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Saturday 8 December 2018

FILM 1892: SHOWGIRLS



FILM 1892: SHOWGIRLS

TRIVIA: When the film swept The 16th Annual RAZZIE Awards, Paul Verhoeven turned up in person to accept Worst Director and Worst Picture. He was the first director to ever turn up to collect the Award.

Pamela AndersonAngelina JolieVanessa MarcilDenise Richards and Charlize Theronauditioned for the role of Nomi Malone. Richards would be cast in Paul Verhoeven's next film, Starship Troopers (1997).

Kyle MacLachlan denied rumours that he walked out of the premiere - "I sat there and suffered for the whole two hours".

Jenny McCarthy auditioned for the lead and was very much in the running until it was discovered that she couldn't dance.

The filmmakers wanted Madonna to play Cristal Conners and Drew Barrymore to play Nomi Malone. The name card Gaye takes off the mirror when she shows Nomi her table in the dressing room even says "Drew." Barrymore turned the film down because she was uncomfortable with the amount of nudity required.

This film enjoyed huge success in home video market in the United States, generating more than $100 million from video rentals and became one of MGM's top 20 all-time bestsellers.

Elizabeth Berkley was dropped by her agent after the film was released.

Jennifer Lopez told The Hollywood Reporter (2016) that the worst audition of her career occurred when vying for a part in this film.

After this film bombed at the box office and "swept" the 16th Annual RAZZIE Awards, MGM/UA attempted to re-market it as a "Midnight Cult Flick" à la The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). A new print ad, with a leopard-skin patterned background and prominently mentioning the film's seven RAZZIE "Wins" ran in several L.A. area newspapers, promoting midnight showings in West Hollywood in Spring, 1996. Clever though it was, this new marketing gimmick also failed at the time. However, since then, the movie has indeed enjoyed a significant degree of cult following, with fans showing up in Showgirls-themed attire at screenings of the movie. Several influential filmmakers such as Quentin TarantinoJim Jarmusch and Jacques Rivette have professed their appreciation of the movie; screenwriter Joe Eszterhas and director Paul Verhoeven both claim that they frequently meet people who secretly admit that they loved the movie. The critical re-evaluation of the film even inspired author Adam Nayman to write the novel "It Doesn't Suck", in which he makes a case for the movie being an actual masterpiece.

Kyle MacLachlan used a body double.


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