Sex Sells--Sometimes

Here's a little Hollywood P.R. secret. When a movie is mediocre, the studio's publicity department will leak news that some sex scene in the dud is outrageous or looks "for real." (This was the case with Miramax's bomb "Reindeer Games." P.R. staff contacted gossip columnists to report that an oral sex scene between Ben Affleck and Charlize Theron looked so real that it may have actually happened. Despite this ploy, the movie tanked.) Now comes Martin Scorsese's "The Departed." I've heard more about a sex scene with Jack Nicholson, two women, and a strap-on than about the movie's plot. This news does not bode well. For Scorsese's sake, I hope that this "leak" did not come from Warner Brothers' P.R. department. The director really does deserve an Oscar at some point.