Two Johns

"Hairspray" meanwhile has morphed into a successful Broadway musical, a version of which opens this month at the Luxor. Waters and I are planning to revisit his history with Hairspray this afternoon. In preparing for the interview I read Waters 2005 introduction to the published screenplay of Hairspray, the movie, in which he imagines a sort of sequel:

"Tracy becomes a speed freak, Link turns gay, Penny gets an abortion, Seaweed joins the Black Panthers, Motormouth is busted for payola, Corny is falsely accused of child molesting, and Amber gets a facelift that goes bad. Every time I mention these ideas to Margo Lion, one of the producers of 'Hairspray' the musical, she turns white and begs me to reconsider."

Tonight I am having dinner with a very different sort of director. In the 80s, John Stagliano through his low budget Buttman films helped inaugurate gonzo porn (defined by the camera being an acknowledged part of the action and very, very little plot), and recently Mike Ramone, editor in chief of Adult Video News, the porn industry trade magazine, told me: "John is arguably the most influential pornographer this industry has ever seen." Anyway, among Stagliano's most successful films is the Fashionistas (2003), a 4 1/2 hour epic, which could not be further from gonzo: shot on film, elaborately plotted. Stagliano then transformed this film into the most critically acclaimed adult show on the Strip. "The Fashionistas," the Vegas show, is adventurous and interesting and one of my favorite production shows in town.

Stagliano has not been in Vegas much recently, because he is now getting ready to make the sequel to the "Fashionistas" movie. Being that the original Fashionistas won more AVN awards (the adult Oscars) than any other film in that industry's histroy, Stagliano in our brief conversations about it seems to feel a strong desire to make this film a major step forward, too. As well as his plans for the Fashionistas 2, I am looking forward to checking in with him about how his show in Vegas is doing.

John Waters and John Stagliano such an unlikely duo to be the imaginations responsible for shows on the Strip. But I've always said Las Vegas entertainment is far more subversive than people realize. Except Penn & Teller; they are exactly as subversive as people realize.

(photo by Carolyn Kaster/AP)