Brad Pitt to join George Clooney in gay marriage play '8'

Brad Pitt will join George Clooney in a one-night-only fundraising performance of the same-sex marriage play 8.

8 traces the story of California's gay marriage ban Proposition 8 and the fight by a network of activists and lawyers to have it overturned.

Ian West/PA Archive/Press Association Images

Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Pitt will star in the March 3 staging as the US district chief judge who found Proposition 8 unconstitutional.

Clooney and Martin Sheen portray David Boies and Theodore B Olson, the two high-profile lawyers to overturn the gay marriage ban.

Glee's Jane Lynch, Matthew Morrison, George Takei, Matt Bomer and Jesse Tyler Ferguson will also appear in the one-off version of 8.

8 was written by Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Gus Van Sant's 2008 film Milk.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

The fundraising staging of 8 takes place Saturday, March 3 at Wilshire Ebell Theatre and will be streamed live on YouTube.

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