PZP Productions' gay take-off Da Vinci Load splats on DVD day-and-date with Code, today. PZP, as you surely know, released "Desperate Houseboys" last year, to thunderous acclaim. "There wasn't a dry lap in the house!" crowed Gene Shalit (no, he didn't really say that). Some background on the gay Load, from the newshounds at Gay Video News:

"This will be the first time that a porn parody will be released simultaneously with the Hollywood blockbuster it is parodying," said PZP's Peter Zaragoza.

"It's big gamble," said Zaragoza, who also has a non-sexual role in the film. "If the real movie tanks at the box office then we're screwed! But I'm betting that director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks will deliver the big hit that everone is anticipating. And I loved the book."

Zaragoza stressed that The DaVinci Load is "very loosely" based on the book, "yet it tries to retain the same suspense."

"I love campy porn," said Zaragoza, "so it was very hard for me to do this film without making it tongue-in-cheek. There is some serious shit in this film, including political commentary and even a couple of non-violent, cloak-and-dagger style murders."

PZP issued a lengthy press release to clear up some misconceptions about its Load, including the plot. For the record, here's what it's all about:

“The Priory of Semen, an ancient secret society, finds an ancient scroll that can only be decoded by soaking it with the loads of Leonardo Da Vinci’s studly descendants, who must cum on the faces of virgin twinks. There are all kinds of twists and turns along the way as the Da Vinci Boys pop twink cherries from Stonehenge to The Vatican.”

Meanwhile, mark May 23 on your calendars, the day Hustler Video rolls out its straight reimagining of Code. In this version,

"operatives of the Priory of Semen discover that Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa using his own sperm. These keepers of the truth f...k in the name of art and kill anyone who gets in their way."

Director Jeremy Tanner, by the way, "tends to tread in more intellectually challenging waters," so this Da Vince Load should be entertaining even to viewers who go for plot and dialogue rather than costuming or the lack thereof.

Reviews of the real Da Vinci Code call it mediocre at best, although that won't dampen the box office by much. I doubt that the Da Vinci Loads will gain any more viewership that movies of that ilk typically do, although the producers get high marks for ambition and razzing the sky-high pretensions of the book and movie.

I can't wait for their take on "The Da Vinci Load: The Musical."