Ben Stiller managed to secure a PG-13 rating for his goofy new comedy Zoolander, even after the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board slapped his film with an R because of a wild orgy scene.
"I prefer to call it the love fest," Stiller, 35, told the Los Angeles Times.
In a profile for the Times, Stiller recounted his struggle with the MPAA ratings board, after it initially gave the Paramount film, which opens September 28, an R rating.
Zoolander stars Stiller as clueless, pretentiously pouting male model Derek Zoolander, who gets caught up in a political conspiracy. The film, cowritten and directed by Stiller, costars Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell and Stiller's own wife--erstwhile big-screen Marcia Brady, Christine Taylor.
But the ratings flap occurred over one scene in particular--a silly orgy supposedly involving Stiller, Wilson, Taylor, a Maori tribesman and a midget. (There was a goat, too, but that eventually ended up on the cutting-room floor.)
After getting the initial R rating, Stiller recut the scene five more times. But the MPAA refused to change it.
Finally, Stiller himself went before the MPAA's 12-member appeals board, which is made up of distributors and exhibitors. "It was like I was reliving my bar mitzvah," he told the Times.
But apparently, the face time worked. Stiller ultimately convinced the ratings board that the orgy--whoops, "love fest"--was more silly than sexy, so the MPAA backed off. It's now PG-13. But sorry, no goat.
For its part, the MPAA didn't return calls for comment on the Zoolander sex scene--or the goat.