A little too peppered with controversy, "Breakfast at Tiffany's" has been taken off the menu and replaced by "Ratatouille" at the city's free Screen on the Green movie series tonight.
The film series impresario, Sacramento Vice Mayor Steve Cohn, had planned to serve the 1961 classic starring Audrey Hepburn, but he was flayed by Asian American activists who called the film racist for Mickey Rooney's stereotypical depiction of the buffoonish Mr. Yunioshi.
Cohn had apologized Thursday and said he would bleep out Rooney's scenes and use the edited version as a teaching moment.
But Friday afternoon, Cohn announced he'd scrapped "Breakfast at Tiffany's" after the film distribution company agreed to ship overnight a copy of "Ratatouille," a more wholesome, less heated entree.
"The bottom line is, we can't really edit out the offending scenes," Cohn said. "It turns out there are four or five of them, and to take them out would screw up the movie entirely."
Cohn said he and his movie selection committee never intended "to create controversy, to make political statements, or to be on the avant-garde of the movie world, let alone to offend significant members of our community."
"There are plenty of other forums for people to get into political or artistic discussions," Cohn said. "But that's not what this is about – we're trying to find entertainment that reaches across all ages and backgrounds.
"Obviously, we missed the mark with our choice of 'Breakfast at Tiffany's.' "
While a number of activists praised Cohn's decision to toss "Breakfast," Jerry Chong said he had mixed feelings.
"We had an opportunity to educate an entire generation" by using the movie to illustrate hateful stereotypes, said Chong, legal counsel for CAPITAL (Council of Asian Pacific Islanders Together for Advocacy and Leadership).
"Breakfast at Tiffany's" starred Hepburn as Holly Golightly, a country girl turned call girl in New York.
"Ratatouille," rated PG, is an animated film featuring rats in the kitchen of a French restaurant. Cohn didn't expect animal rights activists to protest, since "rats are pretty well-represented in the movie." But the film's depiction of "stuffy French people" might offend somebody.
"I wasn't going to make everybody happy editing out the scenes, and I'm never going to make everybody happy," he said. "Let's have a fun, relaxing evening and not get embroiled in controversy."
Call The Bee's Stephen Magagnini, (916) 321-1072.
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