United Artists' 'Betrayed' Film poses adv By The Associated Press HOLLYWOOD ? It's one thing getting filmgoers to watch the make-believe violence of a Nightmare on Elm Street. It's another luring them to witness a true-to-life racial lynching that mirrors the sickness of their society. Yet that's the challenge facing the makers of the explosive movie Betrayed, which opens in theaters across the country on Friday but has already suffered one advertising snafu that left preview audiences steaming. Filled with unbridled bigotry and an all-too-real racial murder, the film stands as a study in how ? and how not ? to market an earthshaker. "This movie is enormously difficult," says Gordon Weaver, who is supervising the advertising campaign. "This is a very tough, tough film." What makes Betrayed, directed by Costa-Gavras, a hard sell is its explicit depiction of U.S. white supremacists ? a topic audiences might want to avoid. So producer United Artists looked for another marketing hook within the movie. Cut to Debra Winger and Tom Berenger, the film's stars. For United Artists, the popular pair made for a natural advertising angle. Thus, in the first Betrayed posters, or "one sheets" as they are called, Winger and Berenger were shown embracing. From the looks of the poster, Betrayed appeared to be a steamy little film, perhaps an update of Jagged Edge, which was, in fact, written by Betrayed author Joe Eszterhas. But preview audiences expecting Betrayed to resemble an adventure-packed pulp romance were startled to see a band of hard-working Midwestern farmers who lead a double life as racist killers. The white supremacists murder a talk-show host reminiscent of Denver radio personality Alan Berg, who was gunned down in 1985 by members of The Order. They hunt down and lynch a black youth and denounce homosexuals, Jews and various ethnic groups. In more than one instance, preview audience members spontaneously erupted in anger, either walking out or speaking out against the film while it was still on screen. Said one woman at a Century City screening: "All white Welcome To... r