I'm sure all Reel News readers will have enjoyed watching the ads on the telly for Inglourious Basterds. It seems that you're not allowed to say "bastards" during any commercial break and that, before the watershed, you can't display the word, even if it is hideously misspelled. Hence the attempts to get us to see something called "Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious".
Now news reaches us of an even more extreme example of promotional bowdlerisation. Tesco and other major retailers have been stocking DVDs of Lesbian Vampire Killerswith the first word of the title covered by a warning sticker.
This is a really weird one. The good folk at Momentum, the picture’s distributor, claim the shops demanded that the stickers be placed over the disgusting, disgusting word.
“We were asked by a number of retailers to cover up certain parts of the cover, and we complied with their requests,” a spokesperson said.
Yet Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Borders, all of which are carrying the censored version, deny requesting that the word “lesbian” be obscured. A representative from Tesco did admit that they asked for a cover with less cleavage, but went on to say: “We did not suggest that they [Momentum] amend the wording.”
At any rate, the good news is that The Ticket has no problem with either word.