Lawrence to Appeal MPAA Rating of ‘You So Crazy’ : Movies: The film gets slapped with an NC-17. ‘The powers that be have to live up to the American dream, which is freedom of speech,’ the comedian argues.

Comedian Martin Lawrence has titled his first film “You So Crazy,” after the name of his national stand-up comedy tour.

But the Motion Picture Assn. of America ratings board, which has slapped the film with an NC-17 rating, thinks it’s more like “You So Nasty.”

Lawrence held a press conference Tuesday at Manhattan’s Omni Berkshire Hotel to announce his appeal of the rating. The appeal is scheduled to be heard Feb. 23, nine days before the film opens in New York and Los Angeles.

The film, a sometimes raunchy stand-up show that satirizes male-female relationships, was filmed at Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Majestic Theater last April. It had originally been scheduled for release on Feb. 25, but is being pushed back to March 4 because of the appeal.

“The powers that be have to live up to the American dream, which is freedom of speech,” Lawrence told reporters. “I’m just trying to figure this out.”

The board’s ruling, which came on Feb. 10, represents the first time the NC-17 rating--usually based on graphic violence and sex--”has been given solely on the basis of words,” said attorney Martin Garbus, in an affidavit in support of the appeal.

Elizabeth Barnes, a spokesperson for the MPAA, said, “It is our policy not to comment on the specific ratings of specific films. The appeals process is part of the rating process.”

An NC-17 rating, equivalent to the old “X,” bars anyone under the age of 17 from seeing the film, with or without parental consent. Such a rating could limit the number and type of theaters presenting the film and bar advertising in certain newspapers as well as limit the number of video rental stores that will carry it.

Because of such potential restrictions, Lawrence, attorneys and representatives for the distributor, Miramax Films, cast their appeal as a First Amendment issue.

“The board is out of touch with the culture that Martin Lawrence speaks about,” said Garbus.

Lisa Davis, a partner in the Manhattan-based Frankfort, Garbus, Klein and Selz, said she did not think the rating was a black-white issue. “I don’t know if it’s a black versus majority culture thing,” said Davis, who is African American. “It’s about the youth culture and the board being out of touch with that.”

The brouhaha over the rating is not a scheme to generate publicity, said David Dinerstein, vice president for marketing at Miramax, which has scored recent public relations successes for “Farewell My Concubine” and “The Crying Game.”

“We look for films on the cutting edge,” Dinerstein said. “We just want to make sure people can see the films.”

Lawrence said the film’s rating comes as a surprise because he does not consider it any racier than segments of films made by his idols, including Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor: “I’ve tried to keep my stuff in line with theirs,” he said. “I know I haven’t gone farther than they did.”