Delta Is Adding Gay Sex Scenes Back to 'Rocketman' and 'Booksmart'

Delta Air Lines will begin showing new inflight versions of Booksmart and Rocketman after facing backlash for censorship of gay and lesbian sex scenes.

In addition, Delta spokesperson Emma Protis told The Hollywood Reporter that the company will "immediately" begin putting a new process in place for managing content available through Delta's in-flight entertainment.

"Studios often provide videos in two forms: a theatrical, original version and an edited version," Protis said. "We selected the edited version and now realize content well within our guidelines was unnecessarily excluded from both films. We are working to make sure this doesn't happen again."

The response passes the buck, which the airline has a history of doing when this issue has come up for various films over the past few years.

Rocketmanis a biographical musical film based on the life of musician Sir Elton John. The film has been praised for being the first major studio film to feature a gay sex scene in which Elton (played by Taron Egerton) and his manager, John Reid (Richard Madden), have a steamy... to put it lightly... time in bed together, although you would have missed the moment in the version that was streaming on Delta flights as recently as October 29.

Booksmartwas the directorial debut for Olivia Wilde, it shows a scene in which the film's lead character Amy kisses a girl named Hope before the two proceed to engage in a hookup in what's been hailed as a "frank depiction of queer sexuality." That scene, as well as some verbiage like "masturbation" and "vagina" in other parts of the film was cut, Wilde spoke out about the edits.

"What we discovered is that on certain planes, this film has been edited in a very slanted manner," she toldVulture. "That there are certain words and certain scenes that are cut out, that aren't the swear words. It's 'fuck, fuck, fuck' all day, but they removed the word 'masturbation,' they removed the word 'vagina.' So I'm just curious what a woman is supposed to take from that. That it's an obscenity. That it's inappropriate."

At the time, Delta blamed a third-party service and said that their in-house "content parameters do not in any way ask for the removal of homosexual content" from films. It reflected a similar approach they had used before: In 2017, after criticism for airing censored versions of Bad Moms and Carol, Delta blamed the edits on the studios according to The Advocate. The studios, in turn, blamed the edits on the airline.

In their new statement, Protis said that Annapurna Pictures and Paramount Pictures will be providing a "special Delta edit" to include the same-sex love scenes in bothBooksmart and Rocketman. According to The Holllywood Reporter the airline already has titles including same-sex romance scenes such as Gentleman Jack, Imagine Me and You and Moonlight on their flights.

Wilde thanked the airline on Twitter.

RELATED | Rocketman's Gay Content Removed From Delta's In-Flight Versions