On Thursday afternoon, After Ellen reported that Todd Haynes’ acclaimed ‘50s melodrama Carol—which centers on a lesbian romance and stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara—has been recut for Delta Air Lines to exclude its primary sex scene as well as any other moments of physical intimacy.* According to Delta, the film’s studio the Weinstein Company cut an edited version and a nonedited version of the film for the airline, the latter of which did not meet Delta’s “guidelines.” (The film’s writer, Phyllis Nagy, has pointed out that other airlines such as United and American have chosen the original theatrical cut.)
It’s unclear why the Weinstein Company would present Delta with such a conservative edit. But regardless of whether the studio could have done more to preserve Carol’s artistic integrity, this controversy compels greater scrutiny of the “guidelines” that airlines such as Delta follow. In a particularly vivid example, comic Cameron Esposito noted that she was watching the censored Carol on Delta as her seatmate watched “something where Paul Giamatti was participating in BDSM”—presumably Billions, one of the many relatively graphic cable series and films that Delta and other airlines carry without similar restrictions.
*Correction, Aug. 5, 2016: This post originally misstated the name of Delta Air Lines.
