LOS ANGELES - The latest controversy surrounding director Kevin Smith's comedy "Zack and Miri Make A Porno" involves several newspapers, TV stations and outdoor ad companies refusing to carry ads for the flick because of the word "porno" in the title.
The ads are the second batch for the film, which opens nationwide Oct. 31, after the original poster designs were nixed by the Motion Picture Association of America for being too sexual in nature.
The latest ads feature stick figure characters meant to represent Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, stars of the film.
About 15 newspapers and several TV stations and cable channels have declined to run the ads, Gary Farber, head of marketing for the Weinstein Co., told the Associated Press. Some viewers of Los Angeles Dodgers' games on Fox Sports complained about the ads, which led the team to request the commercials not be run.
Rina Cutler, Philadelphia deputy mayor for transportation, told the Associated Press the stick-figure posters were cute and clever but unacceptable for bus shelters where schoolchildren would see the word "porno."
"If they want to call the movie ‘Zack and Miri,' that's fine, but Zack and Miri cannot make a porno on my bus shelters," Cutler said.
Opening Oct. 31, "Zack and Miri" features Rogen and Banks as platonic best buddies and roommates who decide to make their own skin flick to dig themselves out of debt.
