ABC has rejected an ad for The Weinstein Company’s multi-Oscar nominee Carol because the spot for the lesbian love story features images of Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara’s characters’ steamy love scene in the film, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
The network told TWC to “provide more coverage on both women in the scenes” in explaining the reason for its rejection.
The 60-second spot features a few seconds of Blanchett’s Carol and Mara’s Therese getting intimate, including shots of Carol undressing Therese and images of the two women kissing while naked in bed together.
The film, directed by Todd Haynes, has been nominated for six Oscars, with Blanchett and Mara landing best actress and supporting actress nominations, respectively. The Oscars will air live on ABC on Feb. 28.
The movie — an adaptation by Phyllis Nagy of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Price of Salt — follows a housewife (Blanchett’s Carol) and a department-store-clerk/aspiring photographer (Mara’s Therese) who begin an affair in New York in the ‘50s.
Just a few hours after the New York Post‘s Page Six reported that the ad was rejected due to its nude love scene, PR reps began promoting the clip to news outlets as a “Too Hot for TV Spot,” stating that the network refused to air it unless the company “provided more coverage on” the actresses.
TWC has previously promoted rejected ads for its films, including a commercial spot for Our Idiot Brother. Print ads for Kevin Smith’s Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks 2008 starrer Zack and Miri Make a Porno referenced the fact that the film’s original artwork was rejected by the MPAA, with text that accompanied drawings of stick figures reading “Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks made a movie so titillating that we can only show you these drawings.” Newspapers and TV stations also refused to carry some ads for the film, with others just referring to the movie as Zack and Miri, NPR reported at the time.
The Weinstein brothers’ former company Miramax also had issues with networks and newspapers rejecting or requesting alterations to ads for movies like R-rated satire The Pope Must Die.
ABC declined to comment about the Carol ad. Watch the rejected spot below.
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Jan. 29, 1:51 p.m. This story has been updated to include that ABC declined to comment and to correct the spelling of Mara’s character’s name.
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