Seth Rogen invited fans to smoke pot with him at a screening of his next movie, The Interview, in Denver on Dec. 8. After much confusion, the screening took place last night at the Oriental Theater.
The original location, Sie FilmCenter, bailed. "The old venue was acting lame so we got a new one," Rogen tweeted Dec. 3. "They changed the guidelines."
The Oriental Theater at 4335 W. 44th St. in North Denver was suggested by Kayvan Khalatbari, who runs his SexPot comedy show there. It's "all set up for you on Monday. 400 seats, Cannabis friendly and no conditions," he tweeted Dec. 4.
Well, not quite: A sign outside the theater warned people that smoking inside was not allowed. Fox 31 in Denver says 400 people attended the event.
"No pot, but plenty of tequila," the Cannabist reports. "In the state that famously 'legalized it,' most of the weed smoking surreptitiously took place in a side alley next to the theater."
Roger and his co-director Evan Goldberg offered people booze in lieu of the promised weedfest. Security enforced "clean air" rules and asked several vapers to leave.
“Maybe next year!” Rogen told the crowd during the Q&A. (He also shouted, "Fuck the police!")
Jane West, whose Edible Events company has organized such high-profile events in Denver as the Classically Cannabis series, warned there would be "some issues concerning the federal Clean Air Act in regards to consumption inside the theater." She receommended finding an outdoor location, but no one listened.
This all began on Nov. 25 when Rogen boasted on Twitter, "We are going to do a screening of #TheInterviewMovie in Colorado where I get baked with everyone first, and we can smoke weed in the theater."
"Wanna get baked with ME and then watch my movie The Interview?! You can on Dec. 8th! Email RSVPTheInterviewDenver@gmail.com," he followed up.
We are going to do a screening of #TheInterviewMovie in Colorado where I get baked with everyone first, and we can smoke weed in the theater
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) November 26, 2014
"The Interview" has received several rebukes from the North Korean government. The movie, which opens Christmas Day, finds Rogen and his Pineeapple Express partner James Franco reunited in a caper that requires their characters to assassinate King Jong-un.
The latest statement reads, in part:
'How pitiful the U.S. is, desperately scrambling to tear down the authority of our republic that grows mightier by the day, with a shabby movie… The trashy filmmakers, who, won over by a few dollars thrown to them by conspirators, have compromised the dignity and conscience of filmmaking and dared to produce and direct such a film. They must be subject to our stern punishment.'
This controversy is discussed at length in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, which features Rogen on the cover with the headline, "The Stoner King of Hollywood."
"At best it will cause a country to be free," he jokes about the movie. "At worst it will cause a nuclear war. Big margin with this movie."
North Korea apparently retaliated by hacking Sony Pictures' website.
