Cable network to tell story of Yale porn club

Forget Skull and Bones and say hello to Porn 'n Chicken, the next Yale University secret society to be immortalized in cinematic history.

Slated to premiere Oct. 13, Porn 'N Chicken will be cable network Comedy Central's first original movie. The film is based on an actual Yale underground club, Porn 'n Chicken, dedicated to watching adult films and eating fried chicken.

The club achieved infamy in the spring of 2001 when it claimed it would produce the Ivy League's first pornographic film, -- The StaXXX -- shot in none other than Yale's Sterling Memorial Library. While the film was never made, a trailer screened to a limited audience that April was sufficiently loaded with nudity and explicit sex that it generated national media attention.

A year and a half later, that attention will climax when Porn 'n Chicken airs on cable television, thanks to four members of the original club who sold the rights to their story to Comedy Central.

"This is not another teen movie," Comedy Central spokeswoman Aileen Budlow said. "This is a smart movie. We wanted something smart, irreverent and edgy that would fit with our other programming."

The film purportedly does not stray too far from the reality of the original Porn 'n Chicken club.

James Ponsoldt, a recent Yale graduate, -- one of the club's members who sold his story -- worked as an intern on the film. And, not only does he have a cameo in the film, but according to Budlow, Ponsoldt was instrumental in helping to pen the film's screenplay.

Furthermore, while five young, relatively unknown actors will play the five principle members of the club, the film boasts an impressive celebrity line-up. Famous adult film stars Jenna Jameson and Ron Jeremy have cameos as themselves -- guest speakers at a club meeting.

Such a meeting is not mere cinematic fantasy. Yale senior Noah Glass once attended a Porn 'n Chicken gathering as a guest. At the meeting, a real porn star discussed her work, answered questions and commented as the group watched an adult film in which she starred with Jameson.

"She said what you'd expect a porn star to say," Glass said. "Like, 'At this point Jenna was making me go crazy.'"

The "guest lecture" occurred during the group's heyday in the spring of 2001. According to Glass, Porn 'n Chicken has not been openly active since then.

Yet, despite numerous likenesses to the original Yale society, Porn 'n Chicken is not set in New Haven. Comedy Central actually did most of the shooting in June at Columbia, apparently out of convenience.

"We wanted to film in New York, and Columbia had the prettiest campus," Budlow said. "The film is based on any Ivy League school. We felt that that broadens it a bit, like it could happen anywhere."

According to Patty Newburger, vice president of Comedy Central Films, Columbia's administration was very cooperative.

Columbia senior Omar Ahmed who had heard about the film being made on his campus, is part of what seems to be a large number of Columbia students that support any recognition Columbia gets as a result of Porn 'n Chicken.

"It's good to show that Ivy League kids aren't just rich, snobby and goal-driven -- that they like to watch porn and eat fried chicken too," Ahmed said.

And so it seems that any publicity is good publicity, for Yale and Columbia, for porn and for chicken.

Comedy Central is banking on the universality of both the latter. It is widely marketing Porn 'n Chicken with cross-channel ads on MTV, VH1 and TNT, and in magazines, from Maxim and Playboy to Entertainment Weekly. It also plans a poster campaign on college campuses nation-wide, including Penn.

Comedy Central, which is currently available in over 80 million homes, is expanding and remarketing.

"Does Penn have Comedy Central in its dorms?" Newburger asked.

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