January 23–30, 1997

hit and run

Vicious Art

For the Feb. 12 Valentine's Day installment of its popular Wednesday night series, the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) scheduled Sid and Nancy, the 1986 film by Alex Cox, starring Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb about the ill-fatedself-destructive relationship between Brit punk-rock Sex Pistol Sid Vicious and groupie-turned-girlfriend Nancy Spungen.

Apparently Nancy's mother, who lives on the Main Line, got wind of this and she contacted both the PMA and the Inquirer, strongly objecting to the showing of the movie around Valentine's Day. Spungen's mother got others to contact museummahoffs too, to include a psychiatrist who sent a letter to museum Director and President Anne d'Harnoncourt.

The shrink's letter detailed reasons why the movie should not be shown, and it was subsequently sent to the museum's marketing and public relations departments, and possibly other departments. There was some debate between PMA big-wigs, to show ornot to show, ultimately they decided to screen Sid and Nancy at a later date.

The substitute flick for V-Day is Mighty Aphrodite.

Which, when you think about it, opens a whole other can of worms, considering director Woody Allen's choice of partners these days. Matt Singer of the museum's media relations department said, "Mia Farrow hasn't sent us any letters yet."

— Deni Kasrel