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Outrage in Japan over censorship of THE COVE, Tom Cruise a.k.a. "Les Grossman" gets his own movie, and the latest on the greatest of gay cinema

THE COVE, an infamous, Oscar-winning American documentary on dolphin slaughtering in Japan (released in 2009), is continuing to ignite controversy over the right to free speech in Japan. IFC's blog reports that despite the film's wide release and popularity in the US, only three theaters in Japan agreed to show the film. All three theaters later canceled "after receiving a flood of angry phone calls and warnings of protests by nationalists, who have been screaming slogans outside the Tokyo office of the Japanese distributor in recent months." In response to the censorship, a group of cultural figures signed a counter-petition which reads, "This is a film that has been widely shown abroad. If the work, which is about Japan, cannot be shown in Japan, it only underlines the weakness of the freedom of speech in Japan." Among those leading the counter-petition is Hirokazu Kore-eda, the director of STILL WAKING and AFTER LIFE (more).


Cruise (left) and "Les Grossman" (right)

Tom Cruise's recent stint as a foul-mouthed character named "Les Grossman" at the MTV Movie Awards left audiences laughing and Paramount Pictures scrambling to offer him a film deal. Cruise will star in TROPIC THUNDER alongside Ben Stiller, who will also produce the movie. At the awards ceremony, "Les" danced onstage with Jennifer Lopez and criticized Robert Pattinson's hair, a highly successful comedic act that has many blogs predicting a Cruise "comeback" (more). Personally, I'd like to see Paramount make a film starring Tom Cruise as Tom Cruise in the 2005 Oprah Winfrey "couch incident", but then again, I can always watch that here.

SPORK, a highly-anticipated queer high school dance comedy directed by J.B. Ghuman, will be screened at the closing of Outfest 2010: The 28th Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, which will run from July 8th through the 18th. The festival's organizers have also announced that they will be screening Cheryl Dunye's THE OWLS and Javier Fuentes-León's UNDERTOW, which are among 147 films from 23 countries to be shown over the course of the eleven-day event. For more information on the Outfest, visit their official website here.

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