The (Porn) Stars Come Out for Penn Jillette's 'Director's Cut'

CYBERSPACE—Penn Jillette's long been known as someone who does things in a big way. Whether it's his and partner Teller's magic shows that are practically a fixture at the Rio in Las Vegas, or their long-running Showtime series Penn & Teller: Bullshit—or even this very weird attempt to make a horror movie with no backing from any Hollywood studio—fans know that if Penn's involved, something entertaining's going to happen. We previously wrote about Jillette's attempt, with adult-friendly mainstream director Adam Rifkin, to make Director's Cut, a horror movie with Jillette as the bad guy—a role he claims nobody who's anybody in Hollywood wants to see him in—but since then, the concept has been attracting celebrity attention like crazy... from both sides of the Hollywood Hills. "Ever hear of this asshole named Penn Jillette? Of Penn & Teller?" asks Ron Jeremy, who's in the process of delivering a pizza to Penny Pax, Veruca James and Evilyn Fierce in a video on the FundAnything website. "He used to be a nice guy... but since he got involved in that crowdfunding thing, he's become a total asshhhhhhhole. Now I call him on the phone, 'Can I see your show?' 'Sorry, Ron, go fuck yourself.' He's not the same kind of guy: Just isn't friendly, not nice, mean, elitist, just disgusting, and I don't know why, you know? Now he'll call me up in the middle of the night, I'll answer my phone, and he'll say, 'Kill yourself!' That's the kind of stuff he does." It's a pretty funny little clip, especially after the gals tell Ron they don't have any money, and he decides to eat the pie himself... leaving the gals to their own devices. And then there's popular performer Lexi Love, another P&T fan, who mounted her own crowdfunding campaign to score a role in Director's Cut, which Jillette has been offering for a $5,275 contribution (pretty much all the "reward" levels have weird dollar amounts)—and she succeeded! According to her FundAnything site, Love offered an array of personal prizes in exchange for donations, including spending a weekend with her in New York City—and a chance to shave her gorgeous head of long blonde hair. However, as noted in her recent press release, big money donator Cyan Bannister, a fan of both Love's and Jillette's, just wanted to make the beauty's dream a reality. Bannister is the CEO of Zivity, a San Francisco subscription and vote-based artist/fan interaction platform which launched at TechCrunch40 in 2007.  "It was a no brainer for me," said Bannister, who donated over $4,000 to the cause. "I saw Lexi’s video about 'Making Penn Bad' and I wanted her to see her in the movie Director's Cut. This is more than me being a fan, I wanted to possibly change her life. It was clear to me that she is very passionate about getting the role, and is a very talented person. Lexi had a career dream, and I admired that." Love will continue to raise money for Director’s Cut for the duration of the project. Fans can check on her progress on "Make Penn Bad" by clicking here. But, of course, it's not just porn people who want this project to succeed. The FundAnything site has videos from such celebs as Lisa Lampanelli—porn fans will remember her as the host of the 2011 AVN Awards—Jim Norton (a two-time Awards host), South Park's Trey Parker and Matt Stone, comedians Gilbert Gottfried and Joan Rivers, John Landis (director of, among many other things, the incredibly hot Innocent Blood), actors Joel Grey, Neil Patrick Harris, Kevin Pollack, Tom Bergeron, Ben Stiller and Lin Shaye, magicians Teller and David Copperfield—and even James "The Amazing" Randi, all in support of the project. Is that a weird enough collection for you? Well, it gets even weirder. "Both Glenn Beck and MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell have tentatively agreed to appear and act in Penn Jillette’s upcoming horror movie, Director’s Cut," wrote Jason Howerton on Beck's "news" site, TheBlaze. "Not only will they act in the film, the two TV personalities will play police officers—who happen to be partners. That’s right. Beck and O’Donnell, partners." There's even a poster of the pair that's just beautiful, and can be seen on the Director's Cut site. And check out some of the rewards! For a mere $555, you can get a room at the Rio and a backstagfe pass to Penn & Teller's show; add another $495 and they'll give you a backstage magic lesson. For $2450, you can play a cop in the movie; add $50 and you can play a Halloween character, or just have your photo featured in the movie—and $2650, you can play a corpse! And the rewards just get better from there. As of this writing, Jillette and Rifkin need just $98,169 to reach their goal of $999,972—and a whole three (3) days to do it! So... wouldn't you like to spend $11,250 to be an Executive Producer of Director's Cut? If so, now's the time!