Robin Wright Penn and Sean Penn have called off their divorce (Now what are they going to do with all those invitations and registries?) That’s, of course, very exciting great news. But more exciting is the fact that Sean Penn will be playing slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected official, a San Francisco supervisor, who was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone by San Francisco Supervisor Dan White. The film, entitled Milk, which is in post-production, is directed by Gus Van Sant and stars Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin and Diego Luna. Of course, this is not the first film Penn has starred in which explores a serious and important issue. Penn’s other socially conscious films include The Assassination of Richard Nixon, The Thin Red Line, Dead Man Walking, Casualties of War, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (just kidding.) And Penn has directed political films as well including 11′09”01 - September 11 and Into the Wild. Penn also uses his celebrity to highlight the causes he believes in and has criticized the War in Iraq, toured Iraq to observe the war there and helped rescue workers with door-to-door searches for survivors after Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans.

Watch the video below set to the audio tape Milk recorded which was to be played only in the case of his assassination, which he predicted. You will be moved to So by learning about one of the many institutions which continues Milk’s legacy: The Harvey Milk High School in New York City, which provides a safe and supportive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth between the ages of 12 and 21 and their families.