One might assume that John Waters and Bill Murray would be, if probably not bosom chums, then at least members of some sort of mutual admiration society. And yet, according to the new book Low Budget Hell: Making Underground Movies With John Waters from Robert Maier, Waters’ longtime collaborator, the director absolutely “hated Bill Murray,” whose drafting to sing the Debbie Harry/Michael Kamen song “The Best Thing” on the soundtrack of Polyester [Side note: Bill Murray sings the song “The Best Thing” on the soundtrack of Polyester] reportedly made Waters “livid.” Maier says that Waters’ hatred extended to Caddyshack and Saturday Night Live—though Waters “bragged at every opportunity that he never even watched TV,” so his hatred must have been based mostly on assumption—and stemmed from the fact that Murray was too “mass-audience,” and thus simply wasn’t as “underground and dangerous” as he was. “John's humor was not doofusy like Bill Murray's,” Maier says. "John was angry, gay, and shocking, and he didn't want it diluted." Fortunately, Waters ended up conceding that Murray’s version of the song was “funny and very appropriate,” and then years later he gave his blessing to dilute his movies Hairspray and Cry-Baby into big, doofusy Broadway musicals, so everything sort of resolved itself. [via Village Voice]
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