Posted on 07/23/2002 3:00:57 PM PDT by aculeus
AMHERST — A University of Massachusetts English professor who two years ago was advised to remove his Web page from the UMass system because it had pictures of naked women and links to porn stars now apparently has an even stronger link to the adult film industry.
Richard A. Burt, a tenured professor of English who has been at UMass since 1986, has written a screenplay for an X-rated take-off of Shakespeare's "Othello" titled "Hotel O."
The announcement and the complete script are posted on — Burt's private Web site.
"Hotel O" — and as the script notes, it should be pronounced with emphasis on the "ho" — stars Nina Hartley and Lexington Steele, apparently two of the bigger names in the business, and is being produced by a company called Video Team Inc., based in North Hollywood, Calif. In press releases issued by the Adult Video News, a news service devoted to the adult film industry, Burt is identified as the author and as a professor at UMass.
Attempts to contact Burt recently were unsuccessful. Two calls to his house were disconnected. On the second call, a woman who answered the phone told a reporter, "He doesn't want to talk to you."
People at the university this week sought to put distance between the campus and Burt's activities outside of the classroom.
Authoring an X-rated screenplay could fall under the scope of academic freedom, said some.
"It may be distasteful to some people, but the university cannot control what an employee does in his or her personal life," said UMass News Director Barbara A. Pitoniak. "It gets into a question of free speech."
She said the university was satisfied that Burt's Web page, www.naughtyprofessor.com, "makes it very clear that it is a private Web site and not affiliated with the university in any way."
Two years ago Burt operated a similar Web site on the UMass server. But when it came to light that it contained pictures of nude women and links to "porn stars I have known," the university asked him to remove it.
The UMass president's office in Boston would not comment on the matter. UMass English and women's studies faculty could not be reached.
Rebecca M. Lockwood, associate director of rape crisis services and violence prevention programs for the Everywoman's Center at UMass, said she found it troubling that a professor would be involved in the production of pornography.
"I don't think I'd want to take a class from a professor who had written a pornographic screenplay," she said. Lockwood graduated from UMass with an English degree in 1987.
Anti-porn advocate Gail Dines, associate professor of sociology and women's studies at Wheelock College in Boston, said the question goes beyond academic freedom to one of academic integrity. By selling a script to an adult film company, Burt "has a financial connection with the institution that he is teaching about," she said.
It would be comparable to a professor who teaches a course about pollution having a financial connection with the nuclear power industry, she said.
Making pornography, she said, is hardly a way to give back to society. She said this goes beyond what she called a disturbing trend in recent years at various colleges to incorporate the study of pornography into the curriculum. "There is definitely a line that has been crossed," she said.
"Hotel O" apparently combines two of Burt's interests: modern adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, and adult films.
His book "Unspeakable ShaXXXspeares" explores different adaptations of Shakespeare throughout popular culture, including pornography.
In an opinion piece he authored last year for the Los Angeles Times, Burt wrote, "Porn, like all other mass-produced elements of popular culture, has a very great deal to say about our society."
"Hotel O" is described as Shakespeare's classic tragedy with "a comic, modern twist."
As far as can be told from the script, twists include a setting in a cheap hotel, a cast of characters who are pimps, johns and prostitutes and who speak dialogue laced with "Jerry Springer"-like vulgarities. And at intervals, there are stage directions such as "Hot sex scene 1, boy/girl." In an interview last year in the London newspaper, The Independent, Burt is quoted as saying, "If you're going to think about Shakespeare adaptations, which is something that I think about, then why not Shakespeare porn? It's one kind of adaptation."
Copyright 2002 . All Rights Reserved.
Well, of course they do. Where else could you hear a literary masterpiece such as:
"Hey lady, did you order a pepperoni pizza? Well here's the pizza - and here's the pepperoni!"
DR. GO smiles at the camera and twirls his moustache like Snidely Whiplash.
Now, the film's last line:
O.T., I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Anyone wanna bet the NEA is in on this?
She's still around?
I like the use of the word 'apparently'.
Methinks Patrick Johnson knows exactly who Nina Hartley is.
LOL!!! That word stood out like a sore thumb. I was going to post the same thing before I read your reply.
Now I need to talk to *Mariette* Hartley. ;)
[Mariette Hartley hawks some vision-clearing product.
Adult films, vision changes, get it?
Aww, never mind]
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