Early Monday, the conservative flamethrower from Fox News didn't like it - so much so that he threatened to scrap his much-ballyhooed scrape with liberal Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. But Hannity quickly signed a revised contract that allows accredited news media.

But Anderson - who called Hannity a "paranoid" intent on ducking the debate over the Iraq war and the mayor's call for President Bush's impeachment - "called his bluff."

"I've signed the [revised] contract," which stipulates accredited media only and ostensibly locks out the filmmakers, Anderson said. "He's running out of excuses."

Turns out, Hannity signed the tweaked pact "within 20 minutes," according to Kevin LaRue, program director for KSL Newsradio.

What's more, the independent filmmakers, who have freelanced for CNN and ABC, insist they will chronicle the whole thing.

"People like Sean Hannity not wanting us to be a part of the story is a story itself," said Rhea Gavry, who has produced and directed self-funded independent films with husband Douglass Monroe for 20 years. "We can be credentialed as media - we are a corporation. If we were restricted, that would become part of the story as well."

The impasse erupted Monday when Hannity objected to the presence of the documentary crew, which plans to record the remainder of Anderson's mayoral term.

On his syndicated radio program, Hannity accused Anderson of looking for fame and fortune, a la Al Gore, from the independent film.

"He's allowing somebody to turn this thing into a movie, and we said, 'Sorry, accredited media only,' " KSL's Web site reported Hannity as saying.

A representative for Fox News referred The Salt Lake Tribune to contract-liaison KSL for comment.

LaRue explained that Hannity refused to be the unwitting star in a "hit piece."

"He felt it was reasonable to draw the line to a documentarian doing something for Mayor Anderson."

But the nonprofit Gavry & Monroe Productions is strictly independent. The husband-wife team began tracking Anderson at an anti-war rally in Washington last month - the filmmakers are in the nation's capital to follow Anderson for another anti-war event this week - and have not taken money from the mayor.

Earlier, when the debate appeared off, Hannity deflected blame, noting he had agreed to "everything else" in the contract.

"Folks in Salt Lake City, if this does not happen, it is not Sean Hannity's fault. Sean Hannity did everything possible to make this thing happen," Hannity said, as reported by KSL.

Turbulent turns over the six-week negotiation have prevented officials from the Associated Students of the University of Utah from selling tickets and promoting the debate.

Anderson said he thought the contract was cemented Friday before, he added, Hannity decided he wanted the weekend to think about it.

"It's really odd that a guy who is such a self-promoter would be afraid of someone who is not part of the accredited media," said Anderson, who notes Hannity has yet to post the event on his Web site calendar.

Gavry, a U. graduate who lives with her husband in Pleasant View, says she has tried since late March to get permission from Hannity's camp for access to the debate. She wants film crews to follow both men for the documentary.

"No one has gotten back to me," she said.

The film, tentatively titled "The Man in the Red State" or "America's Mayor," chronicles how Anderson and other local leaders try to "fill the void" of national opposition to the war in Iraq.

And she is not upset the mayor signed the new contract shutting out her film crew, a move Anderson called "unfortunate." She plans to be there, cameras rolling.

"It doesn't matter," Gavry said. "It's not going to limit our ability to tell the story."

djensen@sltrib.com