LONDON – U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 says it won’t cut a scene from a forthcoming episode of Glee featuring Gwyneth Paltrow performing a track by convicted pedophile Gary Glitter – despite condemnation by British children’s charities.
In the scene, Paltrow performs a provocative version of Glitter’s 1973 hit ‘Do You Wanna Touch Me’ while playing substitute teacher Holly Holiday taking a sex-education class.
The British glam rock singer was jailed in Vietnam for three years after sexually assaulting two girls aged ten and 11. He also served a prison sentence for possessing thousands of pornographic images of children and his music has since been shunned by broadcasters in the U.K..
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The use of the song in the popular cult teen show could make hundreds of thousands of pounds in royalties for the convicted child sex abuser.
And with lyrics like “Do you wanna touch me there? Yeah… Right or wrong, don’t it turn you on?” combined with Glitter’s conviction, children’s charities have criticized the show’s producers and the broadcasters airing it.
“It is regrettable that the producers did not consider the implication of using such a track in the context of a sex education class,” said a spokeswoman for Kidscape, which helps to support children who have experienced sexual exploitation.
“The fact that this song is linked to Gary Glitter, and the words themselves, make it wholly inappropriate,” the spokeswoman added.
But Channel 4 said it had decided not to cut the scene.
“The scene is editorially justified within the program and we do not seek to censor material in the proper context.”
20th Century Fox Television, the studio that produces Glee, declined comment.
