LoveSpell cameras set to roll ASAP!......

by Heather Nolan
Odessa American

A movie about the 2004 prostitution scandal that rocked Odessa is moving forward.

Danielle Thomas with Untitled Entertainment said the production company recently hired a writer for the film and Andy Fickman signed on as director.

Fickman was a producer on the 1997 film “Anaconda” and directed the 2006 movie “She’s the Man.” Thomas said Fickman currently is getting ready to shoot a movie with Vin Diesel.

Thomas said Texas singer-actress-producer Jennifer Love Hewitt will be the lead in the film and will have “as much input as she would like” in the script and production of the project. The film will focus on the scandal itself, not particular details about the Odessa incident.

“It probably will be somewhat dramatic with a great sense of humor,” she said. “It will be more Texas-cheerleader-mom meets ‘Best Little Whorehouse in Texas’ type of thing.”

Last year Hewitt’s production company, LoveSpell Entertainment, bought rights to turn the scandal into a movie and is teaming up with Untitled Entertainment for the project.

Mayor Larry Melton said he does not think the movie is going to be good publicity for Odessa.

“The entire community wishes this issue would just go away,” Melton said. “It’s behind us. It’s not going to do us any good in bringing it up again.”

In May 2004, an investigation of The Healing Touch massage parlor in Odessa began when police arrested owners Sharon Ann Joyner and Kathy Sue Shrum.

The two, along with Janet Elaine Lietz, who owned Middessa Therapy, were eventually charged with felony aggravated promotion of prostitution.

On July 27, 2005 police arrested 74 people — including Shrum and Joyner — in connection with the investigation. The bulk of those arrested were charged with Class B misdemeanor “prostitution” charges.

Thomas said the mayor doesn’t have to worry too much about the city’s image — she said the movie will not include “The Healing Touch” in the title, and they are not going to base the plot or any characters on real-life situations.

“We don’t know how much of that story we’re actually going to use,” she said. “We like the idea that it is in Texas, but I wouldn’t hold too much on it being (in Odessa).”

Thomas said this is a story they feel has happened in more than one town and they “want the audience to feel like it is in ‘Anywhere, U.S.A.’ ”

That still doesn’t ease Melton’s concerns.

“Even though it may not be filmed in Odessa, there are going to be those that recognize where it comes from,” he said.

Thomas said the company hopes to shoot the movie in Texas, but that would depend on time and budget. “We’re all Texans,” she said. “We’re proud of the state and proud of its people.”

Story: © 2006 Odessa American. All Rights Reserved.
Images: © 2006 Wireimage.com. All Rights Reserved.

Andy Fickman with star and actress Amanda Bynes at the "She's The Man" Los Angeles movie premiere on March 8, 2006.