This Is Getting Out of Hand
From today's Studio Briefing:

Studio Asks Director To Retouch Historic Painting

Concerned about the recent backlash over the Janet Jackson incident and the FCC's apparent determination to enforce its decency rules to the letter, Sony Film Classics has asked director Michael Radford to digitally retouch a scene in his The Merchant of Venice in which a naked cupid is shown in a Veronese fresco, the London Financial Times reported today (Friday). The newspaper said that Radford had already anticipated the distributors' concerns by shooting extra scenes for television in which bare-breasted prostitutes who appear in the theatrical version are fully clothed for TV. But Radford said that he was perplexed when he received a request from the distributors to "paint-box the wallpaper" in one of the scenes. "I said, wallpaper, what wallpaper? This is the 16th century. People didn't have wallpaper." When it became clear that they were referring to the fresco, he said, he drew the line. "A billion dollars worth of Veronese great master's frescoes they want paint-boxed out because of this cupid's willy. It is absolutely absurd," he said.