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Pecker
Promotional poster for the US theatrical release of Pecker
Directed by	John Waters
Produced by	John Fiedler, Mark A. Baker
Written by	John Waters
Starring	Edward Furlong Christina Ricci
Distributed by	Fine Line Features
Release date(s)	September 16, 1998
Running time	87 min.
Country
Language	English
Budget	~ US$6,000,000
IMDb profile

Pecker is a 1998 film directed by John Waters and starring Edward Furlong and Christina Ricci. It was filmed and set in Baltimore's Hampden neighborhood.

The film examines the rise to fame and potential fortune of a budding photographer.

Set amidst the colorful landscape of the director's beloved home town, Pecker tells the story of a goofy 18-year-old who works in a Baltimore sandwich shop and takes photos of his loving but peculiar family and friends on the side. Pecker (Edward Furlong), so named for his childhood habit of "pecking" at his food, stumbles into fame when his work is "discovered" by a savvy New York art dealer, Rorey Wheeler (Lili Taylor). Pecker's pictures - sometimes grainy, sometimes out of focus - are far from professional, but they somehow strike a chord with New York art collectors.

Unfortunately, instant over-exposure has its downside. Rorey's efforts to turn Pecker into an art sensation threaten to ruin the low-key lifestyle that was his inspiration. The unassuming teenager finds that his best friend Matt (Brendan Sexton III) can't even artfully shoplift anymore now that Pecker's photographs have increased his profile. Poor Shelley (Christina Ricci), Pecker's obsessive girlfriend who runs a laundromat, seems especially distressed when the press dub her a "stain goddess" and mistakes her good-natured "pin-up" poses for pornographic come-ons.

When his family is dubbed "culturally challenged" by an overzealous critic, Pecker really begins to feel the uncomfortable glare of stardom. And he's not the only one - Pecker's mom (Mary Kay Place) is no longer free to dispense fashion tips to the homeless clientele at her thrift shop and his grandmother, Memama (Jean Schertler), the pit beef queen of Baltimore, is held up to public ridicule when her peculiar religious experience with a talking statue of Mary is exposed on the cover of a national art magazine. As if that is not bad enough, Tina (Martha Plimpton), Pecker's gay-friendly older sister, is fired from her job hiring go-go boys to dance at the Fudge Palace because Pecker's edgy photographs chronicle the secret sex practices of the club's patrons. Even Little Chrissy, his six year old sister, is feeling the pressure of celebrity when her eating disorder is exposed to the world bringing unwanted attention from nosy child welfare agencies.

In desperation, Pecker finds that he must choose between his new found fame and protecting his life and family in Baltimore. Can Pecker resist becoming a jerk? Will he have an affair with Rorey, his rich and exciting art dealer, or will he stick with his girlfriend, Shelley, who loves him for who he really is? Will he sell out or take back his career on his own terms? Can Pecker ever be truly "artless" once again?

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• In the opening scene, the number of the bus is 7734. According to John Waters, this is an old Catholic school joke since '7734' upside-down "spells" hell.
• The claw machine in the bar contains, among other things, a box of Ex-Lax, a box of Gas-X, a liquor bottle filled with a dark brown liquid (bourbon maybe?), and a cell phone.
• Pecker's camera is an early model of the Canonet, a compact camera made over a period of more than a decade (primarily in the 1960s) by Canon for the consumer market.
• When you see people looking throught the basement window of Pecker's house, you are actually seeing inside the basement of the house next door. All basement scenes were filmed there.
• The house that was used to film Pecker's house in the movie burned down a couple of years ago. It is now simply a grass lot, being bought out by the neighbors behind the house as an extension to their back yard.

• Pecker (soundtrack)

• Pecker at the Internet Movie Database