Mae West: Mad Matter

For the record, MAE WEST began making films in 1932 — — not the 1920s.
• • Director Todd Stephens credits the screen queen with being his muse and guidepost. A recent article in the Sydney Star Observer, written by John Burfitt, offers Stephens's comments on his idol.
• • This is an excerpt from an interview by Australian columnist John Burfitt:
• • While filming Another Gay Movie, director Todd Stephens believed the project had an unexpected guardian angel watching over it.
• • For a film depicting a group of young gay men’s desperate efforts to lose their virginity, Stephens believed it is appropriate that guardian angel was the long-dead screen siren, Mae West — — the woman who introduced sex to the movies in the 1920s [sic], and scandalised Hollywood as a result.
• • Todd Stephens is a Mae West fan, and even has some of her old furniture in his apartment. But while he was filming Another Gay Movie, he discovered an even closer connection with West.
• • “She was one of my big idols as I was growing up, and a big influence on me,” Stephens says from his New York home.
• • “When I was living in Hollywood while making this film, I discovered I was living right next door to where Mae lived for 50 years, and that was a total coincidence. I liked that as this is a very sex-positive movie, and certainly Mae was into that.
• • “She never apologised for exploring sexuality on screen, and neither do I with this film. So I felt I had her spirit watching over me the entire time I was making this film.”
• • . . . Another Gay Movie, which played at the recent Mardi Gras Film Festival, will be released on DVD 18 April 2007.
• • Source: Sydney Star Observer — — /www.ssonet.com.au — — Issue 860
• • Published on 29 March 2007
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • defending herself at Criminal Court for writing a gay play • • October 1928
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Mae West.