A same-sex love scene was cut from a movie on Delta flights. So was the word 'lesbian.'

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Morning Mix
A same-sex love scene was cut from a movie on Delta flights. So was the word ‘lesbian.’

By Teo Armus
Oct. 31, 2019 at 7:04 a.m. EDT

Editor’s note: This story contains spoilers for “Booksmart” and “Rocketman.”

Near the end of the 2019 film “Booksmart,” a tense bathroom kiss between Amy, the film’s timid, justice-minded lead, and Hope, her high school’s “basic hot girl,” turns into more: Hidden from a house party outside, they engage in a hookup that’s been hailed as an unusually frank, on-screen portrayal of sex between two women.

Link to tweet

But watch “Booksmart” on a Delta Air Lines flight, and the R-rated high school comedy will skip right through that scene. Reportedly, the in-flight cut also passes over the words “vagina” and “genitals,” an exchange about a lesbian sex act, talk of a urinary tract infection, and a bit in which Amy and her friend watch porn in the back of a ride-share.

Amid calls of censorship, those edits — made by an outside company that works with the airline — are drawing the ire and confusion of passengers and Hollywood insiders alike, in what’s at least the fourth instance when same-sex romance has been stripped from an in-flight Delta movie in recent years.

“If it’s not X-rated, surely it’s acceptable on an airplane,” director Olivia Wilde said at an awards show on Sunday night. “There’s insane violence of bodies being smashed in half [in other movies], and yet a love scene between two women is censored from the film. It’s such an integral part of this character’s journey. I don’t understand it."

In a statement to The Washington Post early Thursday, Delta said its “content parameters do not in any way ask for the removal of homosexual content from the film.”

But it’s not the first time the airline has come under fire for the situation — or, for that matter, even the only time this week. On Tuesday, other Delta passengers protested that the in-flight cut of “Rocketman,” the Elton John biopic released this year, was missing sex scenes and even a chaste kiss between two men.
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Teo Armus is a reporter for The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. He was previously a reporter at the Charlotte Observer, where he covered race, immigration and identity issues. Follow https://twitter.com/teoarmus

[mr_lebowski]

1. Where is it that one watches these movies?

Is there a screen on the back of the seat in front of you? Or do you just watch them on your laptop or phone?

I could see the case being made that explicit content (whether same-sex or hetero) be removed from all in-flight movies, considering that basically unless you're watching on a small screen that you could shield from others (not easy on a plane), the opportunity exists for children to watch ... what you're watching.

But to only censor same-sex content ... is pretty bullshit ... if that's in fact what they are doing.

I'll await more facts before I pass judgement on these particular complaints.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Screen on the back of the seat in front of you. And you need headphones, which they provide,

to listen.

[mr_lebowski]

3. Well ... then I have no problem with removing explicit content ...

Provided it's not strictly same-sex content they're removing ... though I suspect they don't remove hetero kisses ... I don't know that for a fact.

I quite don't understand removing words, though ... but I'd expect at minimum if they remove 'vagina' ... that they'd also remove 'penis' ...

Again, I'll await further facts ...

[nilram]

4. From the article

The same was true of previous edits made for Delta: 2015?s “Carol” kept a heterosexual kiss involving a minor male character but cut out the love scene between its two main characters, the Advocate reported, while “Bad Moms” ditched its woman-on-woman kiss but not its woman-on-man hookup.

(emphasis added)

[abqtommy]

5. I see/hear censorship in programs that are broadcast on my cable tv on a daily basis.

I don't feel that I need to be protected from certain language/profanity or scenes that could be distressing. (portraying sex.violence or both) since I consider myself to be perfectly capable of
deciding what's good or not for me to see and hear.

I've traveled extensively by air and I've observed that aircraft passengers are typically more excitable as a group than most groups of people I've come in contact with. Due to that I can't fault a company
for attempting to maintain calm among people by using some censorship. I remember well that
one crying baby and one anti-smoking activist nearly ruined one flight I was on. Most of us passengers on that flight got fairly worked up and the flight crew worked hard to establish a happy outcome.

So let's all take deep breaths, take our dramamine (it acts as a tranquilizer) and if we miss out on
anything we can be happy that we're on a flight that's going to make a safe landing.

[Initech]

6. That's nothing, watch the edited version of Mallrats.

They literally cut out every reference to marijuana in the movie, and considering that it's a Kevin Smith movie, there's a lot of references to marijuana in that movie.

[Eugene]

7. Delta airline will restore LGBTQ scenes to Booksmart and Rocketman

Source: The Guardian

Delta airline will restore LGBTQ scenes to Booksmart and Rocketman

Actor Olivia Wilde, who directed Booksmart, called out the airline on Twitter for showing edited versions of her film

Oliver Milman
@olliemilman
Sat 2 Nov 2019 15.29 GMT
Last modified on Sat 2 Nov 2019 15.31 GMT

The airline Delta has said it will start showing fuller versions of the films Booksmart and Rocketman that were controversially edited to remove scenes involving LGBTQ love and sexuality.

“We are working to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” a spokeswoman said.

Delta faced criticism after it emerged it was showing films with edits that seemingly targeted gay and lesbian sexuality.

The actor Olivia Wilde said a version of the movie Booksmart, which she directed, omitted a lesbian sex scene, a female masturbation scene, the words “vagina” and “genitals” and an animated sequence in which the two main characters turn into naked dolls.

She also pointed out that the word “fuck” was not cut from the scene in which “vagina” was muted.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/02/delta-airline-lgbtq-booksmart-rocketman-olivia-wilde