Arie Slob, a leader of The Christian Union, a part of the current coalition government, called the film "a historical symbol of unashamed sexual exploitation and of perverse greed. The film brought 600 million dollars into the box office, but it also ruined a human being. [Linda Lovelace] later declared that she was pressured into her 'acting.'"
The American owners of "Deep Throat" were also surprised.
"We're shocked that they are going to play 'Deep Throat' on national television for the public to watch," Robert Interlandi of Arrow Productions, which owns "Deep Throat," told XBIZ. "An even bigger shocker is that nobody asked us for rights. We would have loved to have been in a political debate. The closest we had in this country is when 'Inside Deep Throat' played on HBO."
[Interlandi later told XBIZ that BNN has emailed Arrow, saying they received a license from Arrow's broadcast license agent.]
One of the broadcasters, VPRO, was reportedly the first to show a naked woman on prime time television, in the 1960s. The other, BNN, is also familiar with controversy: The company broadcast the "Big Kidney Donor Show" in 2007, involving three candidates competing to win a kidney donated by a dying woman. While the show was on the air, it was revealed that the "contest" was a hoax, and BNN wanted to start a national discussion about organ donation.
BNN, which is publicly funded and aimed at an under-30 audience, claims that young people should be able to make their own choices and form their own judgments.
The shows are scheduled to run on BPRO and BNN on Feb. 23.
