Amidst The Factory Girl February release, the controversy swirls about the co-stars featured in steamy love scenes. This has heightened the hype around the film. The film itself already of a controversial nature only further peaks the interests of the mildly curious, but also has caused a bit of media frenzy. The media hysteria over fact vs. hype has sparked debate and posed the question “did they or didn’t they.”
Sienna Miller (Edie Sedgwick) and Hayden Christensen’s sex scene is rumored to be actual sexual intercourse. However, the story does not end there. The pair are said to have fallen in love during an early shoot in Louisiana, but Miller ended it when she decided she wanted to reconcile her relationship with then-boyfriend Jude Law.
After a break from the filming schedule resumed in Toronto, Miller and Law had broken up, and Miller got back together with Christensen. It is rumored that, when time came for the sex scene, they dispensed with the paraphernalia typically used to obscure genitalia during simulated sex scenes, and actually engaged in sexual intercourse. Miller’s agents claim it is merely a rumor, but the director only stated that the crew “tried to portray it tastefully.”
The real life Factory became a meeting place of artists and musicians such as Lou Reed, Bob Dylan Truman Capote and Mick Jagger. Other, less frequent visitors included Salvador Dalí and Allen Ginsberg. Warhol became the manager of Reed’s influential New York rock band The Velvet Underground in 1965, and designed the famous cover for The Velvet Underground & Nico, the band’s debut album. The album cover consisted of a plastic yellow banana that the listener could actually peel off to reveal a pink-hued version of the banana.
Eevn more contraversy came in the form of Lou Reed’s response to the news of the film going into production. The film has also sparked a rather adverse reaction as Lou Reed, a member of the Velvet Underground and friend of Edie’s, has publicly told the New York Daily News, “I read that script. It’s one of the most disgusting, foul things I’ve seen – by any illiterate retard – in a long time. There’s no limit to how low some people will go to write something to make money”, as well as “They’re all a bunch of whores.”
Miller is said to be upset by the Daily News report saying she and Hayden Christense had actual sexual intercourse while filming a love scene in “Factory Girl.” A reporter for the sad tabloid approached the British actress as she was standing next to her parents after Tuesday night’s screening at the Tribeca Grand hotel and asked her if there had been penetration. “Oh, darling, that is so horrible,” Miller replied. “You obviously don’t know anything about making movies.”
Miller’s publicist, Leslie Sloane Zelnik, told Page Six: “It’s not true at all. When you do a love scene, there are five or six people on the set at a minimum. They weren’t having real sex. She’s just a great actress.” Could it be that the studio itself has spread this awful untruth? Movie studios often spread tales of on- screen sex to pump up ticket sales, but not in this case: “The Weinstein Company denies this ridiculous report,” said a spokeswoman.
With the reviews of the film coming in at various spectrums of good or not great to bad, this just might see the movie goers into those movie threatre and onto the movie seats no matter what.
