Straighten Up, Cowpokes
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Dec. 11 2008, Published 1:07 p.m. ET
Italian state television cut homosexual scenes between Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall from the film Brokeback Mountain, causing accusations of censorship from gay rights groups. (And curiosity from us: how long is the edited film? A minute?)
Activists claim that RAI TV wouldn't have cut the scenes had they involved characters which were straight, spurring some politicians to request that the situation be discussed in parliament.
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"I believe it was preventive censorship," said gay rights advocate and former lawmaker Vladimir Luxuria. Luxuria said that cutting the important scenes was "like showing the Mona Lisa without its head."
RAI claimed that it aired the edited version accidentally (yeah, that sounds plausible) and promised to show the full version soon.