House Husbands, a gay, Palm Springs-centric web series, is screening as part of the 2023 Cinema Diverse lineup, on Friday, September 29 at the Palm Springs Cultural Center.
In the film, Sylvester (Sam Pancake) is the toast of the town in his affluent gay community in Palm Springs. He has a fabulous house, fabulous friends and a handsome, successful husband, Howard (Tim Christian). They’re the picture of a perfect couple…until Howard tells Sylvester he wants a divorce.
Enter Christopher (Jason Caceres), a local masseur only interested in one thing: a wealthy man. And the man he traps? Howard.
Crestfallen, Sylvester reaches out to his friends for support. First he contacts Eddy Porter (Michael Henry). Eddy is the town gossip who worships his best friend Sylvester. Until Eddy gets a stern command from his therapist (Lori Beth Denberg), “No more Sylvester!”
With no Eddy to depend on, Sylvester seeks the help of perhaps the only stable couple in all of Palm Springs, the wealthy alpha gays…Glenn (Barry Brisco) and John Coldwater
(Les Kurkendaal-Barrett), who are trying to have a baby via surrogate, Lily (Vana Bell).
Everything comes to a head at a dinner party of the flamboyant Franklin Count (Bruce Vilanch) who is celebrating his own divorce from his… um… wife, Agatha (Barbera Howard).
When Sylvester crashes the party with his trusty sidekick Eddy, this once functional but never healthy friend group combusts.
Written and directed by Michael Monteiro Wise, produced by Iris Almaraz, Katie Gilligan, and Wise, ‘House Husbands’ is a love letter to the 1936 play and film “The Women.” While “The Women” was a satire centered around wealthy wives living in New York City, “House Husbands” is a modern satire centered around gay men in Palm Springs.