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Ghost World star Thora Birch is hard at work on an indie feature, Winter of Frozen Dreams, a true crime drama about a murderous, college-aged masseuse. Page Six reports today that her dad, a former porn star who met her mom on the set of seminal 70s skin flick Deep Throat, has been hovering around the set, making the crew extremely uncomfortable as he back-seat-directs his daughter's love scenes:

Even though it's industry practice to shoot sex scenes on a closed set, Jack Birch - who met Thora's mother, Carol Connors, as her co-star in "Deep Throat" - demanded to be present as his daughter and Winters simulated intercourse last week.

"It was so wrong," said one insider. "The director is saying, 'Harder! Faster!' and the father is giving Winters the thumbs up." [...]

Her dad, who "looks like Charles Manson" in a "full-length leather coat and wraparound sunglasses, even at night" - was described in a review of his "Road of Death" (1973) as "a muscle-stud . . . so unphotogenic you can't take your eyes off him."

Jack Birch was on the set every day giving orders - even telling director Eric Mandelbaum where to place his camera so that Thora would look her best.

It's not suprising that Mr. Birch's hands-on perfectionism might rub many the wrong way, but we'd caution director Mandelbaum not to too hastily ban the passionate stage dad from the set. As a veteran stag-film star, his knowledge of the fundamentals of hardcore mise-en-scène could prove invaluable to the filmmaking process, to say nothing of his familiarity with his daughter's most flattering angles. What may seem like an inconvenience now will eventually benefit the production, when all those shouts of, "Remember to use your diaphragm, Thora!" ultimately result in hotter, more authentic love scenes.