Comedian, belly dancer, blogger and professional fag hag Margaret Cho can add "movie producer" and "screenwriter" to her resume with the release of "Celeste and Bam Bam," a film she wrote in 2003, finished shooting in 2005, that has played at several film festivals. It's getting its San Francisco premiere with a Good Vibrations-sponsored event with the lady herself present. (Cho is on the board at Good Vibrations - she's like the Angelina Jolie of sex toys, always adopting new ones. "I really love their products," she said, noting she's just learning what it means to be on the board.)

"It took a long time to get the film financed because it's not really a typical Hollywood picture," Cho said via phone from Los Angeles, where she lives. "I wrote it because I wanted to do this great fag hag and fag love story, between a girl and her best gay boyfriend."

The film stars Cho as Celeste, and her longtime friend and collaborator, comic Bruce Daniels (he's opened for her on Revolution, State of Emergency and Assassin tours) as Bam Bam. They're living in a small Midwest town, and, in their 30s, decide to get out. Their impetus is the chance to star in a makeover show called "Trading Faces" in New York (at the advice of a fortune teller played by Kathy Najimy). But before they get there, they face some fearsome obstacles: a crazy racist gas station employee (Danny Hoch), the "lesbian Lone Ranger" rogue police officer (Jane Lynch of "Best in Show") and a lonely motel manager (Wilson Cruz of "My So-Called Life").

But that's only on the road there. Once in the big city, they have to figure out how to win approval from their hometown meanie and high school nemesis (Elaine Hendrix), now a judge on the show. With some help from the nice "Trading Faces" booking assistant (Alan Cumming), Bam Bam and Celeste make it through their journey without breaking up.

Cho's insistence that the movie is a romantic comedy rings true to anyone who's ever been part of a complicated friendship, especially one involving a gay man and a straight woman. "It's the fag hag lament," Cho says. "If you're a fag hag, they always leave with some guy, and you're kind of stuck there, just left behind."

She's wrapped production on another film, "Two Sisters," that deals with one of her passions - belly dancing - and she's taking her show "The Sensuous Woman" to more cities this fall. "The surprising thing is how magical it all is," she says, "to see the people you invented, and the town, come to life with the characters saying words that you write. ... It really is a miraculous feeling."

7:30 tonight, with an introduction and Q&A with Margaret Cho. $15 advance, $20 at door, with VIP reception for $100 at the door. The Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St., S.F. (415) 621-6120. www.goodvibes.com.

-Reyhan Harmanci, rharmanci@sfchronicle.com