Inside Deep Throat Directors' Journal

MARCH 2003

We started off optimistically sending out hundreds of letters, but then the stony silence that followed was disconcerting. Follow-up calls only yielded negatives.� New York Times poohbah Arthur Gelb wouldn't be interviewed - even though he led an entire editorial department from the paper to see the film when it opened. Gay Talese wouldn't be interviewed. He spent years writing Thy Neighbor's Wife, a completely un-put-downable account of the sexual experimentation of the era that was every bit the Ur-text of the period as Bonfire of Vanities was of the '80s. The judge in the New York trial won't be interviewed. Perhaps we can't be that surprised about that. His verdict banning the film in New York blew the film up into a nationwide phenomenon. In addition to being a huge mistake, his verdict was also born out of ignorance; he didn't even know what the missionary position was. Finally the manager of the theatre in New York that showed the film won't be interviewed. He might just have a valid excuse; he's still wary of the mob connection.