"John Hickenlooper and the Case of the Vanishing F-Bombs," published yesterday, told the tale of a trailer for 'Hick' Town, a proposed documentary/reality series by George Hickenlooper, Denver mayor John's cousin, that disappeared from its perch at the EpochFilms.com website shortly after I contacted the mayor's office to ask about two F-bombs it contained -- one courtesy of John, the other delivered by his chief of staff, Kelly Brough, around the time of last year's Democratic National Convention. In the item, I noted that Epoch's Jerry Solomon had promised to contact George on my behalf, and the director responded via e-mail. In his note, he explains that he asked for the trailer to be taken down after receiving a Google Alert in regard to an earlier post by Examiner.com blogger Lisa Jones; apparently, the proximity of its removal to my call was coincidental. George admits that he included the expletives as selling points to potential distributors but subsequently realized that they might cast John in an unfair light.
Read the entire e-mail after the jump:
Thank you for your interest in 'Hick' Town. For the record, no one asked me to take the 'Hick' Town trailer down, I asked Epoch Films to take it down the moment my assistant pointed out the Google Alert from Lisa Jones and the Examiner.com. The F-bomb you refer to was a joke my cousin made at a private function during the convention in which he was quoting another source. It was a joke and the clip was originally used to spice up the trailer in the hopes it would help make a sale of the six-part series. After consulting with my cousin, it was agreed that the out of context F-bomb might cause some controversy -- which it did -- because obviously you're now reporting about it. But the fact remains that it is out of context. The trailer was later changed but the original version ended up on my reel at Epochfilms.com without my knowledge. The reality is the clip was unfair to John and his staff and should never have been included for the very reason that it was taken out of context in the recent reporting.From my point of view, the most important thing here is that R.J. Culter (who produced the Clinton documentary The War Room) and I have made a terrific six-part documentary series about my cousin and his staff, who in my view are a remarkable group of people that are inspiring in their candor, hard work and dedication to making the city of Denver a better place to live. My cousin graciously and courageously gave me unprecedented access to his office and the result is a series, warts and all, that is groundbreaking and unique in every way. It's a real-life version of The Office meets Spin City and most of all it is entertaining as all heck. We hope to make an announcement soon as to who will be broadcasting the show. If there are any interested buyers in Denver, they should contact me through Epoch Films.
