While searching around for information on the Deep Throat issue rocking the U.S. journalistic chattering classes, I discovered the movie is back in the news.

Here are some NYT stories on the film Deep Throat and a new documentary: Inside Deep Throat.

And we thought it was just another dirty movie

"Do you know what that woman just said about you?" HARRY REEMS said to us in disbelief, after PEGGY SIEGAL - having been told that we wished to speak with Mr. Reems - got to him first and whispered something in his ear.

Mr. Reems was a star of "Deep Throat," so if something shocks him, you have to figure it's pretty good. In this matter, however, he refused to comment.

Not a problem for us, because we had weightier things in mind: "Inside Deep Throat," a documentary film about the 1972 blue movie. The documentary had its premiere, followed by a panel discussion, on Monday night at the Paris Theater.

We were there, as we suspected was everyone else, to consider the social significance of "Deep Throat."

A Notorious X-Rated Phenomenon Revisited, and Debated

History, Karl Marx might have observed had he been more savvy about public relations, repeats itself first as documentary, then as a panel discussion.

On Monday evening, at the New York premiere of "Inside Deep Throat," a movie about the making of the groundbreaking 1972 adult film, the guests - who included Claire Danes, Dana Ivey, Ron Silver, Kurt Andersen, Tina Brown, Erica Jong and Brian Grazer, the documentary's producer - strode boldly into the Paris Theater. They did not hide their faces behind newspapers, as viewers of the original film did until people like Jacqueline Onassis and Truman Capote made going to watch "Deep Throat" chic and almost respectable. Nor did they resort to the old porn watcher's strategy of circling the block a couple of times before sidling into the lobby when no one was looking.

They watched the documentary intently, laughing several times and clapping at the end, and then listened as some experts, including the book publisher Judith Regan and the law professors Catharine A. MacKinnon, of Michigan, and Alan M. Dershowitz, of Harvard, got up and talked about the "Deep Throat" phenomenon, without coming to many conclusions about what it might or might not mean.

Deep Throat to be re-released in adult theatres

``Deep Throat,'' the infamous 1972 adult film that led to a government crackdown on pornography, is being re-released in theaters as a new generation of lawmakers wages a renewed assault on smut, trade paper Daily Variety reported in its Tuesday edition.

The release of the Linda Lovelace opus, which was banned at the time in 23 states, coincides with the premiere of the documentary ``Inside Deep Throat,'' which hits theaters in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston on Friday.

The original film, which was made in six days for $25,000 and has grossed over $600 million, will not be ready until at least Feb. 18, the paper said. Las Vegas-based Arrow Prods., which owns the rights to the mob-funded ``Deep Throat,'' started striking 10 prints on Monday, it added. Five of the prints will be edited to garner an ``R'' rating, which allows admission to children aged under 17 if accompanied by an adult.