April 7, 2005
‘Guess Who’ Can’t Look Jewish?
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Apparently, Demi Moore is the only thing people will be seeing on Ashton Kutcher's arm these days. In the actor's new film, "Guess Who," Sony Pictures spent some $100,000 to digitally remove a red string kabbalah bracelet from his wrist, according to a recent article by MSNBC.com's Jeanette Walls.
While Sony execs declined to comment on the matter, Walls quoted an anonymous source who said that test audiences who watched the film "were really annoyed" by the bracelet.
The movie, which debuted at No. 1 in its opening weekend, is an adaptation of the classic, "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" in which a Caucasian girl brings her African American boyfriend home to meet her parents. This time around, they've reversed the roles. Kutcher plays the Caucasian boyfriend meeting his African American girlfriend's parents (played by Bernie Mac and Judith Scott) for the first time.
On a related note, Kutcher also told the Web site Zap2It.com that he originally conceived of his character as being Jewish, too.
"I decided that I wanted to play my character Jewish, to have another difference because Bernie is Christian in the movie and I decided that I wanted to play my character Jewish just to have another difference," Kutcher told Zap2it.com.
But like the red string, other small references to his Jewishness, like his character saying "Shabbat Shalom," were cut from the film before its release.
Director Kevin Sullivan told the Web site that the movie's conflict was supposed to be about racism, not about religion.
"I didn't want people to think it was about Christianity or Judaism," Sullivan said.
