References to God Stricken from Oscar-Nominated Movie

On Tuesday, the Miramax movie "The Queen" was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture as well as best actress for Helen Mirren’s performance as Queen Elizabeth II. The film is a fictionalized account of the reactions of Britain’s royal family and Prime Minister Tony Blair during the days following the death of Princess Diana in 1997. The drama centers on the differing opinions of the old-fashioned Queen and the modern-spirited Blair. The movie has gotten rave reviews from all fronts ever since its premiere, and Mirren won a Golden Globe last week for her impressive work in the movie.

Many airline passengers around the world this month were delighted when they learned that they would be able to see the movie while they were on board, so they settled in to enjoy the film—only to be shocked when all references to God were bleeped out.

Although the knee-jerk reaction by most passengers was thinking that the film had been edited to be politically correct, the company that distributed the movie to airlines says that was not the case. Jeff Klein, president of Jaguar Distribution, said that the bleeping out of references to God wasn’t any kind of political statement—it was an unfortunate mistake.

It is common practice for airlines to work with studios to get copies of major films that have been censored to remove graphic scenes and strong profane language that would not be shown on network television, since the audience on an airplane is composed of all ages and not everyone wants to see the movie. But Klein explained that in this particular instance, the censorship went a little too far.

Klein said that a new employee at the California-based company had been instructed to edit out all profanities, including any blasphemy, before distributing the movie to Delta Air Lines, Air New Zealand, and other major carriers, all of whom have been showing the film on international flights. Klein was unaware of the embarrassing error until an Air New Zealand passenger watched the movie on a flight to London and then complained. The airline apologized to the passenger for having shown "the incorrect version of the film."

The new censor, who was inexperienced and obviously overzealous about doing a good job, mistakenly bleeped out every instance of a character uttering the word "God," instead of only bleeping the word out when used as part of a profanity. "A reference to God is not taboo in any culture that I know of," Klein said. "We excise only foul language, excessive violence, and nudity."

The word "God" was bleeped out a total of seven times in the in-flight version of the film. At one point in the film, passengers watching the movie heard one character say, "(Bleep) bless you, ma’am," when speaking to the queen.

Jaguar has been busily replacing all of the cassettes it sent out to its clients with copies of the original, unedited movie. Klein said that it was an honest mistake by an overzealous employee, and the editor is still working in their editing lab in Studio City, CA.

The one saving grace for the red-faced editor is that no one in the film ever says "God save the queen." Passengers from the United Kingdom might have been incited to stage an in-flight revolt had they heard anyone call on "bleep" to save the royal monarch.