In 1997, Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert wrote a piece for GQ—her first ever—about working at a dive bar in New York that was owned by a woman and hired only women. The feature described it as a grungy hole full of Jack-swigging rednecks who’d tip like hell when their favorite bartender got up on the bar to dance to the jukebox or put her hair in “farm girl” pigtails and milk beer out of a rubber glove.

“The bar was built on how you manipulate men into giving you all of their money,” says Gilbert. “And it was much more Charles Bukowski short story than Disney movie.” But in August 2000 that’s exactly what it became.

“The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon” was sanitized by Hollywood and reborn as a PG-13 sleepover movie about sisterhood, the American dream, and grinding on a bar in a python vest. Coyote Ugly, as it became, was produced by mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by David McNally, who until then was best known as the guy who made that Budweiser commercial with the lobster. And while it was originally written by Gina Wendkos (who went on to do Princess Diaries), the script was ultimately Frankensteined from at least six versions, including one by Carrie Fisher.

The result was a Girl Power movie with a side of lingering shower shots. The rugged Coyote Ugly bar was reimagined as a glossy Christina Aguilera video set, the bartenders a girl-band lineup of beautiful new talent: Piper Perabo (“the Jersey nun”), Bridget Moynahan (“the New York bitch”), Izabella Miko (“the Russian tease”), and Tyra Banks. En Vogue’s choreographer created the dance routines and Madonna’s former stylist designed the outfits. The story follows a sweet girl from the suburbs (Perabo) as she tries to push past stage fright to make it as a songwriter in the big, tough city. She, of course, falls for a fluffy-eye-lashed burger chef who stalks her home (so romantic!) and she’s emboldened by her time bartending in—and on—the Coyote Ugly bar.

[Read Kate Lloyd's oral history of Coyote Ugly, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary.]