Joomla/PHP alternative page to load content getting "restricted access"

I'm trying to get links from articles on my Joomla site to popup in a new window. This part I've done with a POPUP.PHP class.

I can call the page thus:

<a title="The 1980s" class="popup" href="http://www.mysite.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:1980s">1980</a>

The above will successfully pop up the window that I want, showing the article that I am targeting, but it inherits all of the site template, including the menu system. I want to have a cleaner look for the popups, so I copied the index.php file out under a new name, cleanscreen.php and removed some of the module calls.

Therefore, I try calling my slightly modified php file as follows:

<a title="The 1980s" class="popup" href="http://www.mysite.org/cleanscreen.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:1980s">1980</a>

No joy, I get a 404 file not found. So, I include the full path thusly:


<a title="The 1980s" class="popup" href="http://www.mysite.org/templates/family_resource/cleanscreen.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54:1980s">1980</a>

Now, I get a "Restricted access" message instead.

I've checked the file access rights on the server and put them to 644 the same as the index.php script.

My question is two-fold.

1. Where do I tell the application to find my alternative php script (cleanscreen.php) without having to hard code the path?

2. How do I resolve the Restricted access error and have the page display?

Thanks for any assistance!