Director Mike Ruiz and RuPaul

Does anyone else think it’s a shame that RuPaul isn’t among the names being considered to replace Rosie on “The View?”

Let that idea bounce around your head for a minute.

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The supermodel of the world is back to work it on the big screen at the 13th Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival with “Starrbooty,” a revamp of her 1987 no-budget action-comedy flick that pays equal campy homage to “Foxy Brown” and “Naked Gun.” RuPaul plays the titular main character, a supermodel/secret agent who goes undercover as a street hooker to rescue her niece from the clutches of her evil nemesis.

RuPaul lets out a hearty diva laugh when asked about the difference between the new and the old “Starrbooty.”

“It’s accessible to the movie viewing public now because the other one was very crude in the John Waters’ style,” she explains. “We were so inspired by John Waters all those years ago. I took my brother-in-law’s home video camera and made a movie. I took the tape and edited it with two VCRs.”

So technology has allowed RuPaul to build a better booty?

“Now it’s only slightly better quality,” she laughs. “It’s on DV and it’s professionally edited. It’s a little more comprehensive than the earlier one. Plus, the earlier one doesn’t have as much gratuitous sex and violence as the new one.”

Drag queens, gratuitous sex and violence do sell tickets and popcorn but RuPaul isn’t done pimping the film yet.

“It has everything I love about movies,” RuPaul said. “It has bitches who are kicking ass in hot, gorgeous outfits and tons of hair and make-up, and guys with big dicks who are willing to show them.”

That’s right: bitches, gorgeous outfits and dick. “The View” isn’t good enough for RuPaul. She deserves to hold court on “The Price is Right.”

Take another minute to let that idea sink in.

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Not that you’re destined to see RuPaul back on TV anytime soon. She said the executives in the land of television do not wear the platform shoes necessary to see eye to eye with her.

“The things that they offer me, I’m just not interested in,” she said. “In the period I haven’t been on television, it’s because I’ve only been offered reality shows and talking-head programs where I talk about celebrities. I don’t want to talk about what someone is wearing. They’ve always really missed the point of what I’m about. They want to fit me into a certain idea of what drag is. The idea of what drag is isn’t what my idea of what I do for my profession. I’m coming from a punk-rock critique of society as a whole, not as a bitchy queen. That’s not what I’m interested in. That’s why I write my own songs, produce my own songs, write my own movies, produce my own movies and do my own thing.”

RuPaul’s own thing these days seems to be making theaters full of fans wet their seats with bladder-busting fits of laughter as “Starrbooty” makes the rounds on the festival circuit.

“We premiered it in New York and we showed it in San Francisco at Frameline. We sold out a 1,400-seat theater. It sold out in New York too, but that was only a 400-seat theater.”

RuPaul said she has been on hand for the viewings, which she loves attending.

“Each time it’s shown, I’ve watched it in the audience,” she said. “It’s the greatest thrill. I tried to pace the jokes in a way that people don’t laugh over the following jokes. Still, I wasn’t able to do it correctly because in San Francisco, a lot of people missed the joke after a joke because they were laughing at the one before it. It’s the biggest thrill to sit in the audience and hear people howling.”

It’s obvious that “Starrbooty” has RuPaul beaming with (somewhat twisted) pride.

“It was just so gratifying to work on this baby for so long,” she said. “It’s like carrying a child and seeing it take it first steps or seeing your newborn daughter take her first client into the back room.”

Classic.

“Starrbooty” also marks RuPaul’s return to music as she produced a soundtrack album to go with the movie.

“It’s going to be on iTunes and my Web site very soon,” she said of the “Starrbooty” album. “Because my character goes undercover as a hooker, the music is very Lil’ Kim, hip-hop, Trina, Miami-bass type stuff. I had a lot of fun writing and producing the music for the film. I love the music to this movie.”

RuPaul said that after the long process of putting the movie and the music together, she’s ready to take “Starrbooty” to the people.

“I’m touring right now doing shows with new material from “Starrbooty,” she said. “It’s already taken up almost two years of my life in production and post-production. I think in the next year, I’ll be out promoting it and doing shows performing the music from “Starrbooty” and preparing for the next one.”

While RuPaul is a club diva, don’t expect to bump into her outside of any “Starrbooty”-related events.

“I have been working in nightclubs for, let’s just say, a very long time now,” she said. “So the idea of ‘hitting the clubs’ is not my idea of fun anymore. It’s more like work. I don’t drink or do drugs. I love to dance. So, it’s not the first thing I think of doing when I have some free time.”

“Starrbooty” makes its Philadelphia premiere at 7:30 p.m. July 14 at Prince Music Theater, 1412 Chestnut St. and 2:30 p.m. July 15 at the Wilma Theater, 265. S. Broad St.

For more information, see www.starrbooty.com or www.phillyfests.com or call (267) 765-9700 ext. 4.