TO SHOW OR NOT TO SHOW NC-17 MOVIE

Whether "Showgirls" will be shown in Cape Girardeau when it opens nationwide Sept. 22 could not be confirmed this week.

Wehrenberg Theatres, which operates West Park 4 Cine, has made a company-wide decision not to show the movie because of its NC-17 rating.

A spokesman for the Kerasotes Theatres-owned Town Plaza Cinema said he would not know whether the movie will be shown until Monday. A phone call to the Kerasotes headquarters in Springfield, Ill., was not returned.

Wehrenberg Theatres, based in St. Louis, has decided not to show the movie on any of the 170 screens it operates in Missouri, Illinois and Arizona.

"We looked at the film and we have taken the position that it is not in the best interest of our company and image of our company," said John Louis, Wehrenberg's executive vice president. "We are very aware of our responsibility to our patrons."

Louis said Wehrenberg has never shown a movie with a rating of NC-17. "Our present position, not that we have any intention of changing that position, ... is that we will not play an NC-17 film."

Part of the problem with showing NC-17 films is the public's perception of the rating, Louis said. When NC-17 was introduced five years ago, the public got the idea that it was replacing the X rating, long ago boastfully appropriated by the makers of porno films.

"NC-17 was intended to be between X and R," Louis said. "But the perception out there among the general public is not that way."

"Showgirls" goes beyond a few borders that constrain R films but does not contain the kind of material associated with an X rating, Louis said.

"I saw the film. The film is not the issue. It's explicit and there is some material in it that could be distasteful," he said.

"The issue is the rating. It very easily with very little trimming could have been an R rating."

The NC-17 rating awarded by the Motion Picture Association of America now has become part of MGM's marketing of the film, with the movie company offering to provide extra ushers to prevent anyone under 17 from seeing the movie.

The company backed director Paul Verhoeven's intention to make an NC-17 movie from the beginning. How successful they will be in breaking through the NC-17 barrier will start to become clear when the movie opens.

"There are a lot of people watching what happens to this film," Louis said.