This is not a Yale story.
This is a Comedy Central original picture about four 20-somethings at, well, call it Ivy League University X. The soon-to-be-sellout seniors love porn and Popeye’s so much they decide to make a skinflick of their very own. With, don’t forget, a lesbian love scene starring two of their classmates at the unnamed Everycollege.
See, just some could-happen-anywhere liberal arts hijinks. Well, until Dean Widehead gets in the way, that is.
The comedy network will air its first original feature-length film, the two-hour “Porn ‘N Chicken,” on Sunday, Oct. 13. Shot over the summer, it is based loosely on the story of Jamie Ponsoldt ’01, Colin Spoelman ’01, Joshua Newman ’01 and William Marino ’01 and the dream of an Ivy porno that has only now found its way to celluloid.
The story of “The StaXXX” is a familiar one to those at Yale in December 1999, when flyers began appearing around campus advertising the club and inviting students to audition for the first ever Ivy League adult film.
A few weeks later, the members of Porn ‘N Chicken, a campus organization dedicated to screening pornography while eating fried chicken, actually filmed several scenes involving two women and a leather strap-on in Sterling Memorial Library. It was an experiment in irony expected to fail miserably, Ponsoldt, a vegetarian, said in an earlier interview.
“Yalies tend to be of the pale and pimply variety, and if you’re going to cast a porn film, that’s probably not the first place you’d go,” he said.
They were later forced to destroy the footage when the participants withdrew permission to use it after an alleged breach of confidentiality.
Later still, after the Yale Daily News ran an article on the film segment, the story was picked up by The New York Times. National and international media descended on New Haven, and eventually news outlets ranging from the Daily Variety to Danish National Radio ran stories about the Yale seniors making a porno.
But representatives of Comedy Central and producer Tribeca Productions say to better entertain, the movie version, shot at Columbia University in New York, takes tremendous liberties with the specifics. Specifically, that no film was ever actually made.
Yes, the heroes of this coming-of-age film have more success shooting a movie and even recruiting pornstars to hold mock “Master’s Teas” — including cameos by Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson, speakers the original bunch sought.
But the fictional foursome also have more trouble from The Man, Widehead in particular, than their Yale inspirations, who received words of support from Yale’s own administration — including the no-less-conveniently named Dean Richard Brodhead.
Patty Newburger, vice president of Comedy Central’s infant Film Division, said the network chose this story for its first original picture because it is “smart and edgy.” The made-for-TV “Porn ‘N Chicken” is “not your typical boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl thing,” she said, it’s about kids about to graduate college, she said, with definite goals set — one is going to be a lawyer — which are upended by a “prank that takes over their lives.”
The real coming-of-age story, though, is that of Ponsoldt, Spoelman, Newman and Marino, all of whom currently live in New York and who will be cited as associate producers of the movie. Two are currently musicians in The Harlem Bluegrass Choir, one is a law student, and one is an investment banker. Upon graduation, the four hired a representative from Creative Arts Agency, a Hollywood talent agency, and sold the rights of their story to Tribeca Productions and Comedy Central.
Ponsoldt worked as an advisor to the screenwriter and as a director’s intern during the production on the film, Comedy Central spokesman Aileen Budow said. The four make an appearance on the fictional “Porn ‘N Chicken” Tap Night, and Ponsoldt makes a solo cameo as a Yalie auditioning for “The StaXXX,” Budow said.
Written and directed by Lawrence Trilling, who previously directed several episodes of “Popular,” “Scrubs,” “Ed” and “Felicity,” the film stars Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Alex Burns, Geoffrey Arend and Michael Goldstrom as “Hutch,” “Quentin,” “Andy” and “Lenny,” the four founding members of the club. Kurt Fuller, from the Comedy Central series “That’s my Bush!” plays Dean Widehead.
The movie will premier at Manhattan’s Studio 54 on October 9.
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