[ This message is from the RIME BBS Network "Gay Issues" Conference. Please do not attempt to reply via e-mail. ] The Atlanta Constitution September 23, 1993 copied with permission from the Journal/Constitution By Cathy Cleland-Pero STAFF WRITER Hollywood stars Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman have joined the Cobb County fight over public funding for controversial art, offering $20,000 to Theatre in the Square to help offset the loss of county money. In a letter to producing artistic director Michael Horne, Woodward said the grant, contingent on the theater raising a matching amount from other donors, would ``help raise the funds of $40,000 you will be losing.'' ``We're going to initiate a campaign as of tonight with the opening of the show,'' Horne said Wednesday, just before Theatre in the Square opened its 12th season with Carson McCullers's ``The Member of the Wedding.'' The theater found itself embroiled in controversy after Cobb Commissioner Gordon Wysong authored a resolution condemning gay lifestyles as being counter to community standards and family values. Wysong was responding to a complaint from one couple about a production of ``Lips Together, Teeth Apart'' that included discussion of homosexuality. He then sponsored legislation that eliminated Cobb's art grant program from the 1994 budget. The matching grant from Woodward, who grew up in Marietta, and her husband is a tremendous boon for Theatre in the Square, Horne said. ``We've never had such a challenge grant before,'' he said. ``We're still working out the details. She wants it to be a Cobb County effort. We're not turning money away from anywhere, but Miss Woodward felt this should be a grass-roots effort.''