September 18, 2023
John Waters Wants to Get His Hands on Divine's Lost Penis Cover
Emell Adolphus READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Director John Waters just opened his new exhibit honoring legendary and late drag queen Divine at the Los Angeles Academy Museum. However, Waters says the exhibit is without a very intimate essential piece of Divine's persona: her penis cover.
About the cover, which is called a "cheater" for obvious reasons, Waters explained that it was supposed to go to him in 1988 but was lost in the shuffle once Divine passed away.
"He died and his family came in and took everything and sold it through an auction place," Waters explained, Entertainment Weekly reported. "So somebody bought a box with a million things in it, including the cheater, and then called me and wanted a whole lot of money, like held it hostage, kind of. I mean, they literally didn't do that, but they asked for a ludicrous amount of money."
Although Waters did not disclose how much the person wanted for the piece of penis memorabilia, it must have been enough for him to call it "ludicrous."
"They still have it somewhere," he said. "I want that cheater back!"
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures' "John Waters: Pope of Trash" is the first comprehensive museum exhibition dedicated to Waters' 60-year career. Waters is also se to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday.
From indie director to major cultural force, Waters said he is happy to be celebrated as mainstream now.
"I'm proud to be an insider like sneaking in," he said. "I don't want to be an outsider, you do that when you're young. Then you sneak in like the Trojan horse and then you get in the inside and you can change things."
Still, Waters says he is a radical who likes to push the envelop.
"I fought for free speech, and today, there are certain political threats that don't allow you to speak. I'm against that," he said. "I'm more careful about saying things for liberal censorship than conservative today. They gave up on me. ... I do Fox News whenever they ask me. I always go on. I love to go on it. It's enemy territory and they're great to me."
Once the current WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are resolved, Waters will return to filmmaking with a big screen adaptation of his novel, "Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance."
