EDITOR’S NOTE: University of Michigan alums Ben Collins (bottom left) and Leah Diehl (bottom middle)  along with her brother, Aaron (EMU) are members of Lighting Love. Collins is a graduate of  Performance Art Technology program at U-M’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

The band has released a record, played many shows around Ann Arbor, and parts of the U.S. and Canada. One of the band’s songs will be heard in Will Ferrell’s new movie.

The following is Ben Collins’ account of how the song made it into the film.

Zack Pearlman is the lead actor in a new movie called The “Virginity Hit.”   I’ve known Zack for a while — he’s an actor from Ann Arbor and I took film when I was at the University of Michigan — so we had mutual friends.  When we all found out Zack was going to star in this movie, we were incredibly happy for him. He deserves a big break.

Some time later, Leah (Diehl) told me that a movie called “The Virginity Hit” wanted to use one of our songs.  I assumed that this was the work of Zack.  I sent him a facebook message the next day.

“Did you recommend one of our songs for your movie? It looks like we got contacted by someone for licensing!”

He responded: “Nice man!”

The next day, he responded again: “No!  BUT THATS MY MOVIE!  I just saw a cut and I yelled STOP. I heard your song. I was like, ‘Is this lightning love!?!?’ and the director was like yeah why. Then I told him… EPIC!”

Apparently Zack had no idea the director had used our song.  He had found our Myspace page online completely by chance.  Definitely one of the weirder coincidences I’ve had happen.

Either way, we’re really excited!  I saw the movie last week, and I truly enjoyed it.  It’s very funny, and it has a unique air of sincerity about it.  All of the actors lived together in New Orleans for over a year in preparation for this film, so the personal relationships on screen exist in real life as well.