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Caged-up Kim Bauer Courts Controversy
The producers of the upcoming horror film Captivity have agreed to take down Los Angeles billboard and New York City taxicab ads featuring female lead Elisha Cuthbert in gratuitous stages of torture, following a flurry of complaints from parents and offended women. "We neither saw nor approved this [campaign] before it was posted," a Lions Gate Entertainment exec tells Reuters. "Once aware of the materials and the reaction... we immediately asked [distribution partner] After Dark to remove the billboards."
Contending that Captivity — in which Cuthbert awakens to find herself held in a cellar — is "also about female empowerment," the After Dark CEO says, "For the audience it's made for, it's satisfying. I'm sure that's not the same audience that's complaining about the billboards."
The MPAA, which could now withhold a rating from the film, has yet to comment on how it will respond to the ads, which are in defiance of its rules and regulations.
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Mar 20, 2007 10:06 AM
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This sounds about as "empowering" as the new Pussycat Dolls tv show.
Either way, this definitely isn't Elisha Cuthbert's year. Supposedly Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around" is about her.
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Mar 20, 2007 10:33 AM
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this definitely isn't Elisha Cuthbert's year. Supposedly Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around" is about her.
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Mar 20, 2007 10:46 AM
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Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Matt.
Here's what Wikipedia says about it:
"popular rumor suggests that "What Goes Around..." is about Timberlake's lifelong friend Trace Ayala and his relationship with Elisha Cuthbert. Cuthbert apparently cheated on Ayala, which caused them to break off their engagement. The song is also rumoured to be about the relationship the two developed while on the set of the TV series 24."
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Mar 20, 2007 11:12 AM
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Anyhoo, if ANTM ads weren't PC enough to be on buses, then this should be taken down too.
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Mar 20, 2007 12:49 PM
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That's hilarious, maurine! In all seriousness though, those posters were pretty unbelievable, I remember thinking "I can't believe you can show that on a billboard in public!" when I first saw them. I'm glad to know our society at least has a limit to how far we'll let the tasteless horror genre pervade our pop culture.
To be fair, I've seen plenty of racy fashion ads on billboards that have elicited the same reaction, and they make the ANTM ads seem pretty tame.
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Mar 20, 2007 3:00 PM
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