A large crowd waited on a damp red carpet Monday night for the premier of War Inc., a satire of strife in the Middle East starring John Cusack, Marrisa Tomei and Hillary Duff and set in the fictitious state of Turaqistan.

"It was tough playing a pop star who wasn't me," confessed Ms. Duff, who plays a local Turaqistani singer named Yonica Babyyeah. "But I am getting to an age where I enjoy taking on new challenges."

Rather infamously, in this movie one of those new challenges included filming a scene in which the singer puts a live scorpion down her pants.

Director Joshua Seftel said he brought real-world experience to the production.

"I have worked in war zones as a documentary filmmaker. I was in Bosnia and I was actually under sniper fire."

Take that, Hillary! But it's not the same, he said. "Now instead of running away from the bullets, I'm telling my cameraman to get closer." Someone's gotta do it!

But his experience pales in comparison to that of Sergej Trifunovic, a Serbian-born actor who plays the slightly psychotic playboy Ooq-Mi-Fay Taqnufmini. "I based my character on the son of the my ex-president, Marko Milošević," he said. One scene in particular where Trifunovic accidently shoots himself in the butt, is based around the hated Son of Slobodan, whose prolific business interests including an amusement park called Bambipark did not endear him to the general Serbian population.

"People don't know this, but Serbians are actually a very humorous people."

By the way, the above clip includes that scorpion scene.