Stranger than fiction

Back in 1970, author Terry Southern imagined a plot to produce a multi-million-dollar porno film as a tourist attraction in his satirical novel Blue Movie. The premise: A famed-but-fading auteur gets the chance to direct a big-budget hard-core feature with big-name actors exposing (and utilizing) their naughty bits. The catch: The movie would have to be filmed and exclusively exhibited in Lichtenstein, which would bankroll the $3-million project as a lure for licentious visitors.

Improbable? Impossible? Well, maybe. But, on the other hand, perhaps not as far-fetched as it might have seemed 37 years ago. Consider this: What if, say, Mark Cuban suddenly decided to produce the ultimate upscale skin flick for direct-to-DVD distribution? And his casting directors could offer tens of millions to various hunks and hotties with more US Magazine covers than box-office hits to their credit?

Wouldn't that be a lot easier to believe than the notion that owners of an Internet piracy site would consider buying their own country to avoid prosecution?