Directors' Journal, Forgotten

Seems that when posting the directors' journal, we may have forgotten about half a year. It's up now, and pasted below for quick access.

THURSDAY AUGUST 26, 2003

LONDON. We interview Xaviera Hollander, author of The Happy Hooker, now living in exile in Amsterdam. She remembers the time she met Linda Lovelace

She came to apply for a job as a prostitute in my establishment as The Happy Hooker. And Iurned her down for reasons that I found her too wholesome, too submissive, not really intelligent enough for the job. Because I was looking for more sophisticated girls. When she came to my house, she was just a very homely young, very naive girl, actually.

SEPTEMBER, 2003

We begin post production and hope to have a rough cut by Thanksgiving. Optimism itself!

Danny Bramson is to be the music tsar. He's a legend - although everyone in Hollywood's a legend. But in the flesh Danny supersizes that concept. It's not just that he is physically imposing, his aura is a supernovalike. He pounds the table, bangs his fist on the wall, and at one point actually gets down on the floor on his hands and knees, racking his brain for bitchin' tracks, dude, for a totally rocking monster soundtrack!!! Nervous glances fly around the room. This level of demonstrativeness is totally alien to the good people of Hollywood. Especially on a first meeting!

Will Grayburn is editing, having done the same for 101 Rent Boys, Juror #5, our HBO film about the O J Simpson trial, and the episode all about video in Pornography: The Secret History of Civilization.

But just because we've started editing, doesn't mean we have a script. It takes a better part of a week just to read the transcripts. Paring them down for selects reults in five hundred pages of must-use material. We're drowning in it!

And just because we've started editing, doesn't mean we have stopped shooting, either.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 18th, 2003

LONDON: Party Monster opens in the UK. The reviews are in and they are universally negative. But when Boy George weighed in with a negative review in the Sunday Express, I finally some confidence in the film. I once predicted that Madonna would turn all holy with child, and I reckon Boy George will turn into an arch conservative. In the same way so many of the 60's liberal and sexual revolutionaries sold out there own ideology for the cash that came with the economic boom of the 80's and 90's. They - the wild things, the free love hippies - are the reason we live in such conservative times today. Its not so much a backlash as it is their own betrayal of themselves and their so-called ideology, much of which was simply self-indulgence posing as philosophy.

TUESDAY OCTOBER 21, 2003

LOS ANGELES: Peter Fonda gives us a very gnomic interview in the grounds of the Chateau Marmont

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 22, 2003

Interview Gore Vidal who mainly wants to talk about the boys in the war; its all completely fascinating.

I think Kinsey triggered it all by denying that there was anything except sexual degenerates, except among the occasional, uh, demented hair dresser, who would, you know, end up murdered somewhere. Uh, they idea that, uh, all American boys who had just won the Second World War were involved in this sort of activity, sometimes to the point of obsession, sometimes to the point of falling in love. Uh, the, this traumatized the whole country. Well, our boys were very busy winning the Second World War and also with one another. That was a fact. So now you have all of these people trying to erase Kinsey. They've tried to erase me for 55 years, since The City And The Pillar.

So, anybody that much younger than I, which practically everybody is, doesn't know what it's like to have had a free sex life.

Elliott Gould is rather wary of us when we interviewed him by the side of his pool.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 5, 2003

Interview with Hugh Hefner. It's hard not to become slightly excited at going to the fabled Playboy mansion. However, in the cold light of day few nightclubs look as magical as they should - there's always an unsettling aroma of congealment. On the other hand there was also something changeless about it, and the lack of renovated perfection that carpets all of Bel Air made the place feel almost homey. In time this place will be preserved as a National monument.

Reading back his transcript he was perhaps the only person we interviewed to speak in prefect sentences and complete paragraphs with no ums and ahs. Like this final thought, for example...

When the subject is sex, don't expect a lot of reason. It isn't rational. Most of our views, views and values in terms of sex are based on religious views. And those have to do with superstition. They're not rational. Sex is a good thing, not a bad thing. This would be a very poor world without it. If we reproduced in some other way, it would be a colder, less worthwhile world. And the reality is that you know it, it is sex more than religion that is the major civilizing force on this planet. It's the beginning of family and tribe and civilization itself. And it is the major motivating factor on this planet. I think on that note, I'm out of time

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 6, 2003

Have our photographs taken for an early article in the LA Times. Brian is insistent they feature all three of us together. At one point the photographer gets me and randy behind the couch, Brian in front. Quick as a flash Brian says 'wait; won't that mean I'll be in focus and they'll be blurry? I don't want that'. The photographer fires off a shot and sure enough that's the one that's used.

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 13, 2003

Interview with Charles Keating and Dolores Wells

Mona and ashley have tracked down Linda Lovelace's former secretary on the outskirts of Phoenix. A former playboy bunny, Hugh Hefner recommended her to Linda when she moved out to make it in Hollywood. Today she lives extremely modestly in what is almost a road side shack. But she's laid on an amazing spread. and the first thing she does after pouring us all champagne is show us her spread from Payboy. Miss June 1960. As she herself says "You don't even see a nipple or a pubic hair. Today it's sit down, spread those legs and pinch those titties"

She tells the infamous story about how Linda Lovelace taught Sammy Davis how to do deep throat because she was there in the room when it happened.

THURSDAY DECEMBER 11, 2003

NEW YORK: Interview Richard Dreyfuss

We talk for an hour and at one point he simply says...

You know, since you're not going to use this footage, could I?

The '60s was all about starting from an innocent point, And we can change the world, we can do the impossible, we can go back to Eden. We can, you know, put the, we can put violets in guns barrels and things. And, and commercialism, of course, I mean, it, it's a capitalist marketplace world, and someone went, well maybe, maybe we can make a pin about the, about the flower in the gun, and then we'll sell it for ten dollars. And, and then we get a T-shirt. And, and it inevitably became commercialized.

That's the responsibility of the worship of the business community. That's the right's culpability. The left's culpability is the celebration of individual rights to the point that it was madness.

We lost, we have lost all the institutions that, that pin us down and give us our moral character. Our Andy Hardy small town stuff, from which we can sin. If the church is gone and the schools are gone and the (STAMMERS) parenting is gone, and blah blah blah, and we're just an amorphous blob of, of being, of, of people who are manipulated by the media advertising, then, then, um, pornography seeps into advertising. And pornography seeps into the culture, in music and in every way. And it changes our atmosphere, and all of a sudden, am I blame, am I saying pornography is the evil? No. But is, are we responsible for the destruction of our institutions so that porn, you cannot defend pornography's affect anymore? Yes. It, it's not just a simple conservative, liberal thing.

So I, who, I will defend pornography's right to exist, and I will defend, you know, our culture's freedom of speech. At the same time, we have to take responsibility for the loss of permanence. The loss of knowing who we are to start off, to start with. And yeah, okay. The sexual revolution was a good thing up to a point, and then it was a bad thing. Like democracy is a good thing, up to a point, and then it's a bad thing.

2004

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 1, 2004

Janet Jackson flashes tit during Super Bowl. Miss this because I'm at Bea Arthurs one-woman show in Torrance.

Funnily enough Deep Throat the original movie was also filmed during Super Bowl weekend in 1972.

Overnight negotiations with a number of different cable outlets for the now-completed series of Porno Valley come to an abrupt end.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 6, 2004

Speak with Ken Turan, the LA Times film critic. He wrote a book about adult cinema called Sinematic.

He reckons that we are primed for a severe backlash against licentiousness. He thinks that Britney / madonnas kiss and nipplegate are incidents fuelling public anger at the current pornolization of the mainstream, and he thinks that all it needs to light a match to this is a conservative and charismatic politician.

Show Brian the first assembly at his house. At the end his first comment is; wow when a documentary is long, its really long. Coming from anyone else it might have seemed negative, but from him it was just telling it like it is!

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 15, 2004

JAPAN: Heading to Tokyo for the last leg of the party monster express. Everyone has been saying 'Oh, the film will do well in Japan' thinking perhaps that we might not catch the slight insult that comes with that.

So we arrive in Tokyo. And Dai - the rep from the film company - is there to greet us. But it turns out that we must go to another gate to wait for Mac and Seth to arrive. In due course they do, sweeping past. We say a few hellos and follow them,trailed by a camera crew, to a stretch limo that they get into and drive off. It turns out that the rest of us will go with the luggage by van. After some time spent finding the van in the parking structure we then load the bags
"Do we have everything" asks Dai after we've loaded all the bags into the back of the van.
"Everything xxcept our dignity" says Randy
The very good news is that we are staying at the Grand Hyatt - better known as the Lost In Translation hotel. Sadly the ersatz cover band Sausolito are nowhere to be found.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2004

BANGKOK: We thought it would be neat on the way back from the premiere of Party Monster in Japan to interview David Winters. He took up with Linda after Chuck Traynor and tried to turn her into a superstar. http://www.davidwinters.net/

We arrive around midnite. The hotel faces onto a street with a rail line built overhead it. Electrical cords hang low in tangled bunches. Shanty stalls line the narrow sidewalk beneath selling bootlegged dvds, pungent foods, faux louis vuitton, and black velvet paintings. It's 2:00am and very crowded, the traffic bumper to bumper (mainly taxis) and the air as thick as a gamey soup.

The next day we interview David Winters. He was an early Malcolm Mcaleren types, roving between hollywood and rock (he directed one of Alice Cooper's concert films) in Sergeant Pepper drag (frock coats and lace sort of thing). This might explain whey he said that he felt he was born 200 years too late. My favorite detail was that the only car he would drive was a Rolls Royce ("cos it's good for my voice"). When in London he hired two; one for her with the numberplate WOMB and one for him with the numberplate PEN15 (er that would be PENIS).

The one film he made with her was Linda Lovelace For President, in which Linda ran for president. But perhaps it's a law of pet rock science that lightning doesn't strike twice. That's not to preclude the power of marketting skills, but, But if something is going to take off with the public, there still needs to be some element of charm, of chance, of innocence. And the public somehow have an intuitive and unfailing feel for this. On paper there was nothing wrong with the idea of Linda Lovelace For President, just as there was nothing wrong either with the idea of William Hung recording an entire album. But...

Bangkok is amazing. Seems that in the Far East entire cities have themes; in China there is Sock city and Underwear city. Bangkok, tho', would have to be Sex-for-sale city. But i limit my purchases to a bootlegged copy of Party Monster for $1.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 25, 2004

Bizarro day shooting first Larry Flynt and then Jack Valenti. Quite the contrast. Larry was completely clear while Jack Valenti danced about with the nimbleness of a politician.

When I invented the ratings system, I did not trademark the X. It's a letter, I didn't know how you'd trademark a letter. I guess we could have had a logo or symbol, but we didn't. And as a result, the pornographer came in and said double X, triple X, quadruple X. And they used the X as an enticement to people who wanted to see that kind of movie

Valenti's rating system was a masterstroke of both managing to separate hard core from Hollywood and marginalizing it too. Yet for all his evasiveness, I don't think he intended to be this direct...

Well, I don't think anybody in America's public figure is pro-pornography, or an advocate for it. I don't know of anybody that was. I'm certainly not. And I don't think Mr. Nixon was either. I don't think any president, or any senator, any congressman was going around saying we got to have more pornography.

Pornography maybe an impossible cause. But freedom of speech is vulnerable if it isn't defended.

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 27, 2004

All hope of having the film finished in times for Cannes is slipping away.

The film is entering the difficult teens. There's a feeling that there are too many old people in the film. We are being asked where are the Paris Hiltons and the Jenna Jamesons? It's not that we feel precious that we are making a documentary as opposed to putting on the tits (ok, we do feel a bit precious), but what would they have to say?

We see ourselves as striking a blow for the oldies. The tyranny of the 18-34 demographic is so boring. It's truly amazing to see a 60, 70 or 80 year old talk frankly about sex, and talk about it in a way that the 18-34s are just too freaked out to even touch.

"Yes, well, we understand that, but do they all have to have silver hair?"

"There may be snow on the rooftop, but there's fire in the furnace below".

After that there's no more talk of interviewing Paris Hilton.

FRIDAY MARCH 19 2004

We all have the 'whyisntthisfilmanygoodandwhenwilliteverend' blahs.

Tammy Faye calls us and tells us she has that she has inoperable cancer and wants us to have lunch with her to discuss filming the process. It's great to see her, and she - the one who should be crying - cheers us up. We talk about the film and all fall about laughing deciding that it should be called 'The Demise Of Tammy Faye'.

SATURDAY MARCH 20, 2004

NEW YORK: Take the jet to New York with Brian Grazer to show Sheila Nevins and John Hoffman the cut at HBO...

'Take the jet' - sounds very blase but actually our little hearts were beating pit a patter. Yes, it's the little things.

Now, if you are a jaded jetrosexual you will already know this. But for us this was our first private jet experience, and found the learning curve of Jetiquette as steep as the angle of take off.

The first dilemma is where do you sit. That is connected to the equally important question of when to arrive. Never be late. You don't want to keep a jet packed with tip-top execs waiting on the tarmac. But then you can be too premature. Because once you get on the jet, where do you sit? You can't really settle in and make yourself comfortable until your host arrives and picks their perch. Do not be fooled: all the seats may look the same, but they are not the same! So we arrrive early, plonk ourselves down and wonder why everyone else is standing round? The other thing to remember is that when the lovely food spread is laid out, you should only pick at it nonchalently instead of devouring everything as if you were a starving kitten. It's funny how it's the little things can derail a career (while no one notices the big things).

The screening was ok. Flew home by regular plane, which was like going cold turkey. Jets are the new crack.

FRIDAY MARCH 26, 2004

LOS ANGELES: Interview Lilli Zanuck who says the smartest things. She has a clipping from the New York Post challenging us to tell the difference between porn stars and high society hotties.

so many things that are fashion statements today, fake nails, fake tans, Brazilian wax, fake breasts, a certain kind of hair, artificial big lips, these are all a kind of iconography that comes from pornography . It's everywhere - whether it's a cardio strip club, or pole dancing and belly dancing classes. These are images and fashion statements and trends that come from pornography. Women are working really hard to look like a porn sta

In the next few months the world goes porno... Timothy Greenfield-Sanders publishes a book of portraits of porno stars Thinking XXX, and has an HBO special to go with. Larry Sultan publishes a book of photos taken on porno sets called The Valley. Jenna Jameson releases her autobiography How To Make Love Like A Porn Star, and Vh1 does a Jenna special that rates like christmas. They also follow this with When X Ruled The World, with its usual chef salad approach (cut everything into tiny pieces and toss with graphics). Despite all this still no takers for Porno Valley, however.

MONDAY MARCH 29, 2004

Interview with Peter Bart at Variety. Completely candid and charming and funny.

You say let's go on a date, let's go to dinner, you said let's get high or let's get stoned or let's drop acid or something. So added to this was Deep Throat. You get stoned, you see a porn movie. I mean and then you quote experiment. And it was a shock to those of us who were products of the '50s. You know all of a sudden you're going out with a girl and the girl would say, you know, I'm really into oral sex aren't you? Boy things aren't that colorful today are they?

WEDNESAY MARCH 31, 2004

Interview with Jon Lewis author of fascinating book Hollywood Vs Hard Core, which tells the story of how Hollywood survived the censors by foreswearing sex and thrived instead by embracing a pornography of violence.

When Nixon became president he appreciated his promise to the south, which made him president. And he understood that the south had very socially conservative views, and viewed porn asthe product of a kind of eastern establishment and a west coast silliness. He also was convinced, and he was right about it, that there was a silent majority in America. That, while the press, who was paying so much attention to a sexual revolution, was paying so much attention to Deep Throat, that the majority of Americans were leaning in a very different direction.

TUESDAY APRIL 6, 2004

CAPE COD: Norman Mailer finally said yes to an interview. He said he would give us half an hour of his time. Thirty minutes. Total. Only problem was that we had pretty much finished filming. and we were on the West Coast, he was on the East.

Are we sure we really want to do this? Do we need to do this? It's a long way to go for half an hour.... but then we also figured that if we went all that way, it shouldn't be too hard to keep him talking; he's bound to give us at least an hour, right?

Red eye to boston, four hour drive up to Cape Cod. Practically next door to where we had interviewed John Waters six months earlier. Set up the interview, in he walks and everything out of his mouth is solid gold.

Things are going marvellously, and I'm half way through a question when he says "I said i'd give you half an hour, but i'll let you finish this question since you've flown all this way to see me' I mangled the question but he gave a very generous and gracious reply.

sex is the last of the great mysteries. That and maybe war is another one the mysteries. These elements are not to be abused, ideologically, intellectually, rationally speaking. You don't want them to make you comfortable. When you have every kind of sex there is, what do you do with your soul? And that, for me, is an open question to this day.... I'd say you really enter the mystery at that point.

And then we flew back to LA.

Please no more interviews!!!

MONDAY APRIL 19, 2004

Interview Bill Maher.

In a 150 years when we are getting around by jetpacks and eating tablets. I would hate to think that we are still hung up on that. But. I'm sure Bush's great great great grandson will be trying to make hay on that one, and making sure that people in Utah were not getting porn because it could lead to masturbation and then they wouldn't have the energy to churn butter.

Really, no more interviews!!!!

THURSDAY MAY 27, 2004

Go see Madonna on her Reinvention tour. Madonnas spirituality is obviously something she can afford to indulge in. Though she has renounced her Material Girl ways make no mistake she could not have got where she is today if the road were not paved with skulls. She had to claw her way to the top, or stay perpetually on the bottom. Wonder if this is the same problem for all those sexual revolution liberals who, when they had nothing, preached free love and and down with corporate greed. Now that they have plenty, they have so much more to lose. Morality then becomes a necessary construct to protect what they have. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But we should just recognize it as the institutional hypocrisy that it is. The only constant is selfishness.

SATURDAY JUNE 5, 2004

Ronald Reagan dies.

Closet Space

Writes Fenton Bailey: I've just got back from deep throating Australia. Ba dum bum. I had a thorough oral workout giving about 50 interviews in five jam-packed days. The joy of being asked the same sorts of questions over and over again is that you end up with fresh insights about something you thought you'd exhausted. Like, for example, the idea that Deep Throat is a film about the closet, and that the closet is still the political issue of our times.

(More after the jump)

Linda is a kind of Everyman figure. Her clitoris in the back of her throat is a metaphor for the unique sexual DNA that we all possess. The point being that there is no such thing as sexual normalcy. We are all freaks and deviants. 

Through the example of Linda's predicament, Deep Throat rejects the idea that anything about sexuality is a cause for shame or embarrassment. Instead of stuffing sex in the closet, it advocates leading an honest and authentic life. The moral of the film is that it is our responsibility (through experimentation and exploration) to find our unique sexual identity.

This message is the antithesis of the puritan mindset which needs to divide sex and sexuality into the good and the bad: the married vs the adulterous, the faithful vs the promiscuous, the natural vs the perverse. But who can abide by these distinctions? Least of all the priests and the politicians who preach them. As we all should know by now, their's is a set of arbitrary and false distinctions. The only way anyone can live by them is to create a disconnect between the public preaching and private practice. In other words, to build a closet.

The closet may begin with sex but it permeates every area of public life. Maybe that seems overstating it. But just days after Deep Throat was released the Watergate break-in occurred. Watergate is the classic example of closet activity, of public appearances at odds with private realities. And so what else could the source that outed Nixon have been called but Deep Throat?

My favorite moment in Inside Deep Throat is when Roy Cohen (hiss) says to Harry Reems, "You act as if the constitution of the United States was created just for you." Well, hello! And even today the idea of leading an open, honest, and authentic life is still a heresy. No wonder, then, that the gay movement is so inevitably political. In rejecting the notion of the closet, we are attacking the institutionalized hypocrisy that is both the keystone and Achilles heel of the puritan mindset. Which perhaps explains why its such a bitch of a struggle.

Six and the City

Here are last weekend's top 10 movies in Singapore:

1. Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge Of The Sith

2. Amityville Horror (NC16)

3. Kingdom Of Heaven (NC16)

4. House Of Wax (NC16)

5. The Jacket (NC16)

6. Inside Deep Throat (R21)

7. The Echo (Tagalog)

8. Are We There Yet?

9. Summer Storm (German)

10. Last Quarter (Japan)

And remember, #6 was not allowed to be shown in the suburbs or advertised on TV or radio.

Snap!

In Rome, on his way to Greece to be married, Inside Deep Throat's sound designer, Lance Brown, does the Lynnde pose next to the poster for Inside Gola Profonda.

Deep Throat Down Under

The Sydney Film Festival calls Inside Deep Throat "the film event of the year." SEE IT FIRST! says the ad for the fest. At least, we think they're talking about the doc and not the whole festival. It's delightfully confusing. See for yourself. The film screens on June 21 and 24. Harry Reems says "Hi."

Here and There

Enzian, a movie theater in Maitland, Florida, which appears to be a dinner movie theater, also has a website with a blog. And during its current showing of Inside Deep Throat, the theater's had some amusing comments.

Since opening INSIDE DEEP THROAT last week, we have had some hilarious reactions from the movie-going public. From an elderly wife explaining for her husband, "He thinks it's about Watergate," to "What kind of place are you running?" from a patron in hushed tones, just before reserving a table...

(More)

On the German site, Out Now, much is written about Inside Deep Throat, but we know not what. The doc gets four out of six stars and we like what they've done to the mouth icon at the top of the page. Other than that. . .

Inside Deep Throat rekapituliert die Herstellung von Deep Throat und zeigt, was aus dessen Star, Linda Lovelace, wurde. Er analysiert den Skandal, den der Hauptdarsteller Harry Reems ins Gefängnis bringen sollte und die Auswirkungen des Films auf die Pornoindustrie und die Politik in Amerika.

And London's Empire site reports that Brian Grazer, "fresh from overseeing the sleaze-fixated (and extremely entertaining) Inside Deep Throat, a documentary charting the origin of porn flicks," is preparing a biopic on "crunk-talking, medallion-swinging, gang-banging hip-hop stars and the legendary tattoo artist they go to to give their image an extra edge," Mister Cartoon. It's called Ink. (More)

Big Mouth

This is an interesting story that's not about Deep Throat or Inside Deep Throat but about going inside a deep throat. Sachin Rao visits a surgeon and medical voice specialist in central Mumbai and gets tangled up in flack-mack, lips-sips, feh-sma, gudda-budda, and a bit of peachy-weachy. The entire Kama Sutra of vocal exercises. As Fenton Bailey says, "It isn't always about blowjobs." (Indian Express)

But first, an up-close peep at my vocal cords (or more properly, folds), which involves spraying some brackish anaesthesia into the back of my throat, flattening my tongue with a depressor and peering at my voice box through a rod optic telescope. I gag about till Dr Nayak finally retreats from my throat, having observed that I have ‘‘posterior tongue tension’’.

Then she whips out a fibre-optic laryngoscope; this one goes anteater-like through my nostril down to my larynx. I fight a massive sneeze as the flexible rubber tube spelunks my nasal caverns, but end up letting out a demonic a-choo right at poor Dr Nayak’s face. At the end of this mutually aggravating session, I’m given the a-ok—no growths, lesions, nodules, polyps, blips or bleeps.

Up Against the Wallpaper

Joseph C Peraino, the grandson of Anthony Peraino and the son of Joseph C Peraino Sr, has been in touch. His father is the last remaining Peraino now that his Uncle Butchie and grandfather aka "The Old Man" have died.

In an email he writes, "The government's actions were deplorable; they just kept indicting my father until he and my uncle were left essentially bankrupt. My dad and uncle were found innocent of all charges from the last case in Las Vegas, yet it cost them both their life savings to defend themselves. They, more than anyone else, are responsible for the creation of the adult video market, and have never really gotten the respect they both deserve, especially since our last name ends in a vowel."

In the course of filming, it was impossible to find anyone to go on camera and say much of anything about the Perainos – least of all the Perainos themselves.

"I am certainly not ashamed of my last name, but proud to have such warm loving parents and family members who sacrificed much in trying to provide for our family and follow the American dream."

Joseph goes on to describe himself as something of a black sheep on account of the fact that he is living in new Orleans and is designing wallpaper. Personally, I love all the Flavor Paper designs and want to find surfaces to cover them with forthwith. My favorite would have to be Flower of Love in espresso on black, which has a deep throatiness to it – lots of erotic floating swirliness evocative of the nouveau-deco style of the '70s.

Joseph assures me that there will be an actual Deep Throat design coming out of his Flavor Paper studio soon!

– Fenton Bailey

Love Does Lovelace

,

It's been reported that the cleaned-up rock mess Courtney Love will be portraying Linda Lovelace in a proposed biopic of the porn star's life, to be written by Merritt Johnson. News stories about this plan all say that Love "agreed" to appear in the film. More likely is that she prayed to God! they would consider her. Also, the stories say that Lovelace wasn't paid for her work in Deep Throat. Not true. Though it wasn't much, she got something. (KGET.com)

(And btw, doesn't that KGET newsteam look exactly like every other newsteam in America? How do they do that?)

Swag the Dog

Unbeknownst to World of Wonder, Imagine Entertainment, Universal, the WOW Report, Inside Deep Throat (the blog and the movie), a certain Chicago website called Chicagoist (windy sister of Gothamist, it would seem) featured an Inside Deep Throat contest inviting visitors to the site to come up with the best and worst titles for a porn film and have a chance at winning a bunch of IDT swag (T-shirt, mousepad, poster) that was sent to them by the kind and generous distributors of the film. Talk about re-gifting.

Turns out, the results were hilarious. We're still laughing at My Big Fat Genital Herpes and A Queer and Pleasant Stranger. Go ahead, laugh all you like.

Parental Guidance

I have the very good fortune of having really terrific parents who are well rounded in all aspects of culture. So of course when Inside Deep Throat debuted my parents were hip to go and support opening weekend. We went to the 4PM Saturday afternoon screening together and sat with an almost full house. It had been my third time seeing the film and, like something else people are fond of practicing, it just gets better and better.

My parents loved it. They have their own "seeing Deep Throat for the first time" stories. People are astounded that I would see a movie like that with my parents. Some say they "would never" – well, hell, how do you think you got here? Aren't some things meant to come full circle? If you can't have a good laugh about sex with your p's, what can you do?

I hope people are going to see the movie in the theater now. I was just in Chicago at the Esquire and I encouraged a really colorful couple to see the film. The bill on the marquee featured Inside Deep Throat and Finding Neverland. I have no doubt they found what they were looking for.

– Alicia Gargaro

A Program Note

Deep Throat's numbers just don't add up, but some people just can't count.

Last week a journalist at the LA Times questioned the validity of a statement we make in Inside Deep Throat regarding the gross profit of Deep Throat.  We have responded to his article and hope that it will be printed in the paper shortly.  If not, we will post our response here.

(Developing. . .)

Que Linda

When Linda Williams, professor of film studies at UC Berkeley, went to see Inside Deep Throat at an advance screening at the Act 1 Theater in Berkeley, she took a few graduate students along.

"They liked it. They really enjoyed watching it," she said. "When I teach courses on pornography, students are always there and are always interested in Deep Throat.  There are many better porn films of that era, but this was the one that everyone saw and that everyone remembers. I think it deserves the place it has been given by [Inside Deep Throat]."

Williams is the author of various books, including Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the Frenzy of the Visible, which devotes an entire chapter to the impact of Deep Throat. "It was almost a rite of passage to be able to say you were there and watched and were willing to be seen as sexually interested. In other words, you don't go to a movie like that without letting the people around you know you are interested in sex."

Williams is currently writing a book about sex-watching in American culture. Inside Deep Throat is sure to get a mention.

About Last Night

Last night I bobbed nobs - I mean hobnobbed - with some of the porn industry's hottest stars.? Well, maybe they weren't the hottest stars in the biz; I don't know straight porn stars because I don't watch straight porn. I - as I had pointed out to me by Brandi "with an I not an IE or a Y" - am a "fruitcake."

Inside the Laemmle's Sunset-5 lobby, where the original Deep Throat was sneak-premiering prior to its limited rerelease, a man was giving out red roses to all the ladies, and copies of the Deep Throat DVD and posters to everyone else.? The man was not Gerard Damiano - the film's director was not in attendance. I pushed through the lobby full of silicon, Lycra, and high heels and headed for my seat. Three porn stars took seats next to mine.? (I learned later they were Eva Angelina, Tommy Gunn, and Sunny Lane.)? As the film started to play, the audience cheered, then broke into applause for Harry Reems' and Linda Lovelace's names when they appeared on the screen.? About midway through the film, I felt my seat sort of moving rhythmically.? Oh this is comfy, I thought.? When did they put in vibrating seats?? Then I realized it was sweet sweet Sunny Lane working over Tommy Gunn's weapon.? She jerked it for a while, but I don't think the scene of Linda enjoying Coca-Cola from her own vagina inspired Tommy to finish his performance.

After the movie, there were a couple of PSAs - one from Deep Throat's director Gerard Damiano - but everyone headed out to the lobby to sip bad champagne, chat up the porn stars, and tuck a few more DVDs and posters under their arms.? I talked to some of the porn stars for the WOW Report (watch the clip) then left laden with swag. This fruitcake's Christmas shopping is done and it's only February.

- Brent Benedetti

You Can Count on Him

Count Sepy Dobronyi, whose house in Florida was used in the film Deep Throat (see inset), has written to Bailey and Barbato requesting minor compensation for his participation in Inside Deep Throat.

Family Film Testimonials

What better way to bond with your family than to take in a porn movie together.  Crazy, you say?  Not so much.  Getting oral with your parents is a sure way to open a discussion that should have occurred years ago.  Unless you're Mormon.  Three tales from the World of Wonder follow.  (Do you have a story?)

Thanks to Randy and Fenton - and at the old age of 23 - I have finally broached the topic of oral sex and porn with my mom.  Even though I forced every single friend (and sister) to go see IDT in their local theaters, I never brought it up with my mom, only because that's gross, she's a prude, and that's just gross. How would I explain the film to someone who still tries to cover my eyes during a movie sex scene?

But my sister blew my cover and asked my mom if she had seen the documentary yet. So after yelling at me for not including her in my life, my mom saw it with a friend and absolutely loved it.  Which led to this really awkward conversation over dinner about how she remembers seeing Deep Throat at the Pussycat Theater in 1976 with my dad (GROSS) because "everyone was seeing it!" and all the other pornos of the time (Behind the Green Door? Jackie Kennedy? EVEN GROSSER).

But I guess it makes sense, since the film really is about her time. (She isn't THAT old; she's still in her early 50s.) Which I think is the best part about the entire documentary:  As crazy and liberating as [filming] the sex was, time still flew by and everyone still got old and wrinkly.  Porn stars retired and became grandmothers, mafia members got arthritis, and the thought of Damiano now as a wild swinger is more disturbing than enticing.

And this is where I say something incredibly profound about how nothing really matters in life, but I can't really think of anything right now.

- Moye Ishimoto

My dad and my sister came to the NYC premiere of Inside Deep Throat.  I was far too excited about the premiere to even think of the embarrassment factor until the lights went down and I looked across the aisle and there they were.  It suddenly occurred to me what we were about to watch.  Well, the thing is, my dad was laughing harder than anyone in the theater.  In fact, I quickly became more embarrassed by his piercing laughter than by watching hardcore porn in his presence.  And when it was over, he hugged me like only a proud dad can and I realized just how sophisticated my Italian Jersey family is!  Then again, there was an all-you-can-eat buffet afterwards, and my dad was the first in line!

- Randy Barbato

My parents went to go see IDT this past Saturday up in New Haven, Connecticut.  I was a little nervous to hear their response. I can't say I've ever had a conversation about porn with my folks. We had been talking a bit about the movie over the past year and a half, but more about the fact that Ron Howard's spikey-haired partner was producing it.  After the movie was over, I got a text message from my mom. "It was so good. Really funny."  Whew.  No awkward moment there. So I figured I'd dodged the embarrassing moment, and innocently wrote back, "Did you see my name in the credits?" to which she replied, "Yes. We were the last ones in the theater when it finally came on."  Nope, there it is.

- Jim Galasso

Win an IDT Mouse Pad!

We have the black, red, and white Inside Deep Throat logo printed on a generous-size rubber mouse pad.  It looks great and smells like a new car.  We want to keep it for ourselves, but we're a selfless bunch at WOW, so if you're the first person to tell us in what state the film Deep Throat was shot, we'll shoot this pad out to your pad in the next mail.  To repeat:  In what state was the film Deep Throat shot?  Include you mailing address with your answer.

The answer to the last giveaway question - What is Damiano's daughter's current occupation? - is fire dancer.

Pistol Aims for Thursday

Ray Pistol, the current owner of Deep Throat, told us about the difficulties he's had striking prints for the rerelease of the X-rated phenom, but it appears he's finally prevailed.  He has plans to roll out a limited release starting this weekend.  Thursday night he'll be doing a sneak premiere screening in Westwood, where he's going to give a red rose to all the women who attend.  He says he wants to make the experience "romantic" for them.  Pistol is a real pistol that way.

Superficial Throat

Now that we know the throat can be an erogenous zone inside and out, perhaps it should be kept covered until active.  Daily Candy today has unveiled just the ticket - scarflets and necklaces from Virgin Threads.  (Could Richard Branson be behind this?)  Great accessory when seeing Inside Deep Throat on a chilly winter night.

Books Used in Research for Inside Deep Throat

Gay Talese - Thy Neighbor's Wife
Kenneth Turan - Sinematic
Jon Lewis - Hardcore vs Hollywood
Linda Williams - Hard Core:  Power, Pleasure, and the "Frenzy of the Visible"
Alan Dershowitz - The Best Defense
Edward Degrazia & Roger Newman - Banned Films
Eric Schlosser - Reefer Madness
David Allyn - Make Love, Not War
Marc Eliot - Down 42nd Street
Eric Danville - The Complete Linda Lovelace
David Flint - Babylon Blue
Edited by Jeffrey Escoffier - Sexual Revolution
Eddie Muller and Daniel Faris -  Grindhouse:  The Forbidden World of "Adults Only" Cinema
Linda Lovelace - Ordeal
D.H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley's Lover 
Alfred C. Kinsey - Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, et. al.
William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson - Human Sexual Response
Final report of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography

Lab Mice

We told you on February 16 that the labs intending to make prints of the original Deep Throat pulled out, as it were, in fear of being squashed by the long, three-fingered hands of Disney.  Now, Fleshbot alerts us to the full story in the adult film industry's bible, AVN. 

"I just got thrown out of another lab," Interlandi said  Friday. "Somebody, a vice-president, found out that they were  working on the show, pulled the film, had it on his desk, and  told me to come get it; said that they have an agreement with Disney, and that Disney prohibits anybody from working on  anything NC-17 or above [i.e., XXX]. Just to verify that they  had the right to throw us out, they actually called the MPAA  to check our rating, and I guess it was rated X by them way  back when. So The Mouse fucked me. And, you know, that's  funny, coming from a company that's mostly staffed by gay  people."

No Hair

The Linda Lovelace doll.  Or, legally, the Love Linda Deep Throat Doll (No Hair).  But we jumped to conclusions.     

T-Shirt Giveaway!

We have another luxurious Inside Deep Throat T-shirt to give to the first person to answer a question about the film.  The answer to the previous question - What did a friend of Damiano's suggest as a name for his Deep Throat film? - was The Sword Swallower.

This week's question:  What is Gerard Damiano's daughter's current occupation?

Include your mailing address with your answer.  The answer can be found near the end of the documentary.  Good luck.

'Deep' Thoughts

We've pulled some quotes from Peter Keough's lengthy article, "Oral History," in the Portland Phoenix.  Subtitled "From Deep Throat to gag rule," it examines the sexual politics of porn while reviewing Inside Deep Throat. 

ON THE FEMINIST DEBATE OVER DEEP THROAT Did some feminists then betray a force for their own liberation by turning against Deep Throat? Berkeley professor and film scholar Linda Williams (author of Hard Core and the upcoming Watching Sex) suggests in a brief interview in Inside that some well-intended feminists might have overlooked the film's revolutionary potential. After all, here was a woman seeking her own sexual satisfaction in her own way; it was a first not just for porn, but for film in general. 

ON ANOTHER POINT OVERLOOKED BY MANY FEMINISTS Deep Throat's identification of the clitoris as the center of woman's sexuality defied the then-dominant patriarchal belief in the vaginal orgasm. 

ON LINDA LOVELACE "As for Lovelace, she was a victim of a patriarchal culture in which women are sex objects and don't have a lot of career choices, especially uneducated women. If you read Ordeal, which I know she probably didn't really write, it's pretty clear that she was in a bad relationship, she didn't have any self-respect or self-esteem, and she was doing a lot of sex acts for money, even before she was doing them before a camera. And I believe that she did something with a dog, although I haven't seen that film. I think that Deep Throat was probably one of the few bright moments in a rather grim life. The idea of her being coerced on the set of that film seems to me rather outlandish."  - Linda Williams

Schnapp!

Inside Deep Throat producer Mona Card and producer Johnni Javier from the WOW London office enjoy the effects of schnapps at the party following the screening of IDT at the Berlin Film Festival

No Prince Yet

Seems it's not so easy getting those prints of the original  Deep Throat made to coincide with the expanded run of the documentary about it.  No lab wants to get involved; so far, they've all refused to make prints of it, whining "What if Disney finds out?!"  You know, like Deep Throat will rub some of its porn onto prints of The Princess Diaries.  Julie Andrews is already known for her talented throat.

Inside Berlin's Deep Throat

I first experienced Berlin (East & West) in 1984, during that whole "student Eurail backpacker travelling on a shoestring budget?" phase of my life. Thank God that phase didn?t last long... budget travel is a bitch! What did last though was the impression Berlin left upon me.  Of course in ?84 the wall was still up and going into East Berlin was like stepping back in time.

I returned to Berlin in 1996, sans backpack but equipped with Louis Vuitton?s finest. Just a few short years after the tumble of the wall, it was hard to shake the feeling that you were in the middle of a construction site (with no Village People no less!)  And so typical of me to have left my sensible shoes at home.  Persevering, I managed to find a couple of interesting clubs, but found the serious German façade a little hard to read - you know when you?re getting those intense stares but just can?t figure out whether they want to beat the crap out of you or have hot sex.  Fortunately I found the latter to be the case so all in all that was a pretty successful trip.

So, you can imagine how excited I was when WOW?s very own feature doc Inside Deep Throat was to have it?s European premiere at the prestigious Berlinale Film Festival!  What a perfect excuse to head over for some popcorn and to catch up with some of my naughty Berlin mates. 

Upon landing back in Berlin, I immediately felt a little tingle. Granted, it was mainly in my feet - there just wasn?t enough room in my Taiga luggage for those damn sensible shoes again.  And let me tell you now, open toe Manolos during a snowy Berlin winter is just not practical!  With my first glance at East Berlin in almost a decade I could already tell so much had changed. It all seemed so hip and gorgeous. A city where the very old meets the very new somehow works - you know, a bit like Madonna and Britney. 

I won?t bore you with all the intimate details of exactly what I personally got up to during my stay (although you can call my premium line at $1.50 per minute), but the screening and after-party were the hottest ticket of the festival. And those well-heeled Berliners sure know how to party! The crowd went mad for the film and it seems that the who's-who of German film and TV were lining up to get Inside Deep Throat.

The after-party was sheer hysteria, with wall-to-Berlin-wall beautiful people.  Held at the very fashionable Soprano?s in West Berlin, partygoers fought their way through a blizzard of snow and paparazzi to the crammed chic venue owned by German film producer Oliver Berben. We found ourselves partying with the German elite, the likes of sexy Marie Baeumer, Veronika Ferres, Alexandra Kamp and Christian Ulmen to name but a few.  Yes, it was all German to me too, but the locals were very impressed. With enough vodka and (biblical bratwurst) consumed to sink the Bismark, the evening was a blazing success.

All in all, Inside Deep Throat came and conquered, and I didn?t do so bad either.

- Johnni Javier

Our Boys In Berlin

A little bitte charm goes a long way. Barbato (left) and Bailey talk dirty to the audience at the Berlin Film Festival after the screening of their Inside Deep Throat documentary. 

Snap!

The documentary opens in San Francisco.  (Photo:  Chris McKim)

Not Exactly Jackie Kennedy, but She Did Once Date JFK Jr

A report at Live Journal says that Daryl Hannah went to see IDT over the weekend. "Who Talked to Daryll Hannah Tonight?  Oh...that would be me. :) She came into the theater tonight to see INSIDE DEEP THROAT and she needed a light."  (More)

TRIVIA QUESTION

(Answer correctly and win a T-shirt)

In the documentary Inside Deep Throat, what does Deep Throat director Gerard Damiano say someone suggested to him as a title for the film? 

If Inside Deep Throat Has Legs, They Won't Be His

Semigonzo writer Legs McNeil has accused directors Bailey and Barbato of ripping off his 2001 Court TV miniseries Adults Only: The Secret History of the Other Hollywood for their documentary Inside Deep Throat.  McNeil, the author of the new book The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry (jeez, it takes two typesetters working overtime just to print out the full titles of his projects), and whose interview with Linda Lovelace is excerpted in Inside Deep Throat, told Page Six that the filmmakers "made a shitty movie."  He went on to say, "Those two gay guys are so smug. They made 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye Bakker.' They're putting her down. It's kind of disgusting. They're just stupid [bleep]holes. They're the reason why porn people think Hollywood is so sleazy. They just make fun of everybody. They copied us. And I don't wanna be associated with these guys."   (Page Six)

Bailey responded: "If 'Inside Deep Throat' has legs, they won't be his. In 1999, we made a six-hour documentary series and published a tie-in book called 'Pornography: The Secret History of Civilization.' It aired in the U.K. on Channel 4 and on Trio in the U.S. We don't make fun of either Linda Lovelace or Tammy Faye and we have just completed a new film, 'Tammy Faye Death Defying,' with her full cooperation." Bailey added: "He is right about one thing - we are gay."

Even though he co-wrote one of my all-time favorite books, Please Kill Me, that's no excuse for coming off like a total ass. I remember that he was constantly getting sued for sexual harrassment when he was editor of Spin magazine, and he is way off the mark when he accuses the WOW people of putting down Tammy Faye Bakker in "The Eyes of Tammy Faye"--as the proud owner of the DVD, I can assure those who haven't seen it that "The Eyes of Tammy Faye" is a moving tribute to the First Lady of TV Evangelists, and includes some very moving puppetry; also, why the hell does he have to mention that Bailey and Barbato are "gay guys"? What does that have to do with anything? Legs sounds like a lecherous homophobic turd. "Horny historian," indeed! Snort! Gag! Seriously, people, the man looks just like Kurt Loder--an older, waxier, closer-to-the-end-stages-of-rigor-mortis Kurt Loder. Blech!

Lip Disservice

On the left, the full-page IDT ad in the Los Angeles Times Sunday "Calendar" section, February 6. On the right, the quarter-page ad as it appeared in the New York Times Sunday "Arts & Leisure" section, February 6. Same day, same movie, different ads. Both papers received the same art, so what gives? The NY Times censored the lips, mouth, and teeth (the virtual DNA of the art), making the ad look as appealing as a classified listing. And it was the liberal NY Times, you might recall, that originally championed the new pornography and Deep Throat in particular, when Ralph Blumenthal's "Porno Chic" ran in the Sunday magazine on January 21, 1973. On February 6, 2005, the Grey Lady, shamefully much less liberated now, is truly grey. Is it only the current administration and Janet's nipple we have to thank?

Of course, censoring movie ads – particularly their titles – is nothing new. Inside Deep Throat's associate producer, Ashley York, points out these switcheroos. which were listed in the January 3, 1973, issue of Variety. According to the article, she says, the NY Times and NY Post did not alter titles from X to exasperating, but the NY Daily News did.

Deep Throat –> Throat
Meatball –> Hamburger
Meat Rack –> Street Rack
Teenage Slaves –> Teenage Serfs
Cherry Blossoms –> Berry Blossoms
Sons and Mothers –> Sons and Others
Seduction of Inga –> Temptation of Inga
Pornography in New York –> Permissiveness in New York
Hot Parts –> Ultra Violet's Guide to 40 Years of X Films
Mary Jane –> Mary J

The Talk of New York

The New York screening of Inside Deep Throat at the Paris Theatre was a hoot. The boisterous audience included a clutch of entertainers like Bebe Neuwirth, Claire Danes, Fred Schneider, Scot Whitman John Epperson aka Lypsinka, Jason Bateman, Ron Silver joined at the hips to doppelganger Alan Dershowitz, and Gwyneth Paltrow.  There were reams of scribes:  Erica Jong, Tina Brown, the Page Six posse, Cintra Wilson, Emma Forest. And a gaggle of documentarians: Andrew Jarecki (Capturing the Friedmans), Shari Berman (American Splendor), Todd Graff (Camp), and Barbara Kopple (My Generation).

This time, the hapless lot of directing a post-screening panel fell to Elvis Mitchell, former movie critic at the NY Times.  The panel was made up of HarperCollins publisher Judith Regan, journallist Peter Boyer, criminal defense attorney Alan Dershowitz (who defended Harry Reems in the famous obscenity trial), and feminist professor Catherine McKinnon.

Mitchell looked on helplessly as McKinnon did her thing, claiming that the film we had just watched was promoting the acceptance of rape.  At one point, however, her righteous zeal became unhinged when she claimed that it was not possible to do deep throat safely, that it was a dangerous act  that could only be done under hypnosis. "What's so funny?" she snapped as the audience rippled with mirth. Todd Graff's hand shot up - "I can do it," he said, and the room echoed with a chorus of gay men going "me too!"  (Gigi Grazer - wife of Brian - later told Graff to stop bragging and that she could do it better than him and had the rocks on her fingers to prove it. Touché).  But La McKinnon was not to be discouraged; she claimed that emergency rooms were filled with women victims of throat rape, not to mention the ones who hadnt even made it that far and had died in the act.

Judith Regan chimed in preposterously, maintaining that her Jenna Jameson autobiography, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, really was "a cautionary tale" rather than just an afterthought of a subtitle.  She argued that all sex workers are victims of sexual abuse.  Frontliner Peter Boyer went on on about rape porn and tried to raise a quorum on fisting.

Which left the task of defending Deep Throat and the porn world by extension to Alan Dershowitz, who pointed out that to say porn promoted rape was akin to saying that rap promoted. . .   But then Elvis Mitchell leapt to his feet, as if about to throw a Springer-like punch, and put us all out of our misery by ending the panel abruptly.

Adjourning to the after party at 81/2, Michael Musto said, "Congratulations, you've managed to incite the exact same debate that happened 30 years ago. People said exactly the same things they said decades ago. That really takes some doing."

And after that, everyone wound up at the after-after party at The Cock. Except Catherine McKinnon.

Photo: Fenton Bailey and Claire Danes

Inside Out

Well, Inside Deep Throat premiered officially last night, if officially means there was a red carpet, blinding lights, and a phalanx of photographers outside the theater.  There was, there were, and there was.  The screening had moved, 11th-hour, from the ArcLight in Hollywood to its conjoined sister, the Cinerama Dome, to accommodate the huge number of RSVPs.  We spotted Boston Legal's Rene Auberjonois looking for his seat number and Desperate Housewives' S&M housewife Sharon Lawrence chatting with someone on the aisle.  We saw everyone from Helen Mirren with her husband, Oscar shoo-in-Ray director Taylor Hackford, to Warhol star Holly Woodlawn with the producer of her shoe-in biopic, A Low Life in High Heels.  And Imagine's Brian Grazer, of course.  And Deep Throat director, Gerard Damiano.  And the doc's directors, Bailey and Barbato, the new Maysles Brothers, if the Maysles Brothers had worked blue.
During the screening on a screen so massive it made Linda Lovelace's talent all the more impressive, there wasn't a dry seat in the house.  Afterward, seemingly everyone uncharacteristically stayed put for a lively panel discussion on porn moderated by Peter Bart and argued by Arianna Huffington, Richard Schickel, Dennis Prager, and Lawrence O'Donnell.  We won't go into it, but conservative Christian radio personality Prager was not loved by the audience, while political pundit Huffington and West Wing writer O'Donnell were mentally embraced.
At the reception that followed in the cavernous hangar of a place that partially encloses the ArcLight's postmodern courtyard, we're sure we saw Huffington and O'Donnell physically embraced as well.  There were many many loyal WOW staffers and editors in attendance (having already seen IDT any number of times before) and they tended to clump together at the bars, and not necessarily in the buffet lines, alcoholics that they are.  We talked to Lorna Luft, and schmoozed indiscriminately, but it was WOW's videotape operator Brent Benedetti who scored the prize of the night:  Jennifer Coolidge.  Yeah, he befriended Stifler's mom, all right, shared hors d'oeuvres with her, nibbling her cookies, and volunteering to rescue puppies with her in the near future.  While other guests thought they were clever swiping the movie posters on their way out, Benedetti got Coolidge to drive him home.    

Recording and photographic equipment were strictly forbidden, but we managed to squeeze off a few unprofessional shots.  Clockwise from top left:  Randy Barbato and Jennifer Coolidge;  producer Mona Card (obscured) and associate producer Ashley York, editors William Grayburn and Jeremy Simmons,  Barbato; Moye Ishimoto, Terrance Austin, and Alisa Charoen-Phol; WOW head of production David Schiff and Deep Throat director Gerard Damiano; Austin and WOW production manager Devon Schneider

Stardust Memories

My favorite part of the Outfest Inside Deep Throat sneak peek at the Egyptian Cinematque last night was when a guy came up after the screening to make a comment after waiting patiently for his turn to speak.  He introduced himself as a die-hard Republican.  He explained that he'd spent the hour before the screening cheering on Bush and his state-of-the-union address.  I thought I was about to be attacked. instead, he shook my hand and said, Thanks for making a political movie that wasn't divisive.   I slept well after that.

This morning, James St, James told me Elijah Wood was there, so I guess if I'd spoken to him that might have been my favorite part of the screening.  Although, now that I think of it, the best part of the evening was when Gerard Damiano, the director of Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones (and many other classics!) walked out after the credit roll and got a standing ovation.

- Randy Barbato

The Party's Over

Oh, almost forgot to tell you.  The Inside Deep Throat poster giveaway is over.  Finished.  No more.  We enjoyed every minute of rolling the one-sheets into sturdy, rather impressive tubes and addressing said tubes (we'll say by hand), but the fun is, sadly, over now. Congratulations if you were one of our IDT 25.

A Reader Remembers Her First Time

I wasn't embarrassed to see Deep Throat.  A group of us college-age kids, including my brothers, went to the Faust Theatre in St. Paul to see the movie. Women got in for free.  The lounge had a seat which was a huge gilded phallus with cushions, a red velvet scrotum all around.  Linda was so casual about swallowing the guy.  It made me realize that all sex doesn't have to be such a big deal.  Later that summer, I learned my aunt had asked her daughter to take her to the movie.  She kept covering her eyes and wailing that her husband might find out where she had been.  My cousin, her daughter, offered to leave early.  My aunt kept saying, "Wait a bit.  It might get better."  It did. 
  
- Kathleen Wasescha

Porn for the Dorm (or elsewhere)

Porn for the Dorm (or elsewhere)

We have just received a shipment of brand spanking new Inside Deep Throat posters.  They're a whopping 27" X 40" and printed at great expense on both sides so that if you should choose to light one from behind, its beauty would only increase.  The poster makes not only a great design feature but also a point of conversation when placed on, say, a glass shower door or in a window facing a busy street.

Because we absolutely love you, we're offering to send one of these luxurious posters to the first 25 people who request one.  Absolutely free.  Posters are not limited, but this offer is.  So hurry.  

The Real Linda Lovelaces

Anecdotes from women saddled with the porno icon's name

Linda Lovelace used to work at J.C. Penny and would frequently hear store patrons giggle when her name was announced over the PA. She once won a radio contest and when she went to claim the prize she had to present a photo ID to prove that her name was in fact Linda Lovelace. She remembers that when she was a little girl she innocently kissed the mailman, who then went home and told his wife who threatened divorce unless he proved he was joking.

This is not the real Linda Lovelace - the woman who attained mainstream stardom as a result of her role in the 1972 adult film, Deep Throat. Rather, this woman is one of many who live across the country and share the name Linda Lovelace. Being asked for their autographs and questioned about their sex lives is commonplace.

In Clyde, North Carolina, a Linda Lovelace went to the dentist who said that he couldn't wait to get home and tell his wife whose mouth he'd been in.

Another Linda, who owns a beauty shop in Gatesville, Texas, began running advertisements in the local newspaper. It wasn't long until she got repeated prank calls from men at a local military base asking what services she provided.

A woman in Pensacola, Florida, changed her name to Linda Lovelace when she married in 1963 (prior to the release of the film). Once the film started playing in her hometown, everybody started buzzing about her name. She once signed for a UPS package and the driver insisted she had given a false identity. She remembers another incident when a cashier at a grocery store asked, after carefully analyzing her check, if that was her real name. Linda laughed as always, and the woman said that if that were her name she would change it.

In Chino Hills, California, a Linda got engaged to a Lovelace six months after the film was released. Her mom was none too happy with the upcoming name change and wondered if her fiance could change his last name to hers. While in a grocery store, a bagger saw that her name was Linda Lovelace and asked for an autograph.

In April 2002, a Linda Lovelace in Deale, Maryland, was overwhelmed with phone calls when the news broke that Linda had died from injuries sustained in a car accident. "I've read her book and know her story, which is sad," she said. "I just wish she could have had as much fun with the name as I have."

Despite Linda's death, the jokes haven't stopped and the legacy obviously lives on.

- Ashley York, Inside Deep Throat associate producer

A Self-Proclaimed "Good Girl's" POV

"I was glad to see in class today the trailer for Inside Deep Throat," says a coed in Canada. "This movie looks great, maybe I will make the trek down to TO to see it when it comes out early next month. Not too much to comment on regarding today's lecture, just the fact that I can truly see how the porn industry drives technology."  (More here and here)

Ones and O-o-o-ohs

That sweetheart Jonno over at Fleshbot, always thinking of us, sent a really curious thing to the WOW Report.  Deep ASCII is a full-length (55 minutes) conversion of the original porn film Deep Throat in soundless ASCII, which he presented on his blog last year.  Apparently, it made the rounds of the Euro film fests a while back.  But it's never been more apt than now.  ASCII, of course, stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, which assigns numerical values to the letters of the Roman alphabet, and it comes out here as lots of 1s and 0s.  Upshot:  It's really really hot and not at all safe for work.  Thanks Jonno.

Do You Remember Your First Time?

Carl Bernstein is the investigative journalist who, with Bob Woodward, broke the story on the Watergate scandal that ultimately caused the downfall of Richard Nixon.  Their anonymous source for the story was named Deep Throat.  Bernstein remembers the first time he saw the movie:

The Nixon Reelection Committee had sent out subpoena servers to haul us into court to try to get at our sources.  So Woodward wasn't there that day.  And somebody knew that the subpoena server had arrived downstairs with these court papers with my name on them and said, Bernstein, get out of here, go disappear for a couple hours.  And so I went and watched the movie Deep Throat. I mean everybody was talking about. . . about this movie.  I had a couple hours to kill.  It was showing right down the street, on 15th Street. I was thinking more about the subpoena than I (laughs) was thinking about the movie.  The movie was pretty. . . .  Well, you didn't have to think a lot to watch the movie.  I could do both at once.

Do you have a story about the first time you saw Deep Throat? Send it to us at wowreport@worldofwonder.net

Tongue-tied

Stolen from The WOW Report

All seems to be going swimmingly, as they say, with the preps for the premiere of Inside Deep Throat tomorrow at Sundance. But the other night, Sugar Ray frontman Mark McGrath, moonlighting on his other gig as cohost of Extra, kind of got the title of the '70s porn flick caught in his throat as he was introducing the show's "exclusive" preview of the hot doc's trailer. What's up with that? Managed to say "Inside," but couldn't say the rest. "He was hot and all as a rock 'n' roll star," says Fenton Bailey, "and we don't hold it against him for becoming an infotainment gigolo, but to be incapable of saying the words 'deep throat'? He came over all coy and embarrassed. I call that being a girlie man."

Meanwhile, in news of another celebrity flaking, Inside Deep Throat's narrator, Dennis Hopper, abruptly pulled out of attending the Sundance premiere of the film because he, um, FORGOT that he had to go to the Inaugural Ball in Washington.

For an update see The Corsair, which oddly has more information on the subject than we do.

Early Sign

From The WOW Report

Could there be a better location for the Inside Deep Throat billboard than the corner of Sunset and Horn in Los Angeles? OK, maybe Doheny and Swallow would be better, but you can't beat the gorgeous yin-yang of the NC-17 film being back-ended by the PG Shrek 2. (Inside Deep Throat premieres at Sundance January 21, and opens in theaters beginning February 11.)

Photos: Jim Galasso

From the WOW Report

Before this new, supplemental weblog devoted entirely to Inside Deep Throat  appeared, World of Wonder had been posting The WOW Report for almost a year, using some of that time to talk about the documentary.  All of it can still be accessed, from a look at the "original" poster to 5ive Questions with the film's stars to Christina Aguilera sporting a Deep Throat T.  Hot.

Find all the Inside Deep Throat posts.