‘Showgirls’ Nets Fans With Hot Spot on Web : Movies: An estimated 1 million users are logging on daily for a closer look at photos and more from the racy film, which has drawn objections from some groups.

While a media watchdog group is upset, the Web-crawlers are coming out of the woodwork to catch a glimpse of MGM/UA’s steamy “Showgirls,” the NC-17-rated film that arrives in theaters Friday.

Earlier this month a “Showgirls” promotion was put on the Internet’s World Wide Web, and recently has drawn an estimated 1 million curious users daily, causing the system to jam and overload.

rVision, which created the promotion for MGM/UA, said computers have been unable to handle the volume of traffic and that DirectNet, which oversees the Web sites, has “mirrored” or copied the program onto different systems to accommodate the demand.

“The number of responses we have gotten on that site has just been enormous,” said Michael F. Siegel, president of Santa Monica-based rVision. “No studio has ever received that kind of response. We were burning up machines, getting over a million hits a day. We’ve brought in the hardware manufacturer to reconfigure the service properly to handle the load.”

The “Showgirls” Web site, which offers logged-on users “introductions” to the movie’s characters, complete with nude photos, is linked to the Playboy Web site, which has also helped to fuel the interest.

Although the Web site carries a warning that the material is off limits to anyone under 17, it can be accessed by anyone who has the skills and equipment to explore the Internet.

“The appeal of the prurient interest to the Net user seems to have exploded,” Siegel said.

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At the same time, video stores have reported running out of their allotments of the 250,000 eight-minute “sneak preview” videos, available for free rental, and having to order additional copies.

“The biggest demand was actually before we got the tape,” said Mike Dampier, who manages Tower Video on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. “The first day we put it out they all rented out really fast and then we were completely out for two, three days.”

MGM/UA reported 130 video companies sent faxed requests to join in the promotion in the past week, since the video hit stores on Sept. 11, said David Bishop, vice president of the MGM/UA Home Video division. He estimated that at least 3 million people have viewed the sneak preview.

This is part of an elaborate marketing plan staged by MGM/UA officials for the racy film, which explores the world of Las Vegas “lap dancers.”

But not everyone is lapping it up.

The studio has drawn protests from Morality in Media, a New York-based media watchdog group, which denounced the film’s appeal to prurient interests.

“Great drama often deals with life’s ‘underside,’ but it is a truly great story, producer and performers that make for great drama, not wall-to-wall nudity, vulgarity and hard-core sex,” said Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media. “No one is accusing ‘Showgirls’ of being great drama. What is creating the stir about this film is both the amount of nudity and sex and MGM/UA’s brazen promotion of the most sexually provocative parts of the film in marketing it. Citizens have every right to protest this crass effort to thrust the sleaze and pornography of Las Vegas strip bars into local communities via neighborhood theaters and video stores.”

Peters said he has no protests planned, but expects that there will be some by other groups around the country.

“The problem with demonstrations is that they tend to attract attention to something that might otherwise go ignored,” Peters said. “But, I think people should protest--to MGM, to local theaters and to the newspapers and television stations that run the ad. What finally got me to speak out on this is the way they’re marketing the film. Even if the film has some legitimacy to it, they’re marketing it for its trash. I’m not contesting someone’s right to make the film, what I’m contesting is MGM’s decision to promote it and market it like a porno film.”