Variety Is the Spice of Life

On the panel after the Hollywood screening of Inside Deep Throat, Arianna Huffington explained to the audience how Brian Grazer saw Deep Throat the first time, then pleaded for us to seriously consider putting  the sex back into oral sex.  (Watch the clip here, courtesy of Variety.com)

Variety has a story about the rerelease of Deep Throat in relation to Inside Deep Throat's debut.  Prints of Deep Throat won't be ready for theaters until around Feb.18, the date IDT opens wider. Film labs started work on Monday producing 10 new prints. Five will be the original 1972 release; the other five will be edited to earn an R rating.

Laemmle Theaters president Greg Laemmle confirmed that he's in early discussions about screening the pic in his theaters. In addition to midnight screenings, he's also considering the possibility of giving the film primetime screen space.

The Landmark chain is also releasing "Inside Deep Throat," but VP of marketing Ray Price said it would not screen the triple-X "Deep Throat." Although Landmark has handled X-rated films in the past such as "Flesh Gordon" and 3-D title "The Stewardesses," Price said unspooling "Deep Throat" would be a step too far.  

Also, related to our post yesterday on the NY and the LA Times different opinions on how the IDT ad should look, both papers gave statements to Variety. 

Both emphasized the papers' willingness to run ads for NC-17 rated movies. The New York Times added the disclaimer that the ads be "in acceptable taste." The L.A. Times pointed out that it did not accept ads for X-rated or adult pics, and that, in the case of "Inside Deep Throat," the pic "went through the normal review process and was considered a legitimate documentary. We ran the ad as submitted."