Rock Shuffle

Director/co-writer/co-producer Kurt MacCarley has just completed “Rock and the Money Hungry Party Girls,” a rock world send-up that he dubs “a cross between ‘Spinal Tap’ and ‘Eddie and the Cruisers’ ” and is shopping for a distributor.

It’s the saga of Stan Link, pompadoured rock legend who balloons to 450 pounds and dies of an eating disorder. (Brian Stox, an Elvis impersonator by trade, plays the “young” Stan; Lou Pampino is the declining Stan.) A rock-star-in-training (named Rock, played by Paul Sercue) gets involved in a search for Stan Link’s gold pendant--which contains Link’s nose hairs, as well as clues to Link’s unpublished songs.

Filmed in 16 days for $40,000, MacCarley--who’s directed and photographed commercials for Carl’s Jr., Volkswagen, Army National Guard and others--likens the pic’s shoestring budget to “Hollywood Shuffle.” With one big exception: He made it as a union film with all union talent. (SAG gave MacCarley special permission to pay his actors $100 a day rather than the $379 scale.)

As for the resemblance--physical and otherwise--that rocker Stan bears to Elvis, MacCarley deadpanned, “Well, we never name any names. So who’s to tell?”