In Hollywood, there’s a lot of talk about this new movie “Burlesque,” a kind of ABC Family version of “Showgirls,” starring Cher as the owner of a burlesque club and Christina Aguilera as a waitress from Iowa. Sony’s Screen Gems will release it Wednesday. It is also, written and directed by Steven Antin, a fact featured on advertisements all over Los Angeles in a font size normally reserved for another Steven: Spielberg.

More chatter is stemming from a story in The Hollywood Reporter that revealed that Cher hired her own film editor to make sure she came out looking well. On one particularly incendiary day, Clint Culpepper, the president of Screen Gems, poured an iced tea over the director Steven Antin’s head, forcing him “to recoil backwards into a rack of clothes.”

Making matters a little more complicated: Mr. Antin and Mr. Culpepper have been a longtime couple, though, based on conversations between this reporter, Mr. Antin and his publicist, it is pretty much clear they are no longer together.

But enough idle gossip. Back to that poster. “I first saw it and I said, ‘My name is so big!’” Mr. Antin recalled, driving in his Range Rover as he passed by a one-sheet of “Burlesque” on Melrose. “I’m kind of a little embarrassed, but it’s all dictated by the union.”Mr. Antin was on his way to CBS Studios to visit some of the dancers from “Burlesque” rehearsing a number for Tuesday’s episode of “Dancing with the Stars.” “I’m bringing some gifts,” Mr. Antin said. “Spread the love.”

Mr. Antin, whose sister, Robin, created the Pussycat Dolls, and whose brother, Jonathan, was the hairstylist subject of the reality show “Blow Out,” started as an actor in “The Goonies” and “The Accused.” (He was one of Jodie Foster’s rapists.) Several years later, a little tight in the face but still handsome, he is a writer/director/producer with a straight-to-video film called “The Glass House: The Good Mother” starring Angie Harmon under his belt.

He said he first got the idea for “Burlesque” four years ago. “I just love the world of burlesque,” he said, pulling into CBS. “The pastiche—you can beg, borrow and steal in homage. I thought it was a great place to set a musical. It’s organic, like in ‘Cabaret.’”

“The movie is really an inspirational fun-filled fantasy,” Mr. Antin added, as he walked through the parking lot carrying shopping bags filled with the “Burleseque” books, CDs and Christina Aguilera perfume. “It’s a throwback to Hollywood’s golden age. I always said it would be PG-13 and for teenage girls.”

“You’re like the Santa Claus of ‘Burlesque,’” the film’s co-choreographer, Denise Faye, said when she greeted Mr. Antin.

“These are my boys and girls,” he said to the dancers. “They killed themselves. I brought some gifts, but, boys, I don’t know what to say unless you want nail polish. Although Christina’s perfume smells very good.”

Ms. Faye told Mr. Antin that she had been working on translating the film’s finale, a song called “Show Me How You Burlesque,” to the studio space. She asked her dancers to do their first run-through.

As soon as they finished, Mr. Antin had some immediate notes. He didn’t like a dancer who was hanging on top of the bar. “And could the section when they freestyle be a little more Fosse?” he asked.

“I’m a perfectionist,” Mr. Antin said, when Ms. Faye went back to fix a few sections. “Even for the Bumper band in the film, we went through weeks and weeks of auditions, and they don’t even have speaking parts.”

Mr. Antin was asked about the song: is it actually possible “to burlesque?” “We made it up,” he answered. “I told Christina to write a song that was instructive but also current and a throwback. We wanted to create a dance movie that’s ‘burlesqueing,’ Paula, come over here, sweetheart baby doll. Can you show us how you burlesque?”

Paula van Oppen, a dancer with a Louise Brooks bob, spoke the moves as she demonstrated them. “There’s the windmill,” she said. “Then the booty pop, the snap and the point down. Then you do a little hip scootsie, then it’s the traditional get your ass up, then the squat.” She put her hands high on her chest and said, “Then there’s the presentation of the breasts and it ends. That’s how you burlesque.”

It was getting late and a reporter had lots of things to do, but Mr. Antin watched rehearsals for another hour, giving his opinion on little things here and there. “I don’t want to kidnap you,” he said when it was time to leave. “I don’t like it, I love it,” he told the dancers.

On the way out, he said he has been thinking about turning “Burlesque” into a television series or a Broadway show. But right now he has to just see his movie open. “This has taken all of my focus,” he said. “I just have to let the eagle fly and give birth.”

Source: Wall Street Journal