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Love hurts, cake helps
In a recent survey, 96 out of 100 women say they think a bad thought about their bodies every day, and romantic comedy "Muffin Top: A Love Story" says those other four women are lying, or in a coma.
"Muffin Top" is a hilarious, romantic antidote to our culture's Photoshop madness, and its core message is this: Be happy now, not five pounds from now. The movie's fans say, "Muffin Top is not just a movie; it's a movie-ment."
Wait, how does a movie that isn't even out yet have fans?
Crowdsourcing, driven by social media, is creating an audience revolution. Last fall, "Muffin Top" fans saw the movie's trailer and came together to:
1. Create a nationwide red-carpet tour;
2. Create screenings in their own towns; and
3. Create Girl's Night IN Video-On-Demand parties to raise money for Girl's Inc., the national girls' empowerment organization.
Using Kickstarter, "Muffin Top" tapped into the female audience frustration as movie theaters are flooded with white male super heroes in spandex. The campaign to create a multi-city red-carpet tour with the film's stars went viral and raised 122 percent of its goal because people embraced the film's slogan "Love Hurts, Cake Helps."
Now Muffin Toppers are using audience empowerment platform Tugg.com to create Girl's Night Out screenings at their local multiplexes. For more information, click here.
"Muffin Top" is about a women's studies prof who gets dumped and goes into a body image shame spiral, eventually learning that the first step to finding true love is loving yourself. I co-wrote and directed the film, which also stars David Arquette ("Scream"), Retta ("Parks and Recreation"), Dot Marie Jones ("Glee"), Haylie Duff ("Napoleon Dynamite"), Gary Anthony Williams "(Key and Peele"), Melissa Peterman ("Fargo"), Marissa Jaret Winokur (Tony winner, "Hairspray"), Diedrich Bader ("Napoleon Dynamite") and Maria Bamford ("Arrested Development").
"Muffin Top" is distributed by Mar Vista Entertainment and will be on all Video-On-Demand platforms Nov 4, simultaneous with the Muffin Top Red Carpet of TRUE Beauty tour, the Tugg.com screenings and the "Girls' Night In" VOD parties. You can download the free party kit here.
View the movie's trailer here. For more information, visit Muffintopmovie.com and join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.
-- Cathryn Michon
Cathryn Michon is a best-selling author, stand-up comic, actress and Hollywood screenwriter and director - as well as the creative catalyst behind Muffin Top: A Love Story. Her husband, W. Bruce Cameron, co-wrote the screenplay. In 2014, both were part of the faculty at the EBWW.