"Campus Invasion" comes to Bloomington

[hoosier]

Mon, Oct. 28, 2002

All fun and games - until a film crew invades IU
TELLING TALES
By Nancy Nall
of The News-Sentinel

Well, now we see what Indiana University officials were so upset about when they got that "No. 1 party school" title.

At the time, it seemed they were overreacting. At a school as big as IU, with so many stellar academic departments, it seemed silly to draw more attention to a stupid, arbitrary rating by making a big deal out of it.

But that was before the women of Shane's World, a porn outfit from Van Nuys, Calif., showed up to party in Bloomington. Really. That's what they said, that they wanted to "party with students from the No. 1 party school," according to one Calli Cox, identified by The Associated Press as an actress and publicist for Shane Enterprises. (In cottage industries, everyone does two jobs.)

Shane's World partied, evidence seems to suggest, by showing up at an IU dorm earlier this month and making a movie there.

That would be "Campus Invasion," set for release next month. Shot in October, released in November - the world of pornography works on a somewhat more accelerated production schedule than Hollywood does.

The dorm was Teter Quad, all you parents writing tuition checks for your young darlings matriculating there. Reports in campus and other newspapers suggest a number of male students may be making their movie debuts in "Campus Invasion." Yes, Ma and Pa Checkbook: Your son might be available on DVD or video for $24.95, and not as the star of his personal soccer-career highlight reel.

It's hard to know what to think of all this. On the one hand, you have to marvel at the way things work out. Once upon a time, pornography was a problem on the consumer end. Dirty-movie theaters scarred neighborhoods and attracted assorted creeps. Most video stores had a door marked "must be 18 to enter," behind which you could find clammy-palmed men and nervous couples selecting the night's entertainment.

No more. Various technological miracles replaced both the theaters and the back room at the video store. If you want to watch porn without being observed doing so, now all you need is a pair of thick draperies.

Unfortunately, the problem has traveled to the other end of the production cycle. Video is so cheap to shoot, edit and duplicate that producers need an angle to make them stand out from the crowd. Hence, "real people" tapes such as "Girls Gone Wild" and, presumably, "Campus Invasion." It's not outside the realm of possibility that the parents of a son and a daughter at IU could find both children in the Christmas stocking this year, modeling something other than cream-and-crimson sweatshirts.

On the other hand, this isn't the sort of thing that brings alumni dollars rolling in.

The Indianapolis Star quoted a dorm resident who said she was told "by several students who lived there that a male actor was dressed in a bear or beaver costume and the female actresses would occasionally expose themselves to him." This seemed worth a trip to the Shane's World Web site, and unless I miss my guess, it means "Drunky the Bear," star of an earlier Shane's World title, is making a repeat appearance.

Drunky the Bear and IU boys at the No. 1 party school - Bloomington, we have a problem.

It's been a rough few weeks for IU. First, a nationally read columnist, John Leo, reports a nonexistent anti-Semitic incident in Bloomington. And then the girls from Shane's World show up.

At a time like this, it seems a bit plaintive to say, it's still a great school. But what the heck: It's still a great school, one having a run of bad luck. Because it's true.