Watch out! 'The Dilemma's' 'gay joke' trailer is still playing in theaters

As you have probably heard by now, Universal Pictures has been forced to pull its trailer promoting upcoming comedy "The Dilemma" after it received a deluge of complaints from moviegoers -- most famously CNN's Anderson Cooper. The newsman and others say they were offended by a joke delivered by Vince Vaughn, who in the course of describing an electric car, says, "It's gay." But has Universal really pulled the trailer? I've received a raft of e-mails from readers around the country who have said that the trailer is still playing in movie theaters, even though Universal had promised last Friday that it would be pulled immediately.

What's going on here? As it happens, what Universal really said last week was that it would immediately post a new trailer online. Getting exhibitors to pull a trailer from brick-and-mortar movie theaters turns out to be a lot more complicated. Universal marketers say they have instructed the exhibition community to stop using the earlier trailer, but as a spokesperson put it, "That has to happen on a theater-by-theater basis, and it isn't the kind of thing that happens instantaneously. The new trailer will begin appearing in theaters this Friday and we believe at that time the old trailer will no longer appear anywhere."

The whole episode has been a PR nightmare for Universal, which still hasn't revealed whether the joke has been taken out of the film itself. The person most unhappy about the controversy has got to be "Dilemma" filmmaker Ron Howard, who must know by now that when he starts doing publicity for the movie later this year, he's going to be talking about controversy instead of comedy.

In fact, I suspect that the first question -- well, make that first five questions -- from every reporter with a functioning brain will be: So why was that joke in the movie? Was it in the script or was it a Vince Vaughn ad lib? Did you think it wasn't offensive? Will comedy be neutered if everyone gets to complain about every potentially offensive joke in every comedy that's made? And what do you have against electric cars, anyway? 

And just to add insult to injury, most of the people I've talked to this week think the new "Dilemma" trailer isn't as funny as the old one. But take a look and decide for yourself:  

 

Photo: Ron Howard at the Academy Awards in 2009 at the Kodak Theater. Credit: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Jack Scribe]

"Why was that joke in the movie?" is a valid question to ask Howard. From a guy who makes a point of marching a progressive tune, this was odd dialogue...not a joke, especially if you're a kid in school who's harrassed and bullied.

[Tim Carnie]

I thought the line was really funny and it should have been kept in the trailer AND the movie... I thought Universal should have told Anderson cooper to get a life instead of pulling the trailer (if indeed that's what they've done).

[jefcostello]

That's so gay that they have to pull the trailer. The first amendment is not gay, electric cars and censorship are.

[DH]

It's unbelievable that the PC bullies have that much pull anymore. There was nothing remotely untoward in the joke; merely the acknowledgement that people indeed do, in popular vernacular, use the word 'gay' in more than one way, and this was a funny way of outing that distinction. Don't forget that it wasn't that long ago that the gay community hijacked the word 'gay' from its then correct usage for their own purposes.

[James]

Good god people! get a life! As a gay man.. I say the word gay! He poked a joke at helen keller too and I dont see anyone freaking out.... ITS A MOVIE! its allowed to be offensive, or whatever.... because real life is offensive. Is there seriously nothing else going on in peoples lives than to bitch about this trailer. If you want to see offensive.. go watch family guy (which is HIlarious show by the way).

[JCinLA]

With Glaad, Luchino Visconti could not direct The Damned and Alfred Hitchcock North By Northwest today.
Groups like this are the enemy of arts. It does not matter if they are on the right or on the left. Same attitude.

[stan evans]

This is absurd. Nobody cares, LA Times. A "p.r. nightmare?" Hardly.
Much ado about a politically correct nothing? Certainly.
Quit pushing your agenda so hard please.
It gets really boring.

[Melissa]

@jefcostello, the First Amendment was not intended so that anyone could say anything they want whenever they want. It was intended so we'd have a free press without government censorship. The movie industry boils down to getting people to pay to see a movie, and if the trailer is pulled it's a business decision based on not offending people who might vote with their pocketbooks. The Constitution has very little to do with it.