A Sept. 22 article about a western Massachusetts lesbian bar’s mask-policy controversy has become an unexpected Hollywood prospect after surging across social media and ranking among the most-read stories in The Boston Globe’s history.
Written by Annalisa Quinn, the piece carries the headline, “A Western Mass. lesbian bar required KN-95 masks. When it changed the rules, all hell broke loose.” Its rapid rise has now prompted inquiries about possible scripted and documentary adaptations.
UTA, which represents the Globe, has been fielding that interest, according to industry insiders. No specific adaptation is confirmed, but the response suggests producers see potential in a story that arrived with both a substantial audience and a sharply drawn conflict.
At the center of the article is a bar owner struggling with debt and former patrons angered by the decision to end the venue’s mask policy. The escalating clash — and the lengths to which some patrons went to make their views known — gives the story several figures and points of tension that could translate into either a scripted production or a nonfiction project.
The intense reaction was immediate. After appearing on Sept. 22, Quinn’s article spread widely through social media feeds and quickly established itself as one of the newspaper’s biggest readership successes.
“This story has certainly resonated with a wide range of audiences nationally and internationally,” a Globe spokesperson said. “It is now one of the most-read stories we’ve published, and has already garnered many thousands of subscriptions.”
Why a Viral Article Has Added Appeal
Published articles are regularly optioned for adaptation, although only a small percentage ultimately reach audiences as completed films or television projects. In a difficult media market, however, a widely read piece can offer prospective buyers a degree of built-in recognition and a clear foundation for a project.
People involved in assembling newspaper-based packages say that any element capable of giving a project a competitive advantage can matter in the current climate. As one observer put it, “Everyone is scared, and nobody wants to make a decision.”
A story that has already broken through with readers can therefore appear less uncertain to a decision-maker, even if its popularity offers no guarantee that an adaptation will move forward.
This weekend’s Robert Pattinson movie Primetime provides one example of journalism making the jump to the screen. The film was based on a 2007 Esquire article.
The Globe also has a far more prominent place in the history of journalism-inspired filmmaking. In the early 2000s, the newspaper published a series exposing the cover-up of abuse within the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. The work won a Pulitzer Prize and later inspired Spotlight, the 2015 film that won the best picture Oscar.
The new article is markedly different in subject and scope, but its extraordinary readership has again put the newspaper’s work in front of entertainment-industry buyers. This time, the attraction is a highly charged dispute surrounding a bar’s KN-95 requirements, the end of that policy and the backlash that followed.
What Happens Next?
For now, the Hollywood activity remains at the inquiry stage. Interest spans both scripted storytelling and documentary treatment, but the available information does not establish that the article has been optioned or that any production is moving ahead.
What is already clear is that Quinn’s story has moved beyond a local bar dispute. Its reach across social media, international readership and role in generating thousands of subscriptions have turned it into the kind of proven publishing phenomenon that Hollywood is now considering for a second life.