Detroit City Hall Insider

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Category: Life in Detroit

Kilpatrick: Sex, lies and a DVD coming soon

Stop the City Hall Insider if you've heard this plot before.

The mayor of a large American city is groomed for greatness by powerful parents, bestowed with remarkable gifts, grabs the golden ring, and then falls from grace through "weakness, pride and temptation."

That's right: The story that just won't die -- the Kwame Kilpatrick saga -- could be coming to a theater living room near you. The epic rise and fall, which hits on themes of the Insider's favorite flicks from "Omen III: The Final Conflict" to "Malibu's Most Wanted," is being made into a straight-to-DVD movie called 'Scandal in the City'. The creators, Detroit-based Skyline Productions, began advertising their work on Comcast cable, including VH1, this week.

It's not clear just where or when it will be sold. The Web site says August, but gives no specifics beyond saying it's in "post production."

The trailer has all the elements of a rip-roaring good time. A flashback of a young boy saying he wants to be mayor when he grows up. A finger-pointing, powerful mother telling a crowd to stick up for "your boy." Cat fights between the mayor's wife and a lady in lingerie. A mysterious envelope exchanging hands. A jail cell slamming shut.

The ending may not be much of a shock -- we think it may have something to do with text-messages and a resignation -- but great drama doesn't need surprises. We all know how "Romeo and Juliet" and "Back to the Future" end, right?

But there is one mysterious subplot about the flick: The actor playing the mayor is a dead ringer for Malik Shabbazz, one of Kilpatrick's biggest backers and a leader of the New Marcus Garvey Movement/Black Panther Nation.

Here's the clip.