The
ban came one week after Ramos reported the operator
had illicitly altered a film playing at the Esquire in Clifton
(see "Esquire
Cuts Sex Scene from Center of the World,").Ramos' reporting
led the film's distributor to withdraw it from the Esquire,
prompting widespread media coverage.
Gary Goldman, president of Theater Management Inc., which
operates the Esquire and Mariemont theaters, later issued
an apology to the public.
In a meeting June 19, Goldman informed Ramos he is banned
from critics' film screenings at the Esquire. Goldman also
forbade Ramos from purchasing tickets to see films at or otherwise
entering either theater, according to Ramos and CityBeat
Editor John Fox, who was present at the meeting.
Goldman is on vacation out of the country and has not returned
a reporter's calls.
"(Goldman) said, 'Steve, you're banned from the theater,
and we're not giving you any more schedules,' " Ramos says.
Goldman also ordered CityBeat distribution racks and
papers removed from both theaters and canceled future advertisements
in CityBeat, according to Fox.
At the June 19 meeting, Goldman said he originally banned
Ramos because Ramos broke the story of the Esquire's cutting
The Center of the World, then reconsidered, but finally
made the ban official due to Ramos' second report on the controversy
(see "Esquire
Theater's Operator Explains the Naughty Bits").
"What Gary kept repeating was, 'I didn't like the first story,
but I thought it was fair and accurate. But the second one
was personal and gratuitous,' " Ramos says.
Goldman had already issued the ban through his assistant,
who telephoned to announce the ban before the second article
appeared, according to Ramos.
If Ramos were banned because of "gratuitous" criticism, Fox
says, Goldman would also have banned The Cincinnati Enquirer's
film critic, who stated in a column that Goldman's film-cutting
was "garden-variety cowardice." A source at the Esquire Theatre
says The Enquirer's critic hasn't been banned.
Fox says the reason for the ban is simple: retaliation against
CityBeat for exposing the film-cutting.
"What this is really all about is Goldman screwed up, we
caught him and he's mad about it," Fox says.
After Artisan Entertainment Inc. pulled The Center of
the World from the Esquire, Goldman issued a public apology,
saying he cut a brief sex scene in order to avoid a potential
obscenity prosecution by Hamilton County authorities. Fox
says that, at the June 19 meeting, he offered to highlight
Goldman's concerns in CityBeat, but the theater operator
refused.
"I told him, 'We want to help. If you're being forced into
self-censorship, we want to talk about it in the paper,' "
Fox says. "He said, 'I'm a small businessman. If I fight an
obscenity action, I can probably win, but I'm going to have
to spend all this money, and I'm not going to fight this fight.'
"
Goldman then issued the details of the ban, according to
Fox and Ramos.
The old in-and-out
The Center of the World, an unrated adult drama, tells
the story of a nerdy dot-com millionaire who persuades a pretty
stripper to spend three days with him in Las Vegas. In a previous
interview with CityBeat, director Wayne Wang called
the film Last Tango in Paris for the Internet generation.
In the scene cut by the Esquire, the stripper inserts a lollipop
into her vagina, quickly pulls it out and inserts it into
the mouth of her mesmerized customer. The image is brief and
fleeting.
An anonymous caller left a message telling Ramos that on
May 24, a day prior to the film's local opening, Goldman ordered
one of his theater managers to cut the sex scene from the
print of the film. The Esquire's audiences weren't informed
they were watching a censored film.
Goldman issued a statement June 8, one day after Ramos reported
the alteration and four days after Artisan Entertainment pulled
the film.
"I deeply regret the controversial issues surrounding The
Center of the World and accept the ultimate responsibility
for the approximately three seconds of film that were edited
therefrom during its recent exhibition at the Esquire," the
statement said. "As operator of the Esquire Theatre I have
a great appreciation and a sincere respect for the arts. I
felt that this film deserved to be shown to residents of our
community. The Esquire has always prided itself with exhibiting
'cutting edge' films."
John Morrison M.D., who had been president of the board that
owns the Esquire and Mariemont theaters, said the organization
recently changed from nonprofit status to a limited-liability
corporation. He referred a reporter's questions to Goldman
and declined further comment.
The Ohio Secretary of State's office shows the owner of the
theater is Esquire Theater Ltd. Paul Pflug, executive vice
president of Artisan Entertainment in Santa Monica, Cal.,
declined to comment on Ramos' ban from the Esquire and Mariemont.
Pflug said the distributor doesn't intend to sue or prosecute
the theater for cutting The Center of the World and
won't discontinue releasing films to the theater.
"They have apologized, and we've decided to let bygones be
bygones," Pflug says.
Ramos -- who won the national Film Critic of the Year award
in 1997 from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies --
says he will continue to cover art films that appear at the
Esquire and Mariemont theaters.
"We're going to keep doing our job," Ramos says. "We're not
going to be vindictive. We're going to try to cover films
at the theaters, because that's what we do."
Ramos attended a critics' screening of Sexy Beast
at the Esquire on June 21, saying he wanted to see if anyone
would bar him from the theater. No one asked him to leave,
he says. ©
