LICENSE TO RENT
In an effort to keep X-rated tapes out of
children's reach, Middletown, N.J. (population 70,000), has adopted
the country's first law requiring video stores to obtain special
licenses. In addition to stipulating a $50-a-year fee, the ordinance
requires each store to display its adult videos in a separate room
with 8-foot-high walls and a door of ''solid, nontransparent material''
within 15 feet of the cash register. Stores that don't comply risk
being shut down permanently.
Four of Middletown's dozen stores are challenging the law in Superior Court. In their suit, scheduled for a November hearing, the stores argue that New Jersey state law already requires adult tapes to be kept away from minors. ''It's like getting a speeding ticket in case you might speed,'' says J.D. Copeland, who owns the local National Video outlet. ''It's a political thing because election time is coming up.''
Mayor Patrick W. Parkinson denies that the measure is politically motivated. ''A group of citizens came to me because they were worried about the inconsistencies in the way the stores handled the tapes,'' he says. ''Without this ordinance, what's to keep a store from putting the tapes in the front window?'' An attorney for the city, William F. Dowd, says, ''The ordinance would keep the stores' under-18 employees from handling the tapes. I think that's what store owners are mad about.''
Two similar bills before the New Jersey legislature would impose video- store licensing statewide. ''Licensing that depends on content is an infringement of First Amendment rights,'' says Barry Lynn, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. Lynn doubts that the display of the tapes could be harmful to minors. ''In general, the tapes' boxes aren't sexually explicit, even if they suggest a lot of things. They're sexually oriented, but so is the cover of Cosmopolitan.''
WHO'S WATCHING WHAT
Julia Roberts plays a med student involved in life-after-death experiments in Flatliners, opening in August and
costarring her offscreen boyfriendd Kiefer Sutherland. Roberts says
she watched ''Altered States and footage of doctors in emergency rooms
to prepare for my role. I do it to soak up atmosphere. When I made
Pretty Woman, I watched The Owl and the Pussycat for the same
reason.'' — With additional reporting by Craig Modderno
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