I’m traveling this week so there will be very few posts.  Here is the piece I wrote for the Women’s Media Center on the date-rape controversy surrounding Observe and Report.

Rarely does a film incite responses as diametrically opposed as the new “dark comedy” starring Seth Rogen and Anna Faris, Observe and Report.  The controversy stems from a date-rape scene included provocatively in the trailer, which exposed a cultural nerve and got the film noticed, to say the least.

Despite the old adage of all press is good press, the controversy looks like it might have had a negative affect on the box office in this instance.  Recent Seth Rogen comedies have done well, including last summer’s Pineapple Express, which opened at $23 million, and 2007’s Superbad and Knocked Up, opening at $33 million and $30 million respectively.  But Observe and Report, which got mixed and polarizing reviews, opened at just $11 million and decreased 62 percent in its second weekend.

Read full piece here: Reflections on the Observe and Report Date-Rape Controversy

• Filed Under:  
• Social Issues, Media/Marketing, Entertainment, Film, Feminism

• Tags:
• Film
• rape
• seth rogen

View Original Post at womenandhollywood.com