In the Wedding Crashers' little black book, "Fight the urge to tell the truth" is Rule Number 15.
But on Monday, New Line Cinema broke its film's party-hearty commandment, and listened to critics who urged it stop assisting those who would, even as a joke, fake the most hallowed of military honors.
In short, the print-your-own Purple Heart is history on the Wedding Crashers' Website.
"We understand the sensitivity regarding the medal and did not intend to make light of its significance in any way," the studio said in a statement.
An interactive feature that allows aspiring wedding crashers, in the spirit of the comedy's titular tomcats played by Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, to paste their faces into a snapshot of a helmet-wearing soldier--the better to "prove to her that you're a real hero"--remains.
A spokeswoman for Congressman John T. Salazar of Colorado, who decried the on-demand Purple Heart service, said the lawmaker was focused on the printable medals, not the so-called "hero photo," or the movie's own Purple Heart gag.
"It was just a small part of the movie," said Nayyera Haq of a scene where Wilson and Vaughn identify themselves as Purple Heart recipients. "[Salazar] just felt that the movie Website went over the line."
Salazar was not alone. The Vietnam Veterans of America criticized both the film and the Website. "It is unconscionable to me--and is an insult to everyone who has served the nation in the military--to trivialize the Purple Heart in this way," Thomas H. Corey, the group's president and medal recipient, said in a statement.
The Purple Heart is awarded to military personnel who are wounded or killed while under fire on the battlefield. It is, in the vernacular of the Wedding Crashers, a babe magnet.
On the site, the Purple Hearts were found in the "Crasher Kit" section--"everything you need for the optimum Wedding Crashing experience." Users were directed to click, print and wear in the name of "attention, admiration and plenty of free booze." Users were not advised to model the faux medals at their own risk, although perhaps they should have been.
"If any moviegoer takes the advice of the Wedding Crashers and [tries] to use fake Purple Hearts to get girls, they may wind up picking up an FBI agent instead," Salazar said in a statement.
The wearing of the Purple Heart and other Medal of Honors is against the law for those who have not earned the decorations. Even before Wedding Crashers opened, Salazar was at work on a bill that would demand prison time for medal-wearing offenders and make it a crime to do precisely what Wilson and Vaughn's characters do in the movie--falsely boast of being medal recipients. Billed the Stolen Valor Act, the congressman introduced the proposed legislation at a press conference last Friday.
There was no word, meanwhile, as to whether New Line planned to alter Wedding Crashers' Purple Heart scene for future formats (DVD, cable, etc.) The movie has been in theaters since July 15, grossing $84.3 million through Monday, per the box-office tracking site BoxOfficeMojo.com. The film seems a good bet to break $100 million.
And while there's no medal for raking in nine figures, at least Wedding Crashers would come by that honor honestly.