The state's liquor board says Salt Lake City's Brewvies theater falls under the same laws that govern strip clubs, which are prohibited from having fully nude dancing if they serve alcohol.The board says the fine was warranted because of explicit scenes in the movie showing female, male and transvestite nudity. Other scenes that violated state law included a monkey simulating a sex act.
Before you go all "LOL Mormons", let me point out that this is also illegal in California.
Illegal in general, not in particular: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speakeasy_Theaters
I'm probably missing your point, but if not...
Counterexample: http://drafthouse.com/
Wouldn't it be 'lol mormons' in California too, ala Prop 8?
It is with great trepidation that I question your knowledge of monstrously stupid laws effecting people who serve alcohol in California, but I distinctly recall being served beer at the (late lamented) Parkway Speakeasy in Oakland while watching "Zack and Miri Make a Porno", which while shockingly unfunny certainly contained a reasonable amount of nudity and simulated sex acts. Is enforcement just spotty?
Sadly, it's the same up here in Canuckistan. You can get right sloshed watching a baseball game, but forget having a beer and watching Blade Runner. Seems nutty to me.
I'm afraid you're missing the point. There are legal movie theatres in both Utah and California that sell beer. But if those theatres were to play certain first-run, popular, R-rated movies, well, that would be injurious to the public welfare and morals, and they could lose their liquor license.
But enforcement is the crux of the issue isn't it? There are lots of absurd laws everywhere, but who cares if they are not enforced?
I'm probably moving to Utah next year, sadly. :-(
If you have to calculate the odds of your business not getting penalized by doing something that everybody does even though it's not legal, you probably won't do it, just in case you risk the course of doing business may involve antagonizing somebody sufficiently spiteful to report you for the violation of that antiquated, barely-remembered law.
How do you have 'transvestite nudity'?
Lift the skirt.