NOTE: The following has been corrected to include the new Indiegogo fundraising site.
STUDIO CITY, Calif.—More than 75 Hollywood producers, agents, actors and a handful of porn stars gathered Sunday evening at a home in Valley Village to kick off an Indiegogo-based fundraiser to bring David Bertolino's well-reviewed play, The Deep Throat Sex Scandal, to movie and/or TV screens—hopefully in time to commemorate the arrest, in July 1974, of actor Harry Reems for appearing in the movie upon which the play is based.
"After being approached by two movie companies, having run the play successfully, the buzz was there," Bertolino recounted. "Lots of Hollywood people heard about it, Indiegogo heard about it, and they approached us and said, 'Hold on a second; if you don't want to be under the thumb of the big players, the studios, how about Indiegogo and Kickstarter?' I said, 'I've heard about it. Tell me more.' And they introduced themselves. One of them was someone who produced Charlize Theron in Monster. He said, 'I'm Brad Wyman and I'm now part of Indiegogo. I produced Monster, and I'm confident that if you go with us, you're going to be very pleased because my associates have seen your play and we're totally blown away by it.'
"I really am excited at the thought of a massive audience, and it really will be a massive audience," Bertolino continued. "The adult industry was beat up incredibly over this thing [Deep Throat]. I mean, how can they tell everyone that there's rights protecting everybody when they don't protect the adult film industry? And it's not like I'm trying to defend the adult film industry; I'm protecting everyone's right of free speech. It's the right thing to do. And the story will be told. Richard Nixon rigged the courtroom; Richard Nixon got Charles Keating and his bulldogs to get a conviction before the trial even started, and the government put these people through the ringer, and it shouldn't happen again, and one of the ways it won't happen again is to get it known now, get this out there now. So I feel like I'm doing my little part for free speech."
The fundraising event, dubbed the "Deep Throat Sex Scandal Indiegogo Party," was held at the home of Alexandra Barrett, who generously provided not only several kinds of BBQ'd meats plus cole slaw, potato salad and other side dishes plus desserts, but also live entertainment in the form of a cappella singing group The Alley Cats—and a full bar.
Present for the event were adult actors Rebecca Bardoux, Amber Lynn, Nina Hartley and Christy Canyon (Debi Diamond also showed up just long enough to spirit Christy away for a while), and most of the play's cast, including stars Marc Ginsburg ("Harry Reems") and Natasha Charles Parker ("Linda Lovelace"), as well as Michael Rachlis, Brett Aune, Frank Blocker, Bart Tangredi and Veronica Hart, plus some Hollywood personalities who had guest roles during the play's run, including Sally Kirkland, a veteran of such softcore hits as Candy Stripe Nurses and Big Bad Mama before graduating to roles in Breakheart Pass, A Star Is Born and Private Benjamin.
Bertolino also brought a promotional video for the Indiegogo campaign, which went live on Saturday at noon. The video was introduced by Marc Ginsburg, who then turned the mic over to Bertolino.
"We came to LA a year ago; we crawled from our losses in New York, because we put on this play in New York City and the theater we were in went bankrupt, so we lost our prepaid rent, we lost our deposits, we even lost the receipts from the box office and the theater owners left town," Bertolino admitted to the crowd. "So we got here a year ago, we crawled back to life and normally—we had a terrific run. We had three extensions at the Zephyr Theater, to packed houses. It was wonderful, and now we're going to make a movie based on the play."
"It [Deep Throat] remains one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, but that's only the beginning," Bertolino said in the promotional video. "It's hard to overstate the wrath that was released by the United States government on the cast and crew of Deep Throat. The Nixon White House, trying hard to direct the public's attention away from Watergate and Vietnam, unleashed an assault on free speech and expression that would be unthinkable today—at least, we hope so. Outraged Hollywood stars like Richard Dreyfuss turned out to raise money for Harry's defense, along with Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, while legal giants like Allan Dershowitz spearheaded efforts to overturn the rulings handed down by the judge and prosecutor chosen by the Nixon administration."
"This is a movie about artists like you and me being attacked by their own government for simply doing what they want," he continued. "It's also the story of Linda Lovelace, used and abused by her husband, who wanted to make a name for himself yet was overshadowed by her fame. It's the story of the Colombo crime family who, reminiscent of the movie The Producers, created an accidental hit. After researching this material for seven years, I have a passion to tell this unbelievable yet true story, and I sincerely thank you in advance for wanting to be a part in this important film."
To become a backer of the Deep Throat Sex Scandal Movie, and possibly receive "perks" that include copies of the script, digital downloads of the finished film and behind-the-scenes footage, a producer credit or even a role in the film itself, click here.
During the party, Bertolino also let slip more exciting news.
"In the meantime, we're chatting with television folks who are here," he explained, "and we're in a quiet period with one of them, so we'll see where it goes, but they want to make The Adventures of Deep Throat—what happened to the cast, what happened to the prosecutions and persecutions— so I'm writing the pilot right now. And the people we're talking to represent cable stations, and I said to some producer friends, 'Too bad they're not network-affiliated,' and they said, 'David, people are giving stronger numbers to some cable shows than even network programming has.' I had no idea, but the project sounds exciting and I hope to be a part of that as well."
Pictured: Some of the cast and crew of The Deep Throat Sex Scandal
