Tough Booking?

Will the right-wing government of El Salvador give “Romero” its blessing? The film, depicting the political transformation and eventual assassination in 1980 of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, portrays the government as brutally oppressive to all political reformists, Marxist or otherwise.

Warner Bros., handling foreign sales, has an exec in Latin America making play dates for the film.

“I would think it will be a controversial issue (with the El Salvadoran government),” said a Warner Bros. publicity exec. “It may never play there. We just don’t know yet.”

But Jose Trigueros, a trade attache with the Salvadoran embassy in D.C., predicted otherwise: “It has not been raised as an issue. The ambassador has gone to see it. He had some comments--it’s not entirely factual--but he had no problems with it. We are open-minded.”

Another source close to the country’s political situation questioned whether El Salvador’s ruling Arena party, which controls the military and has been linked to death squad activity, would OK “Romero”: “In that atmosphere, how much pressure would it take to keep a theater from showing a movie so critical of the government?”

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. will try to book “Romero” in Mexico this spring to coincide with the Pope’s planned visit. Said the Warner Bros. spokesman: “It’s a good hook. We can build some good publicity around it.”