Universal Pictures and Focus FeaturesIf you're into spanking and slapping and ball gag and butt plugs, GET A ROOM. But not a room at the Roissy Castle in Vilafranca, Spain, because your inner goddess screaming with pleasure might distract people saying the "Hail Mary" at the church a few door down.
An unnamed businessman rented out the L'Om del Llosar hotel and renamed it after a château in the 1954 erotic novel The Story of O. But his true inspiration for the S&M-themed hotel was another erotic novel: Fifty Shades of Grey.
"With the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon in full swing, I saw a business opportunity that hadn't been exploited yet in Spain," he explained to Spain's The Local. The hotel features 20 rooms and for dungeons intended for "BDSM (bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism and masochism)."
The hotel was supposed to open Aug. 1, but a local church has temporary shut it down.
The town's council says the hotel is "too close to a chapel where dozen of people come every day to visit the village's patron saint." Meanwhile, the mayor claims the castle does not have the proper restaurant licenses.
But the owner says there wasn't an issue until an online daily ran a story exposing the hotel's "sadomasochist" intentions. (He had previously opened a restaurant and bar on the property and says they "have been full of villagers since we opened.")
"It's abuse of office," the businessman says. "I've spoken to my lawyer and we're going to sue the town hall."
Can't we all just get along? For every Fifty Shades of Grey, there's an Old Fashioned (the clean, Christian alternative hitting theaters the same day). There's plenty of room for everyone, no matter whether you want to praise Jesus or get handcuffed, blindfolded and whipped with a riding crop. Or do both! We don't judge!