Tatiana von Furstenberg and Francesca Gregorini‘s Tanner Hall — a drama about emotional-sexual intrigues among women at a New England boarding school — began shooting in September 2007, screened at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival and will finally open on 9.7.11. The decision by Anchor Bay to distribute is apparently due to Rooney Mara, star of David Fincher‘s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, being a costar.

Co-directors Von Furstenberg and Gregorini based their screenplay on their time at Brown University in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Gregorini is openly gay (I’m not sure about Von Furstenberg) but the Tanner Hall plotline is at least partly lezzie, or so I’m given to understand, and I’m wondering why the publicity materials always try to hide this stuff. (The Falco Ink notes refers to one of the female characters coping with “newfound feelings towards another classmate,” blah blah).

Von Furstenberg and Gregorini are both heiresses — Von Furstenberg, 40, is the daughter of Prince Egon von Furstenberg and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg, and the stepdaughter of billionaire media mogul Barry Diller. (Her full name is Tatiana Desiree Prinzessin von Furstenberg.) Gregorini, 42, is the daughter of Italian industrialist Count Augusto Gregorini and actress Barbara Bach (The Spy Who Loved Me), and is the stepdaughter of Ringo Starr. (Her full name is Countess Francesca McKnight Donatella Romana Gregorini di Savignano di Romagna.)

Their film wouldn’t have sat on the sidelines for nearly four years if it didn’t have at least some problems, but speaking as a straight male I’m looking to see Tanner Hall for whatever the girl-on-girl action might amount to. Is that a crime? What Average Joe isn’t at least slightly interested in this stuff? At least as a rental or a download?