Village People founder Victor Willis is furious about the new movie “Spinning Gold.” The movie is about Neil Bogart, who created Casablanca Records. Among the stars who had hits on the label were the Village People. They are not in the movie, but Willis says Bogart’s sons, who made the film, have pretended their appearance by including a clip of a fake Village People doing their now famous dance — the one we see at sporting events.
I haven’t seen this movie because, frankly, no one’s sent me a word about it. I don’t even know who’s releasing it. But I had a bad feeling about it. The Bogarts obviously couldn’t license the original music — they have a bunch of questionable people reproducing the old hits by older artists. Also, how realistic could they be about their dad, who was not exactly Ted Lasso?
Willis writes:
Spinning Gold Is SPINNING LIES About Village People’s Involvement In The Movie.
TO VILLAGE PEOPLE FANS AND THE PRESS:
For months now, I have been inundated with comments from fans asking about Village People’s involvement in the motion picture titled Spinning Gold. Moreover, I have received several media inquiries about the same. As a result, I must now respond to all the inquiries.
No, Village People are not featured in that movie because Tim Bogart could not afford to pay the required licensing fees associated with use of Village People music and image. So, he somewhat went around it by inserting an unauthorized scene with people dressed as Village People doing the YMCA dance. And we are not cool with that at all. I did license use of a portion of YMCA for the motion picture soundtrack only.
I don’t know how this iteration of Spinning Gold was eventually stitched together by Tim, along with it’s shameful and outright horrendous casting of Donna Summer and Gladys Knight, but this iteration of the movie (for which there have been numerous) should never have seen the light of day.
Nonetheless, my interest is only in the suggested portrayal of Village People in the movie with use of press releases naming Village People, time and time again, leading fans to believe that Village People would be featured in the movie when in fact, they are not.
