Interesting Links for 22-11-2011

[andrewducker]

• The spider that can process things too complex to fit in its brain all at once.
  (tags: intelligence spiders cognition )
• What the recent paper on statistical interpretations of quantum physics means. (I skipped the equations).
  (tags: science physics quantum )
• The cool twists of language
  (tags: language english )
• Should swearing be against the law

Comments

[bart_calendar]

Hollywood is weirdly prudish about sex still.

In Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 1 they were told they had to cut out the deflowering scene but could keep the birth scene if they wanted a PG-13 instead of an R even though the birth scene was really much more graphic than Bella losing her virginity.

The reasoning they were given was that seeing a painful, bloody consequence of sex was fine for teenage girls, but seeing a teenage girl really enjoy losing her virginity and being the sexual aggressor would send the wrong message to teenage girls.

Of course, they'll just include the sex scene in the DVD, but still...

(The director and Kristen Stewart have both said that one thing that bothered the MPAA the most about the sex scene was that Bella was doing more "enthusiastic thrusting" than Sparkleboy was.

An even weirder story was with the second Herbie movie which they wanted a PG and not a PG-13 for. While there was no sex or nudity in the film at all, Lindsay Lohan had grown up between the two movies and had much larger breasts than in the first film. The MPAA thought that just the existence of her breasts (while fully clothed) was enough to bump it up to PG-13, so they had to use CGI to digitally make her boobs smaller in every frame.

[andrewducker]

I'm not sure which of those is the most ridiculous.

They're both despicable though.

[bart_calendar]

Interestingly, this seems to be the point where LiLo started to begin to go crazy. I've always wondered if there was a connection (it's certainly when she started to do everything possible to get out of her Disney contract - particularly since there was a morals/image clause in there that she would have violated if she'd admitted she was lesbian or displayed publicly that she was in a lesbian relationship.)

[alitheapipkin]

Having heard a bit about Breaking Dawn, I was wondering how they were going to film it without it being an 18/R rating, I might know it would be because a horrific birth scene is a good anti-sex message for girls :(

And as for large breasts being unsuitable for children to see even clothed... Utterly appalling :(

[bart_calendar]

To be fair her breasts are spectacular.

I think that they were worried that dads would take their kids to herbie 2 for the wrong reasons.

[supergee]

I seem to recall a recent story of a male actor being CGI'd down to more modest endowment.

[brixtonbrood]

The BBFC on the other hand let the sex scene pass for a 12A certificate partly on the grounds that "the scene marks the culmination of a relationship that has been developing over the previous three films", which is rather sweet.

I don't know whether the British and US cuts are the same.

[bart_calendar]

In the US version, apparently, they kiss and then it fades out and when it fades back in they are under the covers and the bed has been broken, but that's all you get.

[erindubitably]

Are you sure? Because I've read some reviews that I'm pretty sure are from US-viewers and they definitely reference the sex scene...

[bart_calendar]

Yes. I think Roger Ebert is a pretty reliable source.

"Yes, the most eagerly awaited deflowering in recent movie history takes place entirely off-screen."

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111116/REVIEWS/111119983

[erindubitably]

Fair enough. I guess the reviews I read were very good at using their imaginations.

[bart_calendar]

Kristen Stewart has also bitched in several interviews about it - because she's mad that they singled out her "enthusiastic thrusting" and not his.

[andrewducker]

I heard that it had been trimmed somewhat:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a348145/twilight-breaking-dawn-sex-scene-cut-for-12a.html

Was there later news?