

Michael spends too much time with his company TVLine and becomes an alcoholic Michael suspects Kit is having an affair with his coworker, Sebastian.


In 2013, Michael and Kit develop complications in their relationship as their sex life deteriorates. During their second Christmas, Michael invites Kit to lie under the Christmas tree with him as he did when he was a child and explains it was always a fantasy of his to do it every year with his partner.

Michael and Kit continue their relationship and get a townhouse together. While initially upset that Kit could not admit this to her, Marilyn is accepting and welcomes Michael. After she incessantly interrogates the two men, Kit comes out to his parents and reveals that Michael is his boyfriend. Upon returning to Kit's place, Marilyn grows suspicious of Michael. Not out to them, Kit asks Michael to "clean" the apartment of anything gay and all evidence of their relationship. His parents, Bob and Marilyn, come to Manhattan. During their first Christmas together, Kit gives Michael his own closet space at his apartment, inviting Michael to live with him. They both admit their fears of being in a long-term relationship since neither of them had been in one before, but they decide to continue dating each other. Kit reveals that he had an affair with a man at the gym. As they begin dating, Michael struggles with his insecurities of not being attractive enough for Kit, previously being overweight. There, he meets Kit, a photographer, and the two instantly connect. In 2001, Michael, a writer for TV Guide, is brought to a gay nightclub by his best friend in Manhattan. The story, told through Michael, details their 14-year relationship leading up to Kit's death. The film opens with Kit Cowan dying in the arms of his husband, Michael Ausiello, following his 11-month battle with terminal cancer. Spoiler Alert was released in the United States on December 2, 2022, by Focus Features. Parsons plays Ausiello, and Aldridge plays his lover Kit Cowan who dies of cancer. The film, based on the 2017 memoir Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies by Michael Ausiello, is directed by Michael Showalter and written by David Marshall Grant and Dan Savage. Spoiler Alert is a 2022 American biographical romantic drama film starring Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge as two lovers, one who watches the other's final months before his death from terminal cancer.
