This was Jeff's fourth original screenplay, and like the previous three, it sold very quickly.  He wrote it to be his film directing debut, after the success of his short, The Bruce Diet.   Studio, independent and HBO producers made offers for Custody.  In the interest of reaching a broader audience, he decided to go with an established network tv producer named Barbara Corday.   This was before Hollywood ever tackled this subject, and the networks decided to stay away.   Since then, there have been a few similar stories, but none like this. Gwen Farber and Robin Walsh live happily and quietly with their baby daughter Louise in a small suburban town.  They hire a babysitter, an older woman from the neighborhood, who hadn't realized they were gay.  She panics and takes the baby to her church.  After a terrifying night, Gwen and Robin find them.   It becomes this church's mission to rescue Louise from her lesbian parents.  First they make Gwen and Robin's life extremely public.  Then they almost convince Robin's estranged parents to enter a custody battle they would definitely win.  Finally, church members break into Robin's doctor's office and learn the identity of the anonymous sperm donor.  He's a doctor who thought he'd be helping an infertile heterosexual couple. The doctor and his wife decide to contest custody.  Gwen and Robin are forced to defend their lives before a family court judge who will decide which biological parent will prevail. Jeff directed a sold-out benefit reading of Custody for MADRE, a women and children's human rights organization.  The inviting committee included John Sayles, Tony Kushner, Anna Quindlen, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins.  The cast of 17 included Brooke Smith, Joanna Going, Lois Smith, Estelle Parsons, John Heard, David Margulies, John Christopher Jones, Lynn Cohen and Chris McGarry. All rights to Custody have reverted to Jeff.