Delta Airlines Will Air Uncensored Sexual Content During In-Flight Entertainment
By Tess Farrand, Associate Content Editor
Delta Airlines will air versions of BOOKSMART and ROCKETMAN that include inappropriate content after complaints arose that the airline was filtering out some of the movies’ sexual content.
In-flight entertainment options often filter out gratuitous content, including sexual situations, excessive violence and strong foul language.
Movieguide® gave BOOKSMART a -4 for abhorrent content and two stars for quality while ROCKETMAN, an Elton John biopic, received a -3 for excessive content. Both movies feature gratuitous sexual content and language.
BOOKSMART’s director, Olivia Wilde, tweeted her disdain for Delta’s censorship.
I finally had the chance to watch an edited version of Booksmart on a flight to see exactly what had been censored. Turns out some airlines work with a third party company that edits the movie based on what they deem inappropriate. Which, in our case, is … female sexuality? 🤔
— olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) October 30, 2019
Delta affirmed in a statement that they value “diversity and inclusion” and will alter their parameters to fit those values.
Delta said in a statement, “We are reviewing the processes of our third-party editing vendors to ensure that they are aligned with our values of diversity and inclusion.”
Reportedly, Delta is working “immediately” to add back in the original same sex scenes after the uproar started last week.
Delta is “immediately putting a new process in place for managing content available through Delta’s entertainment,” a spokesman said in a statement to Fox News.
“Studios often provide videos in two forms: a theatrical, original version and an edited version. We selected the edited version and now realize content well within our guidelines was unnecessarily excluded from both films. We are working to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
“The studio has agreed to provide a special Delta edit that retains the LGBTQ+ love scenes in both ‘Booksmart’ and ‘Rocketman’ that will be on our flights as soon as possible,” the spokesman added.
This is not the first time an airline opted to show in-flight entertainment that was not suitable for children.
Movieguide® previously covered a similar story. See the video below,
