A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : SLIPPERY SLOPES : Disney’s Rocky Mountain High

In the midst of a “Boycott Colorado” movement--that has some of Hollywood’s biggest names debating whether to ski or not to ski in the state--along comes a movie celebrating Aspen, the famed ski resort.

A spokesman for Walt Disney Studios’ Hollywood Pictures, which is releasing “Aspen Extreme” on Jan. 22, said the timing is “pure coincidence.”

The boycott is aimed against Amendment 2, a measure passed by Colorado voters in November that voids and prohibits civil rights legislation for gay men and women and bisexuals.

One focus of the boycott has been Aspen, which continues to be a popular destination for some figures in the entertainment business.

In the movie, two guys from Detroit (Paul Gross and Peter Berg) leave their auto assembly plant jobs for the ski resort in the hopes of meeting beautiful people, and indulging in the slopes and beer.

All the attention could work to the movie’s benefit or detriment.

An industry insider who saw the movie recently described it as travelogue for Aspen and a plug for Coors beer and Evian. “The two guys have a Coors neon sign that you see every time they go home.”

No one knows how the movie will be received, given the boycott, which is supported by such Hollywood luminaries as Barbra Streisand and Whoopi Goldberg. Possibly adding controversy is the prominence of Coors, a Colorado-based brewery. The company has long been a target of gay protests over its employment practices and the Coors Foundation has been a supporter of right-wing political causes that tend to oppose rights for homosexuals.

“Right now, any city in Colorado is a problem for the gay and lesbian community,” said David Smith of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in Los Angeles. GLAAD has been a key backer of the boycott movement.

“If this movie is a kind of subliminal message for tourism, then we would be opposed to that. But if it is a mindless movie about ski flakes, then so what?

“Regardless of the boycott, Aspen is a high-profile resort and is probably a logical setting for a movie,” Smith said. “It’s not suspect that Disney would be releasing it at this point. But it’s also not something that would be beyond a media-savvy publicist.”