Every now and then real world events collide with the manufactured realities of Hollywood films. Casablanca got a boast at the box office when its 1943 release happened to coincide with a highly publicized meeting between Allied commanders Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt in the titular city. On the other end of the spectrum, promotional materials for 2002’s Spider-Man which featured the World Trade Center were hastily recalled in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
This past summer, a short scene involving La Toya Jackson was snipped out of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno just days before its release, following the death of Jackson’s pop star brother Michael Jackson two weeks earlier. And given the scene’s dependence on La Toya’s relationship with her brother, it is easy to see why the scene was trimmed. While stories circulated that the scenes would not be restored to the film, it was never precluded that the sequence wouldn’t appear as a DVD extra, which is exactly what has happened. The scene, which we have as a preview of the upcoming DVDand Blu-rayrelease, is indeed a special feature on the home release scheduled for November 17.