Waters on Hairspray, Cry-Baby & "Ridiculous" Rehab

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Leave it to John Waters to get John Travolta to play a woman.

If you haven't heard by now, Travolta takes a cross-dressing turn as Edna Turnblad in the movie adaptation of the musical Hairspray. "It's great," Waters says. "I'm about to be a grandfather. It's the third generation."

I chatted with Waters in his Chateau Marmont hotel suite just a couple of days before the premiere of his new court TV show, 'Til Death Do Us Part. Yesterday, I gave you part one of my interview, in which Waters talked about love, marriage and the penal system. Today, I give you Waters on Hollywood.

Travolta has some mighty big houseslippers to fill. Harvey Fierstein originated the role on Broadway, and the late cross-dressing Divine was the first Edna in the 1980s Hairspray flick.

What would Divine think of the former Welcome Back, Kotter and Saturday Night Fever star taking on her part? "He would snatch the part right from John's cold, dead fingers," Waters says. "But Divine would be 60 now. In my last movie [A Dirty Shame], he would have been Big Ethel—the grandmother!" 

It looks like Hairspray may not be the only project to give Waters mainstream popularity. A Cry-Baby musical for Broadway is in the works. The 1990 movie starred Johnny Depp. "The music is great," he says. "I've been to the table reads, and I was just at a casting session this week."

Oh, how things have changed since Waters first gained fame by shocking moviegoers with his outrageously funny—and dirty—Pink Flamingos. "I look through my cable guide and, each month, at least four or five of my movies are on TV," he says. "Pink Flamingos is on the Sundance channel, which in many places is regular cable. It's not even like On Demand. So, many families will sit there together and up comes a singing a--hole!"

Still, Waters admits some of his work pales in comparison with what’s in theaters today. But he's not complaining. "It's all mainstream now," he says. "I mean, in Jackass Number Two they drank horse semen. It was the number one movie in America."

What the openly gay Waters finds more outrageous these days is the recent flap about Isaiah Washington's homophobic remark. Waters still wants to know what kind of rehab is it that Washington claims to have gone to for help in dealing with his issues.

"It's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard," Waters says. "Is there a racism rehab, too? Can the KKK people go there? Only in L.A.!"