Last week, social media users reported that at least one major US airline had removed the same-sex kiss scene from coming-of-age comedy Booksmart, screening an edited down version of the film as part of their in-flight entertainment.
News of the censorship traveled fast, with Variety raising the topic during red carpet interviews with the film's director, Olivia Wilde, and actresses Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein.
“I don’t understand it,” Wilde told Variety.
“There’s censorship airline to airline of films. There must be some kind of governing board to determine. We rated a certain way. If it’s not X rated, surely it’s acceptable on an airplane."
The actress, producer and director added: "There’s insane violence of bodies being ripped in half and yet a love scene between two women is censored from the film. It’s such an integral part of the character’s journey. My heart just broke. I don’t understand it. It’s confusing.”
It was soon reported that one of the airlines to cut the kissing scene, which depicts characters Amy and Hope drunkenly making out at a party before beginning to have sex, was Delta Airlines - and now they're taking moves to fix the problem.
“We are immediately putting a new process in place for managing content available through Delta’s in-flight entertainment," Delta spokesperson Emma Protis told The Hollywood Reporter.
As way of an explanation, Protis added: "Studios often provide videos in two forms: a theatrical, original version and an edited version. We selected the edited version and now realise content well within our guidelines was unnecessarily excluded from both films.
"We are working to make sure this doesn’t happen again."
"Thank you, @delta," Wilde tweeted in response.
Scenes depicting gay sex were also reinstated into Sir Elton John biopic Rocketman, which has already made waves around the world.
Back in June, John blasted a censored version of the film being screened in Russia as "cruelly unaccepting".
