"Booksmart"
photo: Annapurna Pictures

Booksmart is a raunchy buddy comedy featuring two best friends who are women — finally!

After its premiere, it received tons of praise from film critics, feminists, and activists like Malala Yousafzai. Olivia Wilde made her directorial debut with the movie, and Beanie Feldstein starred. What made it so special was the unashamed discussion surrounding female sexuality, but recently fans noticed that, for that reason, it was being censored on some airlines. 

Wilde took to social media to slam the airline in-flight entertainment companies that were censoring critical portions of the movie for featuring LGBTQ and women-empowering moments. The hypocritical nature of the censorship meant that the word "vagina" was cut out, while multiple f-bombs were left in. 

Olivia Wilde made her directorial debut with the film, so its integrity means a lot to her.

A mini Booksmart reunion occurred at the pre-Oscars Governor's Awards Ceremony. Wilde captioned this photo with members of her cast, "If you felt an earthquake tonight it was just me hugging them too tightly . #booksmartreunion #governorsawards." It's clear from various interviews that the film meant a lot for everyone who was a part of it. So, of course if crucial elements were censored for no good reason, then Wilde wouldn't stand for it. 

Though Wilde didn't call out the airline by name, many determined that Delta was airing the sanitized version. 

Olivia Wilde learned about the omissions from a fan who had tried to watch the film on an airplane's in-flight entertainment. Wilde responded to the tweet and called it a "bummer." Shortly after, she took matters into her own hands and had a full-on rant, understandably. 

Wilde's tweet began, "I finally had the chance to watch an edited version of Booksmart on a flight to see exactly what had been censored. Turns out some airlines work with a third party company that edits the movie based on what they deem inappropriate. Which, in our case, is  ...  female sexuality?" 

She continued, "First of all, in order to select this movie from hundreds of options, you have to agree to a 'parental advisory' that warns you that viewer discretion is advised. Once you click 'proceed,' it seems like you’ve agreed to watch the movie in its original form. Instead  ... "

All of the scenes that were omitted were ones involving women's bodies and sexuality. 

Wilde revealed that the word vagina was muted or cut out of many scenes, and Molly's (Beanie Feldstein) description of scissoring, masturbation, and having a UTI were all cut. Plus, their "Oscar clip" of porn playing through the speakers of a teacher's car was censored, and the animated sequence with topless doll characters was also taken out. 

Most notably, however, was that Amy's (Kaitlyn Dever) love scene with Hope (Diana Silvers) was also removed. Wilde explained that it was a crucial plot point and moment of character development.

The worst part is that other profanities stayed intact for the film. 

"By the way, they didn’t cut ANY cursing. Every '[redacted]' is heard loud and clear, sometimes in the same scene where they muted 'vagina.' They showed George (elegantly) deep-throating a microphone but couldn’t stomach a consensual love scene between two women," Wilde continued in her Twitter thread. 

Following the outcry over the ridiculous censorship of the film, Delta released a statement obtained by Variety, "Delta's content parameters do not in any way ask for the removal of homosexual content from the film. We value diversity and inclusion as core to our culture and our mission and will review our processes to ensure edited video content doesn't conflict with these values."

The third-party service that does the in-flight entertainment is creating the problem.

A spokesperson later explained to Variety that it's up to a third-party company that cuts inappropriate material from movies to show on planes. Wilde called out the airlines for working with companies that delete LGBTQ content, because obviously it's not inappropriate to see two women or two men kiss when heterosexual kisses are considered totally PG. 

"I urge every airline, especially those who pride themselves on inclusivity, to stop working with this third party company, and trust the parental advisory warning to allow viewers to opt out if they choose," Wilde concluded her Twitter rant with an appropriate gif from the movie. In her demanding way, Molly states, "Make. It. Stop."