CARNAL NATION

A screening of the adult movie Pirates 2: Stagnetti's Revenge was going to be held for students at the University of Maryland, but got an abrupt cancellation when state legislators threatened to cut funding if the school went ahead with the film. The state Senate held a heated debate which was interrupted several times by groups of schoolchildren passing through the chambers. Even though the movie was provided free of charge to the university, the State Senate saw the viewing as a misuse of taxpayer money and facilities. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said "That's really not what Maryland residents send their young students to college campus for," and that the General Assembly would not stand for pornography being screened on a state campus. Another senator recommended that the state budget should be amended so that no state funding would be given to any college that screened X-rated material outside of the context of a class. Publicist Christopher Ruth from Digital Playground expressed amazement at the response: "Never in a million years did we think the government would step in on something like this. Some college administrations don't want to promote pornography, but they take a hands-off attitude because they understand it's the students' right to watch it," he said.