Delta Restoring 'Booksmart' And 'Rocketman' Same-Sex Love Scenes After Censorship Slam

The airline is making the change after "Booksmart" director Olivia Wilde complained on social media.

Delta Air Lines has announced it’s restoring censored same-sex love scenes in the film versions of “Booksmart” and the Elton John biopic “Rocketman” that the airline shows on flights. The move comes after Delta was called out for bias on social media.

“The studio has agreed to provide a special Delta edit that retains the LGBTQ+ love scenes in both ‘Booksmart’ and ‘Rocketman’ that will be on our flights as soon as possible,” Delta said Saturday in a statement.

The company also said it’s “immediately” instituting a new process for managing content.

The change comes just days after “Booksmart” director Olivia Wilde complained on social media about edits that were in a version of her film she watched on a flight. A kissing scene between two female students, the words “vagina” and “genitals” and an animated sequence featuring naked dolls were among the cuts.

She had told Variety earlier about the cuts: “There’s insane violence [on films] of bodies being smashed in half and yet a love scene between two women is censored from the film. It’s such an integral part of this character’s journey. I don’t understand it. My heart just broke.”

Wilde didn’t name the airline — but others on social media did.

The day before Wilde’s tweet a Delta passenger complained about similar cuts to “Rocketman” that excluded love scenes and references to Elton John’s sexual orientation.

Delta, which uses edits by studios or third-party vendors, said restored scenes in both films were “unnecessarily excluded” because they didn’t violate the airline’s guidelines.

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