One painting shows a teenage cheerleader splay-legged behind a school gate with a no-trespassing sign on it.

In July, two teenage cheerleaders died in the rollover crash of a van near Birmingham, Ala., that injured several others.

One was at head height; it started its cycle, a tight bud of lavender photons swelling out from the centre into the form of a scantily clad teenage cheerleader.

It is based on a true story, which occurred at McKinney North High School in McKinney, Texas in 2006, in which five teenage cheerleaders became notorious for truancies, violations of the school dress code, and general disrespect to the school community.

With heavenly finesse Mr. Spacey plays a buttoned-down 42-year-old suburbanite who flips his lid for a teenage cheerleader.

Why the teenage cheerleaders dancing on the dugouts?

Americans are desperate to meet someone who, as the actor Don Johnson put it is, "more than just a celebrity" and has no agenda, "just common sense", as one teenage cheerleader said.

Unlike Wes Bentley, who plays the spiritually alert boy next door, Mr. Spacey remains comfortably numb until he fixes his lascivious gaze on the sultry teenage cheerleader played by Mena Suvari.