Shame, a candid and powerful look at sexual addiction from director Steve McQueen (no, another Steve McQueen) is out in limited release tomorrow, and as we reported last month, it’s going out with the NC-17 rating—no children under 17 admitted, under any circumstances. The rating, many have surmised, is due to the film’s copious male nudity, and that’s how the American ratings system works: all the naked ladies you want, but the erect male member= automatic NC-17.

The rating was initiated by the MPAA back in 1990, and was intended to be an alternative to the porn-stained (if you’ll pardon the pun) X rating; NC-17 movies, like Henry & June (the inaugural film to carry the rating), Bad Lieutenant, The Dreamers, and Lust, Caution would be for adults, by adults. But it quickly became the kiss of death for filmmakers and distributors. Just as with the X rating before it, newspapers and television outlets wouldn’t carry ads for NC-17 films, while larger theatrical chains and home video outlets refused to carry them. Smaller films would take the mark or (as Kids and Happiness did) go out unrated, while the editing process for big releases became something of a con game: if a film was rated NC-17, the distributor would make the trims necessary for an R-rating, enjoy the publicity, and then restore the cut material for the inevitable “unrated” DVD release (frequently carried by the very chains that refused to stock NC-17 films). By the late 1990s, studios wouldn’t even bother with the first step, cranking out unrated versions of raunchy comedies and adult thrillers as a standard step in their home video release plans.

While the politics of who gets an R and who doesn’t are shady at best (check out the terrific documentary This Film is Not Yet Rated), we can’t help but wonder about what would have happened if the NC-17 could have been what its creators wanted it to be. Fox Searchlight’s decision to release Shame with the scarlet letters/numbers has prompted another round of “will the NC-17 finally become respectable?” questions (answer: dubious), but what if that question weren’t necessary, because the NC-17 had never been stigmatized? Had that been the case, we might have seen the uncut movies we’ve assembled after the jump. Read More »

There was a time, back in the late ’90s, when we were in high school, Bust magazine was taking off, girls were putting white-blonde streaks into their dark hair, and reclaiming the image of Bettie Page was fresh and exciting. Over ten years later, we just can’t take it anymore. Now that Katy Perry is running around with blue bangs, doing press for her lamentable single “California Gurls” in garish bikinis cut to ’50s pinup proportions, we are declaring the shark jumped. If we see one more celebrity dressed up as Page (who, in case you haven’t seen Mary Harron’s The Notorious Bettie Page) wasn’t a particularly happy or empowered individual), we’re launching a protest against the stylist. Click through to see everyone from Kathy Griffin to Juliette Lewis in Bettie drag and blow this overdone trend a kiss goodbye.

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The first image from Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut Whip It — which stars Ellen Page — has surfaced and features both ladies (along with SNL‘s Kristen Wiig) clad in rather tame roller derby gear. The script was authored by LA Derby Dolls founding member Shauna Cross, and is based on her book Derby Girl. Read the interview we did with her back in May here. We also recently chatted with Juliette Lewis, who plays the girls’ arch nemesis, here.

Fox Searchlight will release the film on October 9.

Juliette Lewis is the greatest pixie-lion you will ever meet. To some, she is a quirky and versatile actress (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Natural Born Killers, Hysterical Blindness); to others, a full-fledged bad ass rocker-chick (The Licks). But Lewis doesn’t care what you think, because these labels are generalizations. Resorting to her own homegrown lexicon, Lewis admits that she is simply an “emotionalist.” On the verge of her August tour with The Pretenders and Cat Power, Juliette Lewis sat sat down with Flavorpill to chat about her new solo album, Terra Incognita (out September 1st), the “geniosity” of Omar Rodrigeuz-Lopez, and, of course, one of her promotional collaborators, Willy, a bull. Read More »

1. Kris Allen. [via AP]

2. Google can’t keep up with Twitter’s speed, so Larry Page sez they might hop in bed together. [via Guardian]

3. It’s like our generation’s Lilith Fair: Cat Power will tour with Juliette Lewis and the Pretenders this summer. (Side note: I was totally kidding, but the Lilith Fair website say it’s returning in 2010.) [via Pitchfork]

4. Could Night at the Museum really hurt Terminator‘s box office? [via Variety]

5. 13 canceled shows that you’ll always miss. [via TDB]