"John Waters was kicked out of film school - and pop culture has never recovered! Only a few years later, Waters unleashed his unique talents on an unsuspecting public with 1972's Pink Flamigos, a film about the filthiest people alive that broke every rule of good taste and cinematic lighting. Waters didn't stop there: The man who fantasized about car crashes and killer Ferris wheels as a child went on to make underground trash masterpieces (Female Trouble, Desperate Living) and mainstream hits (Hairspray, Serial Mom) that firmly established him as a Hollywood icon, revered as an avant-garde director whose over-the-top antics have changed the way the world laughs. Pela traces the famous filmmaker's life from weird little boy-dom to his salad days as the Prince of Puke. He visits Baltimore, Waters's hometown and the setting for each of his films, in search of the mean-spirited hillbillies of whom Waters is so enamored. He even interviews Divine from beyond the grave, where he's apparently whooping it up with a lot of forgotten movie stars and eating himself into a stupor. Whether you're a John Waters fan or a film enthusiast, Filthy will delight you with zany stories of the filmmaker's eccentric career and insights into the ways in which Waters has changed pop culture forever."--BOOK JACKET.