VIDEO: Gay Joke Nixed From 'The Dilemma' Trailer

It wasn’t actually much of a dilemma in the end: after stringent objections from the public, Universal Studios has removed a gay joke from the trailer of the upcoming Ron Howard movie, The Dilemma, starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James as best friends, with Winona Ryder and Jennifer Connelly as their wives.

The trailer begins with a joke: “Electric cars are gay,” says Vaughn’s character. “I mean, not homosexual gay, but, you know, my parents are chaperoning the dance, gay.” Anderson Cooper called out the insensitive line on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in an appearance to discuss gay bullying after the recent suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi. Cooper said he was “shocked” to hear the line. “I just find those words, those terms—we’ve got to do something to make those words unacceptable because those words are hurting kids,” he said.

GLAAD chimed in soon after. “The use of the word ‘gay’ in this trailer as a slur is unnecessary and does nothing more than send a message of intolerance about our community to viewers,” they said. But according to Deadline Hollywood, an insider at Universal claimed that they had shown the trailer to “gay groups like GLAAD and gay executives here and gays in our marketing department and no one was offended and everyone had a positive response.”

GLAAD disagreed, saying that it had actually asked for the quote to be removed a month ago. Following this uproar, Universal has decided to remove the joke from the trailer. “The teaser trailer for The Dilemma was not intended to cause anyone discomfort. In light of growing claims that the introduction to the trailer is insensitive, it is being replaced,” they said in a statement. It is unclear whether the scene will remain in the movie. –AMY LEE