Joe Eszterhas

The heyday of the erotic drama may be in the past, but memories of Paul Verhoeven's 1995 spectacle Showgirls live on.

The film was written by Joe Esterhaz, who became the highest paid screenwriter in history, earning millions of dollars for ideas scribbled on napkins.

This movie's box office failure and initial negative reactions to lead actress Elizabeth Berkley's performance became a defining hurdle in her career.

But home video and time have been kinder to this camp classic, which also stars Gina Gershon and Kyle MacLachlan.

[laughs]

... where Joe Eszterhas will say some things that honestly, uh, respectfully, we will strongly disagree with.

Yes.

And he's-

I don't know.

And I was sort of joking to Molly earlier that I wonder whether or not this is Joe Esterhaz's way of making a commentary on law enforcement in America.

But I don't think so.

I think it's probably just this guy needs to think with a stick rather than with his brain.

They were just blowing money like this, stupid money.

So one of the screenwriters who worked on it, Joe Esterhaz, was paid half a million dollars.

He rewrote it as an erotic thriller similar to his previous screenplays, so it was rejected.

Nice.