Director Ron Howard has spoken out defending the continued use of the word ‘gay’, in his forthcoming movie. The Dilemma, in theatres January 14, not that you’ll necessarily want to watch any more, has been in the media and not because it looks any good (it stars Vince Vaughn, for crying out loud). It had been criticised for a joke in the film that used the word ‘gay’ as a negative. Howard didn’t back down in the face of criticism, which was his prerogative; if he did that for every film, nothing noteworthy would ever be released. The line about electric cars being ‘gay’ was cut from the trailer. To the delight of gay rights groups, who then prematurely trumpeted the same as a victory. CNN’s Anderson Cooper was the first to publicly object. Others followed. Their objections fell on deaf ears. The cinematic release will contain the material. Howard, 56, explained his decision in a Friday letter to L.A. Times’ The Big Picture blog. ‘I don’t strip my films of everything that I might personally find inappropriate,’ he writes. ‘[Vaughn's character] has a mouth that sometimes gets him into trouble and he definitely flirts with the line of what’s okay to say. He tries to do what’s right but ‘sometimes falls short. Who can’t relate to that?’ He adds that is was ‘appropriate’ to remove the scene from ads ‘in light of some events that surrounded the release of the trailer,’ referring to the recent, tragic spate of gay teen suicides. However, ‘The Dilemma is a comedy for grown-ups… not kids’.
