`Striptease' May Be Sugar Industry's Bane, But Everglades' Boon

------------------------------------------------------------------ AND YOU THOUGHT the movie "Striptease" was about Demi Moore taking off her clothes? Folks in Florida think it's an indictment of the sugar industry. And environmentalists think it may be a way to help save the Everglades. ------------------------------------------------------------------

Inside the Clewiston (Fla.) Theater on the Sugarland Highway in a place nicknamed America's Sweetest Town, moviegoers groan in unison at the sight of the ostentatious yacht called Big Sugar.

"Oh, God, that's tooooo much," one woman says to her companion.

On screen is the movie "Striptease," starring Demi Moore as the stripper and Burt Reynolds as the corrupt congressman lusting for her. Parts of the movie were filmed in the nearby Florida sugar cane fields owned by the United States Sugar Corp., which gladly made them available.

But talk about biting the hand of friendship: As the moviegoers see, the bad guy in the film is Florida's sugar industry - Big Sugar - as personified by the rich, murderous Rojo family.

By satisfying the congressman's debaucheries, the Rojos own his vote for continuing federal subsidies to the sugar industry.

Could this be too close to real life for the comfort of Florida's sugar farmers?

"It will hurt us," says John Hamilton, the theater manager and a lifelong resident of sugar country. "You have a lot of ignorant people when it comes to the realization of what's going on."

If that reaction is typical, "Striptease" could provide more than summertime entertainment. The darkly comic movie could create a public-relations headache for Florida sugar farmers and their allies in the same way that "Norma Rae," starring Sally Field, did in 1979 for anti-union textile companies exploiting female workers.

A special tax on Florida sugar

Its Big-Sugar-as-villain message comes at a time when an environmental group called the Save Our Everglades Committee is hard at work on a campaign to change the Florida Constitution to impose a special tax on Florida sugar - a penny a pound. The money would be used to buy sugar cane fields around Lake Okeechobee, among the richest in the world, and let them return to a more natural state.

The environmentalists argue that pollution from the sugar cane seeps into the Everglades and Florida Bay, slowly strangling both. Not surprisingly, the committee immediately embraced "Striptease" - based on Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen's novel.

It does not hurt the environmentalists' cause that the most evil characters in the movie are the sugar-baron Rojos - thinly veiled, malevolent caricatures of the politically powerful Fanjul family of Palm Beach, friends to the Clintons and the Doles and certainly not regarded as lawbreakers.

Manna for environmentalists

The Rojos order evil deeds from aboard their yacht, helpfully named Big Sugar for any in the audience who do not understand who wears the black hat. To compound the sugar industry's bad luck, video stores could have the film before the Nov. 5 Election Day, allowing additional millions to see it.

For the Save Our Everglades Committee, this is manna from heaven.

"This movie is not about art imitating life," says Paul Tudor Jones, a commodities trader and a founder of the committee. "It's the other way around."

Jones and others in the committee are so confident that "Striptease" will win converts to their cause that they have built a political campaign strategy around it. Last week, they hosted a fund-raiser in Miami's Coconut Grove neighborhood that drew hundreds of people, including Hiaasen, Miami Herald humor writer Dave Barry and Miami Heat coach Pat Riley.

The highlight of the night was a private screening of the film and a souvenir ticket featuring Moore in the buff, though with arms and legs strategically placed.

To capitalize on the public's interest, the committee plans to station petition gatherers at many theaters throughout Florida. They will ask voters emerging from the movie to help put the penny-tax question on the Nov. 5 ballot.

That's causing some concern. Says Hamilton, the theater manager: "If U.S. Sugar goes under, this town goes under. I just hope that the people who do sign the petitions look into it before they vote on it."