Former Greek girl writes movie about sorority house mom
Posted on August 28, 2008
Karen McCullah Lutz, a 1988 JMU graduate, knows all about the Hollywood scene.
“The other night I was getting interviewed on the red carpet and I told them that in college I drank out of a condom with a bendy straw at a crazy container party,” said Lutz, a humorous screenwriter and marketing alumna. “I was like ‘why am I telling them this?’”
Lutz was celebrating the premiere of her new movie, “The House Bunny,” this past weekend by drinking enough tequila to lose her voice and partying at the infamous Playboy Mansion with Hugh Hefner and his crew.
Lutz’s aim for “The House Bunny” was to write a female version of “Animal House.” She and her writing partner, Kirsten Smith, wrote the plot, but it was actually the star of the movie, Anna Farris, who came up with the idea for the main character, Shelley Darlington. Darlington is a Playboy Bunny who gets thrown into the real world and becomes a house mom for a socially-inept sorority.
Lutz has also written the screenplays for such movies as “10 Things I Hate About You,” “Legally Blonde,” “Ella Enchanted,” and “She’s the Man.”
During her time at JMU, Lutz was a member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and was an Alpha Chi Rho little sister. She lived in McGraw-Long Hall her freshman year and her sorority house for the following three years.
Lutz has “millions” of fond memories from JMU like going to the amazing parties they used to have on Greek Row, visiting Reddish Knob and seeing live bands perform at the Mystic Den, a bar that no longer exists in Harrisonburg.
Lutz is married to her college sweetheart, whom she met at a Theta Chi fraternity party her junior year.
“Never give up the spirit of fun you have in college,” Lutz said. “I’m still kind of living the college life. I write in my pool and drink champagne.”
Lutz works from home and raves about the people in Hollywood.
“Ninety-nine percent of the people you meet here are pretty cool,” Lutz said. “I actually used to meet a lot more snobby and obnoxious people when I was in Washington, D.C.”
Lutz had a great time in college, but her least favorite class was Quantitative Analysis. She claims that the only reason she passed it was because the teaching assistant was extremely good looking and gave her a lot of extra help.
Lutz relentlessly wrote scripts for four years before she sold “10 Things I Hate About You.” She typically takes about four months to write a script and gets her ideas from all different places, including her time spent at JMU.
“There are little pieces of JMU in [my movies],” Lutz said with a laugh.
One scene inspired from her years in school was in “10 Things I Hate About You,” when a character has a penis drawn on his face. Two of Lutz’s sorority sisters were pregnant while in school, which is what encouraged her to have a pregnant sorority girl in “The House Bunny.”
Lutz loves all the movies she has written, but is especially fond of “Legally Blonde” and “The Ugly Truth,” which will premiere in 2009.
“‘The House Bunny’ is a really sweet movie,” Lutz said. “A lot of reviews compared it to ‘Legally Blonde,’ but they actually have very different characters. It’s a funny movie with a good message.”
When not working in her pajamas or in her pool, Lutz enjoys surfing and traveling. She eventually wants to own a villa in Tuscany.
She still sees her friends from JMU and four of them came to Los Angeles to support the premiere of her new movie.
“I loved JMU,” Lutz said. “I wouldn’t change a thing. Actually no, I don’t miss the parking tickets.”
Lutz believes that most students will not end up working in the field that they major in, but the experiences that they have at JMU will make them well-rounded and ready to do anything: something she has proved.
