Still Gross After All These Years

Much has changed in Hollywood over the past quarter-century, but one thing has remained the same. There still does not exist a more gross and tasteless movie than John Waters’ “Pink Flamingos,” which stars Mink Stole and the late Divine as “the filthiest person alive.”

In celebration of its silver anniversary, a beyond-the-fringe crowd gathered April Fool’s night at the Nuart Theater (where the film debuted in 1972) for the premiere re-release screening--along with some previously unreleased outtakes--of the cult classic. Afterward, the crowd commuted to a party at the Smashbox Photo Studio in Santa Monica.

“We’re sorry [CEO of New Line, Fine Line’s parent company] Bob Shaye couldn’t be here,” quipped Liz Manne, Fine Line executive vice president of marketing, in a pre-screening speech. “But he’s still explaining ‘Crash’ to Ted Turner. It’s a good thing Turner [who publicly denounced “Crash”] doesn’t even know about ‘Pink Flamingos.’ ”

Actually, Shaye wasn’t the only no-show. Besides Waters and Stole, few of the A-list invitees showed up to brave the movie’s daunting vulgarity. Spotted in the crowd were Traci Lords, Illeana Douglas, Alyssa Milano, director Gregg Araki, “Baywatch’s” Angie Harmon, Alexis Arquette in pink flamingo drag and about 500 other drag queens, freaks, B-list actors and trash-film fans.

At the party, guests were packed body-to-body. Surprisingly, despite having just watched this movie, there was a massive line for the beef, turkey and salmon burgers and fixings catered by Louis XIV.

Although there were Betty Page vehicles and other vintage stag films projected onto the walls, the real center of attention was the auteur himself.

“All the people that run the studios maybe saw this movie in college, so it’s not a big deal,” Waters says of his recent Hollywood acceptance. “Ten years ago, when I took meetings with people here, they had heard of it but they had never seen it and they unfortunately told their wives to go rent it and then they watched it and they were horrified.”

The director added that there really isn’t much that grosses him out in movies these days but that, “when Forrest Gump started running, I felt like calling the police.”

Like many here, former porn-teen Traci Lords (who co-starred in the 1990 Waters film “Cry-Baby”) had never seen “Pink Flamingos” on the big screen. Comparing some of her X-rated performances to the anatomical antics in this movie, Lords said, “I felt so much better. I said to myself, at least I never did anything that bad.”