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“Politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough,” explained John Huston’s withered magnate Noah Cross in Chinatown. Alas, the same cannot be said of showgirls. Or rather, it can’t be said of Showgirls, director Paul Verhoeven’s infamously atrocious 1995 exploration of the Las Vegas stripping scene. This is despite the best efforts of You Don’t Nomi, a new 25th anniversary documentary by Jeffrey McHale that attempts to rehabilitate Verhoeven’s widely (and properly) reviled debacle, now considered by some to be cult film. Featuring voiceover by nearly a dozen critics and performers, several of whom have...

The following is from an Italian penpal: --- Mel Gibson accused of violent and anti-Jewish rants The script Eszterhas wrote for Mel Gibson is entitled " The MacCabees '," a project Gibson initiated after facing an earlier round of anti-semitism charges. Gibson..http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-last-word/47037091 Eszterhas: Mel Gibson hates Jews; wanted to murder Oksana Eszterhas writes: “You said the Holocaust was ‘mostly a lot of horses—.’ You said the Torah made reference to the sacrifice of Christian babies and infants. When I told you that you were confusing the Torah with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, ... you insisted ‘it’s in...

Calls the project a "labor of love." ~~~~ Infamous Hollywood screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, 64, known for such sordid films as Basic Instinct and Showgirls, has undergone a conversion and now will be writing a new film on Our Lady of Guadalupe. Eszterhas has been one of Hollywood's most influential screenwriters, writing lucrative blockbuster films, such as Flashdance, Jagged Edge, and Basic Instinct, and raking in million-dollar paychecks. Known for living the full 'Hollywood lifestyle', Eszterhas gave it up to move home to Ohio with his wife and children in the late 1990s. In 2001, faced with throat cancer resulting from...

CLEVELAND (CNS) -- The Gospel of Luke's prodigal son has nothing on Joe Eszterhas. A self-described "Hollywood animal," Eszterhas is best known for writing such adult-themed thrillers as "Basic Instinct" and "Jagged Edge." He is a guy who seemed to live his earlier life as if the seven deadly sins were a personal to-do list. But then Eszterhas found God. Or as Eszterhas writes in his latest memoir, "Crossbearer," God found him. Today, the man who once was the center of attention at exclusive Hollywood restaurants, enjoys the easygoing community spirit of sharing a meal with his wife, Naomi, and...

"I was the schlub, the leper, the maggot, the nigger," Joe Eszterhas writes in his new book, Hollywood Animal, "… the screenwriter for Christ's sake as star!" That bon mot sums up everything you need to know about Eszterhas, the man who wrote Basic Instinct, Showgirls, and other crucial additions to American cinema. Hollywood Animal is the Basic Instinct of autobiographies: a few titillating episodes buried under piles and piles of bilious nonsense. In Slate's continuing effort to save you from reading big, long books of questionable merit, we have assembled a guide to Eszterhas' juiciest bits. Begin Hollywood Animal...

The Incomplete EpiphanyBy Tammy Bruce FrontPageMagazine.com | August 13, 2002 Joe Eszterhas is a powerful Hollywood screenwriter. He has written 14 films, his most famous being “Basic Instinct,” which made Sharon Stone a star. The film revolved around two women, both at least bi-sexual, who were crazy and/or cold-blooded ice-pick wielding killers. Surprisingly, this Hollywood powerhouse has written an opinion piece for the New York Times confessing his guilt about the content of his films. Of what exactly has he finally realized his culpability? His portrayal of Sharon Stone as a psychotic lesbian ice-picktress? Or Stone as a stalked...

NEW YORK (AP) - "Basic Instinct" screenwriter Joe Eszterhas has throat cancer after a lifetime of smoking, and is urging Hollywood to stop glamorizing cigarette use the way he says he did. Eszterhas writes in an op-ed piece in Friday's New York Times that he was diagnosed with the disease 18 months ago. Much of his larynx is gone, he says, and he has difficulty speaking and being understood. "Smoking was an integral part of many of my screenplays because I was a militant smoker. It was part of a bad boy image I'd cultivated for a long time —...