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Surprising Gibbon. One of the actresses, Maria Schneider, Marlon Brando's co-star in Last Tango in Paris, so objected to her own nude scenes that she walked off the set and was replaced by an unknown English actress, Teresa Ann Savoy. McDowell believes that Last Tango gave Schneider such a phobia about nudity that she could not appear in a movie like Caligula.
Yet in one area the film makers were curiously prudish. Except for one scene, where Caligula evenhandedly deflowers both a bride and her bridegroom, their Caligula, unlike Vidal's, is as straight as the Appian Way. Says McDowell: "Historically, there is nothing to show that Caligula was in any way homosexual." That is a bit of instant scholarship that would no doubt surprise Gibbon, not to mention Suetonius.
Reckoning that no publicity is bad publicity, Guccione and Brass will probably continue trading blows with Vidal until the film is released next fall. "Gore's single greatest regret in life is that he wasn't born a woman," says Guccione. "As a result, he becomes bitchy and petulant." Adds Brass: "If I ever really get mad at Gore Vidal, I'll publish his script."
Vidal, who got $200,000 for the script and the promise of 10% of the gross, says that all he wants is to get his name taken off the title. Guccione will do that—if Vidal will give up his 10% and the possibility of a multimillion-dollar windfall. Your move, Gore.