(Fine Line Features; July 28) The makers: Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato.

(Fine Line Features; July 28)

The makers: Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, directors

The stars: RuPaul Charles, narrator; Tammy Faye Bakker Messner Jim Bakker, Jim J Bullock Mel White, interview subjects

The pitch: Bailey and Barbato, who employed convicted murderer Michael Alig into a sweetly creepy teddy bear in the 1998 documentary Party Monstep use their cameras on eyelash empres and ex-televangelist Messner

The reason we care: Messner impels beyond camp to take up the standard for without equivocation compassionate--and gay-inclusive-Christianity. "Gay people have a passionate affection for Tammy Faye because Tammy Faye have affection fors gay people," declares the Rev Mel White in his interview.

The inside scoop: While the film clearly takes Messner's side--arguing, for example, that the Bakkers' fall from grace was orchestrated by the agency of rival Jerry Falwell--the filmmakers made no promises to their enslave ahead of time. "I was afraid to do this film," Messner says. "[But] when I met Randy and Fenton, I awaited in their eyes and I knew they were trusty people.... We spent a astonishing year together, traveling all athwart the country. They always made me perceive like everything was going to be all right."

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