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Delta’s edited version of “Carol” has no same-sex kissing

Delta's decision to show the edited version of Carol has caused outrage

By on August 5, 2016

Carol: Rooney Mara & Cate Blanchett
Carol: Rooney Mara & Cate Blanchett

Delta is the latest subject of the internet’s collective rage, after it was revealed that the airline is showing lesbian drama Carol with all of the kissing scenes removed.

Indeed, the edit is so strict that some people are unaware that stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara even lock lips in the film. Comedian Cameron Esposito brought the censoring to everyone’s attention after she tweeted her outrage, After Ellen reports.

Okay, so perhaps Delta just has really strict guidelines as to what can appear on their planes?

Nope.

After she received numerous tweets from friends that they had only seen the film on planes, Esposito tweeted the most stunning part of all of this: some people genuinely think Carol has no kissing.

Without kissing, Carol becomes something very different.

Delta responded to Esposito’s complaints with the typically robotic response of a large corporation on Twitter, which prompted After Ellen to reach out to Delta directly.

“There were two versions of this film that the studio makes available–one that is edited and one that is not edited,” Delta’s Corporate Communications representative Liz Savadelis said. “The edited version removes two explicit scenes that do not meet our guidelines. The edited version also removes all kissing. The other version is fully non-edited and includes the kissing, but it also includes the explicit scenes. Unfortunately, Delta doesn’t have the rights to edit the movie, or to make the decision to keep some of that content (e.g. kissing).

“Because of the explicit scenes included in the non-edited version, we chose the edited version. This is consistent with what is available to all airlines.”

While it doesn’t explain the BDSM scene with Paul Giamatti (we’re guessing it was Billions and not a Delta-exclusive sex tape), it does explain why Delta’s version had no kissing at all. However, though the edited version was made “available to all airlines,” thankfully not all of them took it. Phyllis Nagy, who wrote the screenplay for Carol, took to Twitter to point out two other options for fliers who want to enjoy the film unedited.

The Weinstein Company, which distributed the film, refused to comment on the heavy-handed (and, frankly, homophobic) editing, or why there wasn’t a version which only omitted the sex scene between Blanchett and Mara.

As Esposito points out, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of kissing:

Carol (review): Exquisite, masterful and thoughtful

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