granted in life…are so painful for those living with the daily conflict in who we see on the physical outside, and who they know they are on the inside. My grandma taught me…By the grace of god there goes I. Well…it is true…by the grace of god…but I never dreamed not ever that…My own beautiful daughter has painfully lived her 18 years in a lonely exsistance hiding from herself, and the world around her. Let her and others help you see they have something to teach us. I thank Chaz Bono for being so brave to expose something about himself that most all of us will never endure.
“a subject that touches so many lives”?
How many? More than a handful? Nobody cares, dearie; some people are just miswired and unfortunately, hacking away at them in a surgical suite doesn’t fix anything.
The two posts above provide the best answer I’ve seen to the eternal question “How much harm could too much Oprah do to society?”
I am thrilled to know about this film and hoping that audiences will have an open mind in order to understand the scenario.
Chaz is not alone with this one; he is putting himself out there for everyone to take in that there is a “transgender” society of people and they deserve to be heard just like anyone else.
Science has now confirmed that a Transgenders brain is different and does not match their anatomy, The lack of intelligence and ignorance and religious speel often go hand in hand. People are born with all kinds of diseases and deformaties, Some male fetuses get too much esotrogen in the womb and have female brain wiring with male anatomy, Some female fetuses get too much testosterone and get a male wired brain with female anatomy. Please educate yourselves on this topic, Im a very spiritual God fearing person btw, I just look at things on a scientific level as well so Im not a ignorant person but a more compassionate one.
Thank you for being educated.
I am so sorry that in this day and age there is still so much bigotry in the world and so much ignorance and hate about people who are the reason why this world is so exciting and interesting. The people who wrote negative comments above are probably the same people who one day will find out that one or two of there children have always been gay and have had to hide it because of there parents bigotry,the same people who will one day learn or have already learned that there mates ended up with them because they were trying to deny who they really were inside because of people just like them, the same people who were taught to hate by a parent who denied there own sexuality and showed it by displaying insecurities condenming homosexuals and transgendered people, the same people who grew up with a best friend who secretly was in love with them and of the same sex but never knew it, the same people who will one day have to face that this world will always be made up of diversity in its many forms. Now that we are approaching a time when people dont have to lie about who they really are inside anymore I think that this honesty will bring upon a new age of acceptance around the world. obviously not for those people above just yet, but hopefully one day soon, when it hits close to home, if it hasn’t already. I myself have always believed that weather we have a choice in who we are (like myself, I’ll explain shortly) or weather we don’t because our sexuality is so strongly engrained in our inner being, we should always be accepting of who people are and love them for their differences. I believe I am one of the lucky ones in life, because I don’t label myself as anything in particular yet have been able to see the world through many different eyes. I have always loved people from the inside first and admired their beautiful outside too. I don’t consider myself bi-sexual because I am not attracted to anyone of either sex when I am in a relationship with the one I love. I have been married to a man for 10 years, married to a woman for 10 years and before and in between have always loved people for their beautiful differences that made them unique and special. If only the rest of the world could do this, they may be able to raise the most open minded intelligent children like me and my partners have raised, to make this world a better place for all. Btw I am proud to be a beautiful woman, but if one day I chose to see what it would be like to see the world through a mans eyes, that would be my choice and not one I should be condenmed for (not that I will
). Thank You all for making this world a better place without hate or disgust, just love and acceptance.
Why are people being so negative about it? Live and let live. I personally can’t wait to see the movie.
It is interesting that people are called “bigoted” simply because they don’t share the same point of view. Narrow minded? Perhaps all could look at the others point of view. Religious people are not necessarily narrow minded. But to judge religious people as narrow minded is.
We can not know a person’s shoes until we walk in them. I grew up watching Sonny and Cher. Chastity was an adorable little girl and I am absolutely not convinced that her mutilation is going to make her happy in the long run. It is a perfect example of how much we are influenced by our environment.