5 Jul, 2012

Hunky Heroes, Steamy Sirens and the Ordinary People Who Bring Them to Life in POV’s ‘Guilty Pleasures,’ Thursday, July 12, 2012 on PBS

Posted by Stacy

Shumita reading at the beauty salon. Photo: Julie Moggan.

Every four seconds a romance novel published by Harlequin or its British counterpart, Mills & Boon, is sold somewhere in the world. POV’s Guilty Pleasures takes an amusing and touching look at this global phenomenon. Ironies abound in the contrasts between the everyday lives of the books’ readers and the fantasy worlds that offer them escape. Guilty Pleasures portrays five romance devotees who must, ultimately, find their dreams in the real world.

Guilty Pleasures has its national broadcast premiere during the 25th anniversary season of PBS’ POV series on Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 10 p.m. (Check local listings.) Can’t wait? Check out a sneak preview on the PBS video apps for iPad and iPhone starting July 6! The film will stream on POV’s website July 13-Aug. 12.

Guilty Pleasures discovers a global community of shared imagination, whose yearning for romance fiction’s Holy Grail—true love—seems to know no barrier of language or culture. The people in the film:

Stephen, the handsome and well-built American model featured on more than 200 Harlequin/Mills & Boon book covers, is searching for a soul mate. He is that dark hero with the torn shirt, staring deeply into a woman’s eyes., incredibly, this man who can’t walk from the beach to his Miami apartment without causing a sensation isn’t even in a relationship when the film opens.
A Japanese housewife who feels something lacking in her life, and escapes to romance novels and ballroom dancing.
An Indian woman whose husband left her for a younger woman. Romance fiction, she says, “is about romancing yourself.”
An English mother who wants to spice up her marriage. Her husband is a “working man’s man” who is likely to be found reading a mechanical manual or something titled Unnatural Death in bed, while she peruses a steamy Mills & Boon number.
Mills & Boon author Gill Sanderson, who has legions of devoted readers across the world, is actually Roger, a pensioner writing from a trailer park in England’s Lake District.