Suburban Life Interrupted by the Unexpected

Posted by Sheila Redick on April 30, 2006

Easter Sunday in one Encino cul-de-sac was interrupted by the arrival of a film crew ready to start shooting on one of the 3,900 adult films that will be shot in Los Angeles this year. 

Turns out, one of the neighbors had rented his home out for the filming of  "The Alphabet," in which "sexual acts are performed in alphabetical order by 21-year-old identical twins," and there was nothing the neighbors could do about it.  Although the city issues film permits, the city doesn't restrict the content of the projects it approves.

"When the call sheet calls for neither witty patter nor rich Corinthian leather but instead for orgiastic sex, cachet isn't what the neighbors talk about. Morality, their children's physical safety, property values — those are the topics on many people's minds," wrote the Los Angeles Times.

"Sure, the neighbors concede, they didn't actually see any nudity or obscene activity, but the mere idea that it was going on next door bothered them."

Life in the cul-de-sac, it seems, is not always what is promised.