Lee’s gay cowboys stirrup Venice

SENSE And Sensibility director Ang Lee has risked the wrath of right-wing America with his latest film unveiled at the Venice Film Festival yesterday - Brokeback Mountain, the story of cowboys in love.

Oscar-winning director Lee adapted the film from a short story which appeared in The New Yorker in 1997.

The film, about a relationship between a ranch hand and rodeo cowboy, could mean the smashing of Hollywood’s last taboo.