Author Topic: Italian TV nixes BBM kiss scene as well  (Read 2965 times)

Offline Kd5000

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Italian TV nixes BBM kiss scene as well
« on: December 10, 2008, 06:45:49 pm »
as gay sex scene.  Gay rights advocates say it's censorship and if it was a straight sex scene or kiss, it would not have been censored.  And I thought we in the Puritan USA were uptight when BRAVO edited out a few scenes.
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Italian TV nixes "Brokeback" sex scene
Italian state television cut a gay sex scene from Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," as well as a sequence showing the lead characters kissing when it aired the movie, drawing allegations of censorship from gay rights groups.

Activists protested that RAI TV would never have dropped similar scenes had they involved a heterosexual couple, and politicians called for the incident to be discussed in parliament. RAI said it had aired the cut version by mistake.

"I don't believe it was an oversight, I believe it was preventive censorship," said gay rights advocate and former lawmaker Vladimir Luxuria. In an interview with La Repubblica daily, Luxuria said cutting the key scenes was "like showing the Mona Lisa without its head."

RAI said in a statement the film had arrived from the distributor already cut so that it could be shown in prime time. When it was decided to air it late at night, no one checked for the uncut version, it said. RAI did not detail which scenes had been cut, but pledged to show the complete movie soon.

Some commentators and politicians were not satisfied, saying the cuts would not have been justified even if the film had been aired earlier.

In overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Italy, skimpily dressed women are a fixture on many TV programs, while scenes of sex and violence in movies are generally left untouched.

Massimo Gramellini, a top commentator for La Stampa daily, wrote in a front-page editorial: "I would like to understand why a kiss between two gays ... should offend our sensibilities more than scenes of heterosexual sex or bloodthirsty violence."

Photo: Getty Images

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://hottopics.gay.com/2008/12/italian-tv-nixe.html

Offline SFEnnisSF

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