GALLATIN, TN – Indie filmmaker Glen Weiss describes his film as a “silly comedy action hero movie,” replete with tongue-in-cheek humor and “more than a small dose of campy cheesiness.”So why is the City Council of Gallatin, TN so up in arms about scenes from Weiss’ movie being shot inside the office of Gallatin Mayor Don Wright?
The answer, in a word, is “wardrobe.”
The action hero of Weiss’ film is none other than Thong Girl, a bikini-clad heroine who defends Music City from various bad guys, particularly those that seek to do harm to any of the city’s cherished musical celebrities.
On Sunday September 10th, Weiss shot scenes from Thong Girl 3: Revenge of the Dark Widow in the office of mayor Wright, after obtaining permission from the mayor himself, whom Weiss states on his blog is a “good man and he really loves to help indie filmmakers.”
Although Thong Girl has no nudity or sex, minimal cursing, and only the most cartoon-like of violence, the name of the film itself has some members of the city council in an uproar.
“This is one of those issues we never should have gotten into. The mayor should never have the power to bring anybody in and leave them unsupervised,” District 3 City Councilman Tommy Garrott said, according to the Gallatin News Examiner. “I think this was handled very poorly.”
Mayor Wright apologized for the negative attention his town has received due to the story, but defended his decision to allowing the filming to take place.
“I do not welcome the kind of publicity we’ve received in the last few days,” Wright said in a prepared statement, according to the News Examiner. “They told me it was a film about a superhero woman and there was no nudity or any kind of offensive stuff in the film.”
Wright added that when the concept of the movie was presented to him in August, “it passed all common-sense tests of reasonability at the time.”
“I asked specific questions of the producer,” said Wright. “Would there be offensive language? Nudity? Obscenity? Anything that would make the city look bad?”
Assured that there would be no such content in the movie, Wright approved the filming, never dreaming it would create the controversy that has ensued.
Weiss confirmed Wright’s statement on his blog, writing that all Wright knew was “that we were filming a movie about a crime-fighting superhero who protects Music City from bad guys and those who would hurt Kenny Chesney and other hat-wearing country music stars.”
“What he didn’t know was that she was called Thong Girl and wears a red bikini and a cape,” added Weiss. “He didn’t ask me and I didn’t tell him – much the same way that if you asked me who Catwoman or Elektra was, I wouldn’t go into their wardrobe.”
According to the News Examiner, Gallatin’s city code prohibits filmmaking at city facilities unless authorized by the city council. In the opinion of City Attorney Joe Thompson, however, that law doesn’t cover the offices of the mayor or other elected city officials.
“The code provision that is at issue is contained in the personnel ordinance,” Thompson told the News Examiner. “The personnel ordinance excludes from the definition of ‘officers and employees’ all elected officials”
Thompson added that the city council can change the law to include elected officials and that such an extension of the law would be discussed at the council’s next meeting.
According to Weiss, the whole controversy is just a case of much ado about nothing. Weiss said that a city employee let them into the office, and was fully aware of what was taking place.
“They saw what we were doing,” Weiss said, according to the News Examiner. “They didn’t have any problem with it. They checked in on us several times, and they locked up when we were finished.”
Mayor Wright confirmed that city employees were present during the filming and said that the crews left his office undisturbed. Wright added that according to what was reported to him, “nothing remotely questionable occurred,” during the filming within his office.
Weiss says his only regret is the trouble the situation has caused for Wright.
“His city has played host to numerous indie films and the people of Gallatin have been incredibly generous with their resources,” Weiss wrote on his blog. “I have several friends that have spent their time and money filming in Gallatin. I just hope this hasn’t tainted the town’s opinion of local filmmakers and their pursuit of their cinematic visions.”
Weiss has already done several radio and television interviews and wrote that he will “keep doing as many interviews as I can as long as I’m asked so that I can stress the fact that mayor Wright was doing nothing wrong by letting us film in his office.”
For more information on the Thong Girl character and movies, go to http://www.thonggirlfilms.com.
