The MPAA Stumbles Again....

As part of my research for last week's post about ratings, I signed up for the MPAA's new "Red Carpet Ratings Service", a weekly e-mail that they send out, geared toward parents, so that they know what objectionable content might be in the movies available in their local multiplex.

Yesterday, the first e-mail went out -- and they botched it, badly.

They accidentally put the wrong "rating reason" on both Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and on Lady In The Water.

In both cases, whoever was typing them up simply gave them the same "rating reasons" as the movie above it on the list. Unfortunately, both of those movies were very R; respectively, a movie called "Shadowboxer", and "Clerks 2".

So they reported Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest as being rated PG-13 for "strong graphic violence and sexuality, nudity, language and some drug use".

Lady in the Water was reported as being rated PG-13 for "Pervasive sexual and crude content, including aberrant sexuality, strong language and some drug material".

15 minutes later, they sent out the e-mail again. There was no sign that a correction had been made; you had to read it closely to see that Pirates of the Caribbean had been changed to the proper rating reason.

Lady in the Water hadn't.

So I sent them an amused e-mail, letting them know it was still wrong. About 30 minutes later, they finally sent out a correct list, though without the word "correction" on it anywhere.

So any mothers out there, who just printed out the first list -- and assumed that the next two were just duplicates -- now must believe that Pirates features a bunch of naked, horny, violent pot smokers.

And that Paul Giamatti must be buggering the narf.