Almodóvar
film gets teacher in hot water

A high school teacher in Defiance, Ohio, is fighting to keep her job after showing her students a film directed by gay Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar. WTOL-TV reports that Spanish teacher Megan Espen has been placed on unpaid leave from Ayersville High School for showing her students Almodovar's Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! The film stars Antonio Banderas as a recently released mental patient who kidnaps a porn star with whom he had once had sex. Over the course of her abduction, the roles of controller and prey change back and forth. Espen's attorney, Jay Feldstein, defended the screening of the film--which was critically acclaimed and has been featured in several academic explorations of Spanish cinema--saying, "We believe it's a very valid educational component because it reflected the changing of the culture and society in Spain in the 1990s."

A Defiance grand jury disagreed, accusing Espen of pandering obscenity and disseminating harmful material, charges her attorney hopes to have dropped. Espen says she has screened the film to previous classes without incident, although prosecutor Morris Murray believes that those screenings might not have included the film's controversial naked bathtub scene, in which a wind-up scuba toy disappears between actress Victoria Abril's legs. The case goes to court April 7. (Advocate.com)