Delta Air Lines is screening a version of the Oscar-nominated film Carol for passengers in its in-flight entertainment program which deletes kisses between Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett, according to a report in AfterEllen.
The censorship of the Todd Haynes film was first brought to their attention by comic Cameron Esposito:
Watched CAROL on a plane & they edited it so the main characters never even kiss. Booooooo.
Two women kissing is fine for planes.
— Cameron Esposito (@cameronesposito) August 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/cameronesposito/status/761015976452198400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
But apparently heterosexual BDSM is just fine:
BTW my seatmate totally watching something where Paul Giamatti was participating in BDSM w/ a lady but CAROL had no kissing!?
VERY MAD.
— Cameron Esposito (@cameronesposito) August 3, 2016
AfterEllen later received this explanation from Delta:
“There were two versions of this film that the studio makes available–one that is edited and one that is not edited. 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.”
The Weinstein Company has not responded to a request to comment.
