Sunday, August 29, 1999
Mapplethorpe may become a movie
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The 1990 Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center obscenity trial over Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs could become a Showtime cable movie.
Michael Manheim, who won a 1989 Emmy for NBC's Roe Vs. Wade, has been working on a script about the trial, which ended in the acquittal on all charges against the CAC and then-director Dennis Barrie.
“I've read the script and made some comments,” said Mr. Barrie, now president of the Cleveland-based Malrite Co., which produces entertainment for “museum-like complexes” in San Francisco, Chicago, New York and other cities.
Showtime “is interested in doing the (Cincinnati) story, and we are in negotiations,” confirmed Karen Osmer, Showtime publicist. She declined further comment.
Cincinnati made national headlines when the CAC was indicted for pandering obscenity and illegal use of a child in nudity-related material in April 1990 for exhibiting Robert Mapplethorpe's The Perfect Moment photography show.
The center was acquitted on all charges the following October, four months after the record-breaking show closed at the CAC.
Mr. Manheim has been working on the Mapplethorpe project on and off throughout the decade. He called Mr. Barrie “right after the trial” in 1990, and pitched a movie about it to HBO the next year. Nothing happened.
Mr. Manheim, on vacation until Labor Day, could not be reached for comment.
“This has been in the works for some time, and it keeps on popping up every now and then,” Mr. Barrie said.
Mr. Barrie moved to Cleveland in 1993 to oversee construction and acquisitions at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. He resigned as executive director in 1996.
In April of last year, he was named president of Malrite, a private company controlled by Milton Maltz, which had owned WXIX-TV (Channel 19) and four other TV stations until a year ago.
Showtime, a subsidiary of Viacom (MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount, Paramount's Kings Island, Simon & Shuster), has developed a reputation for tackling tough topics.
Anita Hill's 1991 sexual harassment allegations against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas will be dramatized at 8 p.m. today in Strange Justice with Regina Taylor, Delroy Lindo and Mandy Patinkin.
The Baby Dance, Jodie Foster's movie about surrogate parents, won a prestigious Peabody Award in April. It has been nominated for four Emmys.
In 1997, Showtime aired Bastard Out of Carolina,Anjelica Huston's controversial film about a sexually abused young girl. It was produced by TNT, but banned from that channel by Time Warner Vice Chairman Ted Turner.
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