THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

"I was projecting all kinds of anxiety, even as I was trying to make Rich ( Richard Ruccolo, of ABCs Two Guys and a Girl ) feel comfortable ... but all I was doing was making him feel uncomfortable. It was, by far, the hardest thing I have ever done as an actor. But Rich was like, Look, let's try to make this as believable as possible, and it was through his talent and commitment to making the scene work that finally allowed me to relax. You know, there were several moments in this film, where Rich ( who dates actress Tiffani Thiessen offscreen ) would say there's no kiss written for this [ scene ] , don't you think we would kiss here? And he would be right."

But it's that kind of skittish, nervous chemistry that gives this film...a romantic comedy about two 20-something opposites who are paired-off courtesy of their hetero best friends...the kind of verve it needs to distinguish itself in a genre that is sagging under the weight of predictable screenplays. All Over the Guy, which features cameo appearances by Christina Ricci, Lisa Kudrow and Doris Roberts ( Everybody Loves Raymond ) in a role she describes as her "raunchiest" to date, was adapted for the screen by Bucatinsky from his own play, originally about a relationship between a man and a woman. "I didn't set out to write a movie about a gay relationship or a straight relationship," says Bucatinsky, who has appeared in the films Opposite of Sex and Bounce directed by Don Roos, his lover of nine years, as well as on TVs Will & Grace, Cybill and Party of Five. "And the fact that it was based on a play I had written about a straight couple already started to break down a bit of the stereotypes. At some points, I literally took out the names of the play's characters and just inserted the names "Eli" and "Tom." And I think this proves the point that you can change genders in a story, but keep the issues, and you've created a work that is just about relationships."

In the film, Eli ( Bucantisky ) and Tom ( Ruccolo ) are set up on a blind date by their respective best friends Jackie and Brett. Jackie meets Brett while shopping for furniture, and despite the fact that Brett uses words like Buttercup to describe the color of a love seat, he manages to convince her that he is heterosexual. During the course of their awkward flirtation, they decide to fix up their dear gay friends Eli and Tom. Their blind date is a disaster, filled with uncomfortable silences, vacuous small talk and one vitriolic rant concerning the movie IN & OUT. They are polar opposites: Eli is a bespectacled editor for a Los Angeles newspaper who indulges in X-files TV marathons and Tom is a hunky special Ed teacher devoted to drinking, smoking and promiscuous sex. But what happens when the two accidentally bump into each other a few days later at a flea market ( Eli is searching for a Planet of the Apes action figure and Tom is looking for a vintage martini set ) takes them both on a journey that unlayers the vanities, longings and embarrassments of two individuals looking for love.

The movie has generated enough buzz to prompt ABC to ask Bucatinsky to begin developing a half-hour sitcom centered around the gay characters in his film. "I was able to sell it [ to ABC ] based on the footage from the film," he says, sounding mildly surprised. "I want it to pick up where Will & Grace left off. I want to see the two people in a relationship sharing the same bed. And I want to show the normal, everyday stuff couples go through like fighting over the remote control. Some TV story lines like Queer as Folk have a uniquely gay point of view...it's like the Sex and the City for the gay population. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that it's on TV and it's an amazing step. But I want to show something new, something that isn't just uniquely gay or straight."

It's enough to inspire envy in every fledgling screenplay writer: not only has the alphabet network expressed interest in Bucatinsky's work, but the film, which marks his feature writing debut, attracted interest from a variety of high-wattage actors. The actor-producer-writer charmingly shrugs off such praise and points out that Lisa Kudrow and Christina Ricci are friends of his.

"Christina and I have a sibling-type relationship and we actually play brother and sister in the film. I wrote the part for her, knowing that she might not even be available when it was time to start shooting. She came to live with us for a couple of months after the Opposite of Sex wrapped and we became close."

The title of the film, All Over the Guy, was originally called The WE Thing, until a friend told Bucatinsky it sounded like a movie about a leprechaun's penis...a thought he still finds endlessly amusing. "From that moment on, I couldn't shake the sound of the MovieFone guys saying 'If you want to see THE WEE THING, press 1!' So, I started riffing on titles and this phrase came into my head. I stared to think about the entire ordeal you go through in a relationship, how you can put yourself through so much angst over one person. And then the meanings kicked in as well. It was all about getting into somebody, then having to get over them. It was ALL OVER THE GUY."