Last week Booksmart director Olivia Wilde discovered the version of her film Delta Airlines was showing its customers was conspicuously absent its same-sex love scenes. And she was not happy. After taking to Twitter with a thread of righteous fury, the airline has announced, as per Deadline, that they’ve restored those scenes, as well as ones in another LBGTQ film, the Elton John biopic Rocketman.
Wilde discovered the edits after a fan tweeted her about watching Booksmart on a flight and noticing a key scene, between two female characters, was absent. Wilde wound up later watching this censored version herself. She noticed that, in addition to the scene, the words “vagina” and “genitals,” as well as a masturbation scene, were AWOL.
Meanwhile, viewers who watched Rocketman on the airline remarked that it was missing a brief love scene between Taron Egerton’s Elton and his manager/lover played by Richard Madden.
Delta responded to the fury by claiming they didn’t remove the queer scenes themselves, and that their films were acquired via a third-party vendor. They also noted that they were “reviewing the processes” of said vendor, “to ensure that they are aligned with our values of diversity and inclusion.” They claim the versions viewable on their flights now show the full, non-elided versions of these two films.
When Wilde discovered the cuts in her film, she asked, ““What message is this sending to viewers and especially to women? That their bodies are obscene? That their sexuality is shameful?”
You can read Wilde’s full, original thread beginning here.
(Via Deadline)
