Lili Anolik

“Peter Bloch, Penthouse‘s then-executive editor: “It was the best-selling issue of Penthouse of all time. Hands down. A complete sellout in, like, two days. You couldn’t get a copy. So there were guys paying—and this is something I saw with my own eyes—a dollar for a peek. A peek!””

When Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband’s penis and threw it out her car window in 1993, she not only did what many woman want to do to abusive, deserving men, she became both a feminist icon and a tabloid caricature. Twenty-five years later, the couple still disagrees about what really happened, but the Bobbitt’s castration story remains relevant today, when women’s rights are under fire and our President is accused of sexual assault.

The roads in Hollywood are paved with failed projects. The New Yorker‘s 1970s film critic helped produce one of them, more proof that what goes into making blockbusters is often more interesting than what gets made.