Tinseltown cares. Really, it does. Not only did the entertainment industry raise over $150 million from hard-working Americans for the victims of Sept. 11 - surely with more benefits and charity functions to come- but it has also enacted measures to eliminate any reminder of the recent terrorists attacks in movies and television programming. It has truly shown how sensitive it is to you, the viewer, and your, the viewer's, pocketbook.
The entertainment community has demonstrated to what great lengths it is willing to go in order to shield the American people from distasteful images reminiscent of recent attacks. It has done its part.
I suggest that you, as the viewer, do yours. Turn on the tube. Cram in as much T.V. time as possible. Go to a movie whether you think you'll like it or not. If the patriotic, star-studded telethon wasn't enough motivation, I've compiled a list of the many changes the softies in the entertainment industry have made especially for their adoring public.
In television:
American Movie Classics has dropped the distasteful documentary Backstory: The Towering Inferno in favor of a more benign making of the comedy Big.
The WB pre-empted the movie The Craft with more family- friendly series episodes.
Fox had the presence of mind to cancel the scheduled Independence Day, which includes scenes of mass destruction in Washington and Manhattan, and replaced it with the ever-lovable Mrs. Doubtfire.
ABC has pulled the terrorist plot driven The Peacemaker.
Even Conan O'Brien has been covering its Manhattan skyline backdrop with a curtain until a replacement can be built.
In movies:
The iconic Twin Towers were swiftly edited out of a number of sweeping shots in Zoolander, which opened last week in theaters.
Miramax has cut the skyscrapers from the opening credits of next month's Serendipity; a frothy romantic comedy set in a fairy-tale pretty Manhattan.
Edward Burns's New York-set romance slated for release in September was postponed. Promotional posters, which featured shots of the World Trade Center, were also recalled.
Dream Works' The Last Castle, scheduled for an Oct. 12 release, in which Robert Redford's character, a disgraced general, leads a revolt in a military prison, is also reportedly being considered inappropriate for release at this time.
Widely advertised ensemble piece Big Trouble, Touchstone's movie based on a Dave Barry novel, is also postponed from its original September release date. The film, starring Tim Allen and Rene Russo, makes fun of airport security being so lax that a nuclear bomb is smuggled on a commercial airliner. The ensuing hijacking and Barry's biting criticism of the competence of airport security personnel was thought to be tasteless in light of recent events.
Warner Brothers' police drama Training Day has been postponed from its initial September release date.
The Oct. 5 scheduled release of action picture Collateral Damage, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a firefighter seeking revenge against Colombian terrorists, will too be moved to a later date.
Next year's must-see movie Spiderman has withdrawn its trailer, which includes Tobey Macguire as the webbed hero climbing a web between the Towers. Promotional posters that included the World Trade Center have also been pulled. Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel Entertainment are set to meet in the coming weeks to discuss the movie now in post-production. The film is scheduled for May 2002 release, but alterations to the Manhattan skyline featured prominently in the movie could take months.
Jackie Chan is rewriting his latest movie project, tentatively titled Nosebleed,in which Chan was to star as a World Trade Center window washer who battles terrorists bent on destroying the Statue of Liberty.
Producers have halted plans for the Tick Tock, the new Jennifer Lopez and Samuel Jackson movie. Previously scheduled to begin shooting in December, the story involved Lopez as an FBI agent investigating a series of bombings in Los Angeles. Jackson is to play an amnesiac who wakes up to find himself the prime suspect. J. Lo fans, don't despair - shooting is reportedly only delayed until next June.
Will Smith's Men in Black sequel, currently in production and set for release on July 4, 2004, is being rewritten to feature the Chrysler Building instead of the Twin Towers in the climactic ending to the film.
A planned modern-day retelling of the War of the Worlds has been shelved. Pendragon Pictures has halted the project, which was about to start shooting in Seattle. Initial scenes were to have been of building collapsing and cars burning during the Martian invasion sequence.
