Posted on 02/10/2003 9:19:04 AM PST by marshmallow
WITH THE BOUNCING MUSIC AND THE KIDS IN THEIR BASEBALL CAPS HOWLING WHILE GUZZLING KEG-TAPPED BEER FROM PLASTIC CUPS, THIS COULD BE A HOME VIDEO OF A HOUSE PARTY ON VIRTUALLY ANY COLLEGE CAMPUS IN THE COUNTRY.
You even get the requisite host trying to balance the male-to-female ratio by calling for quiet and announcing: "There's too many dudes here, man ... some of you have to leave. I'm not trying to be a ---- or anything, but, like you three guys, I don't even know you. ..."
But a few minutes later, the video jumps from PG-13 home movie to hard-core XXX porn. The party's host is now in a bedroom with his boxers around his ankles as a nasty-looking porn star does to him what nasty-looking porn stars do for a living. All the while, two friends of the co-host are standing over him, quaffing beer and egging him on.
Welcome to Shane's World.
As you might recall, there was a huge dustup last fall when a half-dozen porn stars and a video crew from a California company called Shane's World descended on the Indiana University campus in Bloomington, Ind., and recorded themselves partying and engaging in sexual acts with students in dorm rooms and houses. The story attracted nationwide media attention from outlets ranging from the Los Angeles Times to the New York Post to "The O'Reilly Factor." Not since "Breaking Away" has a movie shot around IU garnered such publicity.
Officials at the university ordered a police investigation to determine if any laws had been broken and said the porn company was exploiting students and damaging IU's reputation. Calli Cox, a porn actress and the spokeswoman for Shane Enterprises (versatile!), countered by saying all the students who were involved were 18 or older and had signed consent forms. (No criminal charges were filed.) And just last month, an Indiana state representative introduced a bill that would prohibit making sexually explicit films on Indiana college campuses, with students facing immediate expulsion for participating in such an endeavor.
There were literally hundreds of stories about the making of the movie and the reactions of community members, students and school officials. Weirdly enough though, there's been virtually nothing written or reported about the finished product.
We have a habit of doing that in the media--of dropping the ball on followup stories. I probably would have forgotten about the movie had I not sent myself a time-stamped electronic reminder. So when my Palm Pilot hit the mid-January mark, I obtained a copy of "Shane's World, Vol. 32, Campus Invasion"--already a big seller in Bloomington, where the woman who answered the phone at Eve's Lingerie and Adult Novelties said they've sold more than 200 copies.
I asked a colleague who's an IU graduate to confirm that the film was shot on campus, and she readily identified the Teter Quadrangle and other IU locations. ("That's Indiana limestone," she said as the porn stars entered a dorm.) Then she ran away, and I don't blame her.
The film runs 2-1/2 hours, and for the most part it's about as sexy as a military educational film about transmittable diseases. Basically you get porn stars with ugly tattoos, bad teeth and been-around-the-block-a-million-times faces mingling with drunken-fool college students in pig sty apartments. It's mostly pathetic and depressing.
One mope who meets the porn stars outside his dorm invites them back to his room. Another guy, toting a backpack, allows the women to fondle him in public and then says, "Awesome! OK, I gotta go to class." There are several party sequences, with the porn stars putting on shows for the crowd and occasionally hooking up with young men.
Most of the party guests, while not smart enough to leave the premises, were at least smart enough to avoid signing release waivers. Their faces are digitally obscured. But several of these goofballs preen and prance and perform on camera.
At one point, the aforementioned party host runs into some equipment problems and says, "I'm embarrassed right now." If you were embarrassed then, dude, wait until someone who knows you sees this tape.
A couple of females also get involved with a male porn star named Tex, though the interaction isn't nearly as graphic as the stuff with the male students. They don't actually fool around. Nevertheless, if you were related to these girls you'd want to stick your head in an oven.
Toward the end of the film, a guy named Baxter makes an appearance at one of the parties. He's wearing a robe and a necktie over his bare chest, and he's one of those self-styled collegiate philosophers who loves the sound of his own voice.
"[Indiana is] the No. 1 party school in the nation," he says. "We got meatheads, we got pretty boys ... we got haters ... [there's] my only gay friend.... [Two porn stars] just had sex in my room, so I'm thinking about my sheets right now. ... I'm sacrificing for my friends, cuz that's the kind of guy I am. ...
"You want to be me, you really do, I'm not bull---- ----. I'm going to be a rock star soon and this is going to be on VH1 'Behind the F------ Music,' I'm going to regret this, if my parents are out there, I'm sorry Mom and Dad, I'm just trying to get my name out there."
Congratulations, Baxter. It worked.
It's the American way.
You know, you just can't buy advertising like this. If it weren't for the newpapers, no one would hear, or care about it. As for the crime, we have the age of consent issue met, we have signed releases. If colleges really want to protect their students from villians, instead of worrying about the 0.00001% this issue threatens; why don't they alert the 90% students who are targeted by 22+% VISA card parasites?
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