So, what ever happened to Tigre Hill's documentary about the 2003 mayoral race between incumbent John Street and GOP contender Sam Katz?

The 37-year-old Wynnefield filmmaker gained recognition from his first feature film, Casanova's Demise, which is about a man who is sentenced to be castrated for raping a woman. (Casanova needs to overcome legal red tape before it can be released.) Hill was reluctant to discuss his current political documentary, now titled The Shame of a City, but was forced to talk when he appeared at this reporter's domicile to film additional commentary. (Full disclosure: He was plied with vodka martinis until he spilled the beans).

At its inception, Hill's project was to be an inside look at the Katz campaign, but he also wanted to include Street. While Katz was receptive, the Street team wanted no part.

Dianne Thompson, Hill's cinematographer, who just happens to be easy on the eyes, attended Street's events undercover and captured footage of his campaign.

The film's action would have ended on Election Day if not for the Fed-planted bug so serendipitously found in the ceiling of the Mayor's City Hall office a month earlier. The updated documentary continues through the indictments, trials and convictions.

"Now it has national appeal, whereas before it was too localized," said Hill. "The access I gained into the Katz campaign was unlike what we have seen in most documentaries, and the film is itself an indictment of Philly politics."

Among the more salacious scenes are footage of Street's campaign spinsters firing up masses by loudly claiming that it was President George Bush who convinced fellow Republican U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan to bug Street's office, a scene in which Local 98 ralliers heckle Katz — complete with union head John Dougherty's response — and the hullaballoo outside Katz's North Philadelphia campaign headquarters after a Molotov cocktail went flying through the window.

Hill also has footage of Democrat mahoffs such as James Carville, Bill Clinton, Patti LaBelle and Bill Cosby arriving at the 11th hour to support Street. (A lone GOP celeb, Rudy Giuliani, came out for Katz.) Observations by local media types (minor celebs that we are) are featured.

Hill plans to release Shame in early November at select venues here before it hits the film festival circuit and a possible HBO deal.

What Do I Have to Do to Get Fired Around Here?

And speaking of the summer of 2003 and that cocktail through the window, two employees in the Street administration, Assistant Managing Director Tumar Alexander and Joey Temple, a recreation employee for the city, have brief cameos in Shame. You might remember them from such classics as Alexander riding around with Street's son, Sharif, on campaign business when he had a heated argument with Lewis Harris, the landlord of the building Katz rented for his campaign. The fracas came just hours before the firebomb went through the window. Temple also had words with Lewis prior to the incident, which were described in police reports as threats.

Both Alexander and Temple denied involvement and there were no arrests since Harris mistakenly threw away the firebomb, thinking it had been left by construction workers. He later called police when he saw the broken windows.

Alexander still has his $63,000-a-year job with Street and in 2004, was named in Ebony magazine as one of 30 leaders 30 years old and under who were on the fast track. Temple got his job back as well.

You can never be too flush. Two statewide candidates in next year's races for federal office are already the beneficiaries of big fundraisers.

Barack Obama, the effervescent Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois who is rumored to be eying a possible 2008 presidential bid, will be in town Sept. 12 to stump for Bob Casey Jr. Casey will be running against Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum next year and needs all the financial help he can get since Santorum has been raking in the cash to the tune of nearly $6 million.

Last summer, Obama wowed delegates while speaking in prime time at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, despite the fact that the Pennsylvania contingent kept mistakenly calling him "Osama."

Obama will be the keynote speaker at a luncheon fundraiser for Casey hosted by financial mogul Peter Buttenweiser.

NAACP president and Philadelphia Sunday Sun publisher, J. Whyatt Mondesire plans to give U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah a run for his money — that is, if in fact Mondesire runs against him next year. Mondesire supporters will host a fundraiser on Sept. 22 at a restaurant on the Ben Franklin Parkway.