The greatest challenge associated with aging is not morbidity and mortality; it's novelty. More precisely it's the hunger for novelty, a hunger that grows increasingly difficult to satisfy. And when I was asked to review a new Logo film, Coffee Date, which premiered just this past Sunday, I found it very difficult to enjoy and report on the film with an open mind. How many times have I endured this particular story line? Coffee Date poses the prickly question: Can a heterosexual WASPy All-American hunk find love and companionship with a homosexual Latino stud sporting the perfect six-pack? It's the latest and trendy incarnation of the classic buddy movie merged with a social-consciousness raising unlikely romantic couple faced with top-of-mind social and political challenges.

Can rich Roman Catholic Bridget find love with poor Jewish Bernie? Can anal compulsive Felix survive life with Oscar the uber-slob? Can liberal Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy accept their snow white daughter's marriage to intensely African-American Sidney Poitier? Can straight All-American computer programmer Todd and steamy gay Latin lover hair stylist Kelly find love, friendship and sexual compatibility?

The plot of Coffee Date includes just about every romantic comedy convention you can imagine. Todd, our straight boy, ends up on a blind date with a gay man, Kelly--the result of a practical joke played by Todd's homophobic brother, Barry. To Todd's surprise, he and queer Kelly strike up a friendship. Todd and Kelly decide to take revenge on Barry by reversing the joke, convincing Bary that in fact his brother is actually gay. Hi-jinks galore follow with mistaken identifies, gender confusion, more corny gay/straight jokes than you can shake a swizzle stick at--all culminating with some bizarre and politically dicey questions. Can a straight man actually be friends with a gay man unless, in fact the straight man is actually a latent homosexual? And can a gay man be friends with a straight man without falling madly in love and in lust with him? And can the gay man's fag hag save the day?

In somebody's reality--not mine--the only way to answer these world-shattering questions is sex. Am I giving too much of the plot away? Hardly, you'd have to be a blind idiot not to realize very early on that the straight boy and the gay boy are going to end up diddling each other's willies. And then we have to endure the romantic comedy notion that Todd's heterosexuality is confirmed when he "tops" rather than "bottoms" with Kelly. Oh yes, stop and ponder that for a while.

Does their male bonding and brotherly love survive a night of sausage hiding? This is a light romantic comedy so you know the answer without my having to reveal the denouement in this review.

The best I can say is that this after school special quality morality play confirms that queers are struggling with the same issues and problems that trouble everyone else in the course of ordinary life--except for the fact that Felix and Oscar never screwed each other.

Coffee Date is one of the latest of an epidemic of low budget gay films delivering light gay romantic comedy in a Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez kind of way. And, I admit, this is not a genre that I find particularly engaging. Movies like Rumor Has It and Maid In Manhattan are the kinds of flics I watch late at night to help me fall asleep. So if you love that kind of movie and find that it enriches your life, you will love Coffee Date but in a gay way.

For me, Coffee Date is the perfect After School special for gay-straight student alliance members, but Logo will be airing it late in the prime time hours denying those of us who are adults some decent entertainment.