Not the act, or even the movie about performing the act in the city, but the word "sex" from advertisements in Jerusalem and Petah Tikvah (which is where the Egyptian musicians were trying to go in The Band's Visit, remember?). Apparently the large religious population of both cities isn't comfortable with the word appearing on ubiquitous billboards, which puts the Israeli distributor of this summer's Sex and the City in a tough spot. Advertising that includes the film's title is out.

Now, it is kind of funny that while the movie can be shown anywhere, ads for it are banned in certain cities because they include the word "sex." But it might not be as petty as it seems at first glance. After all, people have to make an affirmative choice to go see the movie in a theater, or rent it on DVD; billboard and poster advertising is invasive and inevitably confronts unwilling audiences. It's not necessarily irrational to let theaters show the film but ban certain forms of promotion that everyone will see. This sort of thing isn't unprecedented in the United States: we permit sales of tobacco, for example, but ban television advertising and, in many communities, billboards near schools; we permit pornography, but not always graphic advertising for same. The ban on "sex" strikes me as the same sort of thing. You can still argue that a sensibility that is offended by any mention of the word "sex" is itself silly, but that's a can of worms.

[story in USA Today, via Movie City News]

All this writing about sex, and I'm going to need a cold shower ... or two. Nothing makes a movie more memorable than a fantastic sex scene. If Jim hadn't tried to stick his "down there pal" into a pie, would American Pie be the classic that it is today? Would Brokeback Mountain still have been a major Oscar contender had Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger not attacked one another like a couple of wild (and horny) animals? Heck, Halle Berry chose the right script and the right time to let her guard down and roll around on a couch with Billy Bob Thornton -- and what did it get her? Yup, her first Oscar. And I can't be the only one to immediately think of the film Wild Things when I hear the names Neve Campbell and Denise Richards.

Let's face it -- sex sells. And sex also helps a mediocre film become one that's talked about for years on end. That said, those devious folks over at Moviefone have compiled a list of what they feel are the 25 Best Sex Scenes of All Time. All of the above aforementioned films are included (although I would've placed Monster's Ball ahead of the puppet sex featured in Team America: World Police), as well as more of our most favorite (and most heated, steamy -- orgasmic?) scenes and films like Bound (lesbian sex), Secretary (work sex), Unfaithful (adulterous sex), Boogie Nights (porn star sex) and the always-enjoyable Y Tu Mama Tambien (foreign-language sex). So take a look at their list, then come (hehe) back here and let us know which ones flow and which, well, blow.

Ah, sex scenes. They've been making bad movies tolerable for decades. But when you put a sex scene with a good movie, well now you're cooking with gas! The Independent Film Channel and The Nerve Film Lounge have just released a list of "The 50 Greatest Sex Scenes in Cinema." I should warn you up front, the list does not include any scenes from Wild Things, and therefore is completely irrelevant. It's still well worth a look. Here's their Top Ten: 10) Young Frankenstein (pictured), 9) The Big Easy, 8) Secretary, 7) My Beautiful Laundrette, 6) Betty Blue, 5) The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 4) Risky Business, 3) Mulholland Drive, 2) A History of Violence...And their choice for the Greatest Sex Scene in Cinema is...Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie doing some 70's-style (and rumored to be real!) thrusting in Don't Look Now. (The list also includes a sex scene that blatantly ripped off DLN -- George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez in the excellent Out of Sight, at #26).

The list contains dude-on-dude action (like Poison at #44 and Brokeback Mountain at #23), chick-on-chick action (like High Art at #42 and Bound at #20), and um..."confused" action (Boys Don't Cry at #27). There's hardcore penetration scenes (like those in 9 Songs at #29 and Shortbus at #38). There's one of the most unpleasant sex scenes of all time -- from Todd Solondz's Storytelling (#31), a scene that cleared out more than half the audience I saw it with. The funniest sex scene on there is probably the puppet porno of Team America: World Police at #14, but I've got to give props to their selection from High Fidelity (#41). It's not a turn-on, but it's one of the greatest depictions of jealousy ever put on film -- John Cusack imagining the mind-blowing sex his ex is having with Tim Robbins. There are some pretty baffling selections on the list, most notably Network at #35. I could ask a million people to pick their favorite sex scenes and I don't think a single person would even consider anything from Network. Network! Just to recap -- the list does not include the Denise Richards/Neve Campbell/Matt Dillon/bottle of champage breastacular extravaganza that is Wild Things, certainly the most paused and slow-mo'd film in VHS and DVD history. But it does include Sidney Lumet's satire on the state of television: Network. What would you guys add to or remove from the list?

Just a heads up, the list is arranged in a baffling and obnoxious way that switches you back and forth between Nerve.com and IFC.com. The only reason I mention this is because it shut down my net browser roughly 100 times, causing me to pull my hair out endlessly re-writing this article. Be warned.

In my rave review of Sarah Polley's remarkable new film Away from Her, I predicted its quick and painless death. The twin subjects of old age and disease rarely strike any kind of fire at the box office, especially with a lack of compensating younger characters. But I'm very happy today to be proven wrong. Playing on just 256 screens, Away from Her very nearly cracked this week's box office top ten, coming it at #12 in a week loaded with "Part III" blockbusters. (For comparison, the number one movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, is playing on 4362 screens).

Polley's movie also broaches the issue of sex; there's an unspoken tension between husband Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and wife Fiona (Julie Christie) over some affairs Grant apparently had with his female students back in the free-love hippie era. Grant feels gnawing doubt and confusion after Fiona checks into the home and befriends a male patient, Aubrey (Michael Murphy). And finally, Grant has a new affair with Aubrey's wife Marian (Olympia Dukakis), based on loneliness and on the sheer fact that their spouses don't really remember them anymore.

Directed by Oliver Assayas (Clean, Demonlover), the Cannes midnight selection Boarding Gate tells the story of Sandra (Asia Argento) -- a confused young woman trying to figure out her relationship with Miles (Michael Madsen), a financier who's fallen into a run of bad luck. Sandra and Miles used to be lovers, but that's over; Miles also used to hire Sandra to service visiting clients and turn their pillow talk into business intelligence; that's over, too -- but they still have plenty to talk about. ...

People much smarter than I are very fond of Assayas's work -- most especially Demonlover, a movie that elicited love-it-or-hate-it reactions from critics and viewers. Like Demonlover, Boarding Gate takes place in a hinky, kinky realm, a world of secrets and lies where big business, espionage, sex and emotional connection all combine. In Boarding Gate, though, there's one problem; the film has no motor to drive it. Sandra gets into trouble, sure -- and gets in deep -- but neither Assayas's script nor Argento's performance give us any reason to care if Sandra makes it though in one piece; the fact that Argento's character swings between seductive pouting and go-away petulance doesn't help. Argento may be an attractive mammal -- the film certainly thinks so, as it never skips a chance to show us her stripping down -- but as an actual actress, she's a washout. Not to be crass, but if Argento's line readings and character were as well-developed and fully-rounded as her breasts, I've no doubt Boarding Gate would have been a better film.

We're back! James Bond touches land, air and sea in this episode as we talk about our favorite Bond cars, the Spy-Fi Archives exhibit coming to the Queen Mary, and the re-opening of the 007 Stage in London. We also talk to a special guest in this episode, screenwriter and Young Bond Dossier expert John Cox -- who takes us into the literary world of the Young James Bond novels, which are very popular right now.

Some links and highlights from this episode:

• The 007 Stage reopens: visit their revamped website and check things out.
• The James Bond Car collection: subscribe and have Bond replica cars sent to you.
• Spy-Fi Archives at the Queen Mary: on exhibit April 7th through September 2007.
• John's amazing Young Bond Dossier site: check out the links to the Young Bond "apache" gadget, and the new Centenary Bond novel coming out next year.

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Okay, so it might be a bit creepy for an adult to admit that an animated character is hot, but come on, Jessica Rabbit wasn't really bad, she was just drawn that way, right? Animated characters have been sexualized since the early days of the genre because sex sold just as well back then as it does today. It's pretty evident when you check out all of Disney's animated leading ladies that they've been drawn to look appealing to the eye, going back as far as Snow White and Tinkerbell. (An interesting side note here, according to this interview with Margaret Kerry, who was the character model for Tinkerbell, she claims that her real name is Tinker Bell, two words, although Disney officially has it as one. Her interview is pretty fascinating, check it out.)

The Being a Man Spot over at fanpop has a list of Disney's top ten hottest women, and there are no real surprises on the list. What's notable are the omissions like Jessie from Toy Story 2 who was both sassy and smart, and Daisy Duck, who sort of falls into the creepy Wayne's World category of Bugs Bunny in a dress being attractive. Daisy had a fair amount of sass as well, and she didn't take Donald's nonsense either. That has to count for something, because she definitely wore the pants in that pants-less relationship.

The real question is, what effect does the traditional Disney female image have on young kids? Not everyone is a fan of the oversexed and vivacious look that runs rampant in the Disney-verse, arguing that it gives little girls an image to live up to that is far from what a normal person looks like, and that is sets a very limiting stereotype of what a heroine can look like. Barbie has faced the same sort of criticisms, especially during the whole "Math is hard!" fiasco, yet both Barbie and the Disney women are still created to look like pinup girls.

Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? What do you think, Cinemites?

[Thanks, Marsha]

With the new James Bond film Casino Royale rushing toward us at turbo speed (it opens on November 17 in the States), Cinematical tackles the question: Which Bond is the Best?

Most people have their stock answers ready to go for this one. It's either a quick, "Roger Moore" or "Sean Connery." Does anyone actually pick George Lazenby? I always end up feeling sorry for him. He went from hunk-of-the-moment in a chocolate bar commercial to potentially being one of the biggest stars on the planet. But would you want to follow in Sean Connery's shoes? Go rent On Her Majesty's Secret Service if you haven't seen it, it's worth a look. Plus it's the only James Bond film with a metareference. In the opening scene, Lazenby saves a woman from drowning and she slaps him before running away. He looks directly at the camera and says, "This never happened to the other fellow." Ouch. So, by default in our books, after only being in one film and forced to try to follow up the original, he's out of the running for best Bond. That leaves us with Connery, Moore, Dalton and Brosnan ...

Airlines have traditionally not shown controversial films on flights, making sure to stay far away from anything that might be slightly objectionable. That's why you've never seen a disaster movie (although you've probably seen movies that have been disasters) while jetting across the continent. That may all be changing soon as airlines have decided to show more mainstream fare like Brokeback Mountain and Transamerica in an effort to upgrade in-flight entertainment, and provide more choice, variety, and current releases to passengers.

Airlines edit films for content even more stringently than television networks do, cutting out language, sexuality, and anything that might even suggest that an airplane has a problem. According to the World Airline Entertainment Association, films are edited "because airlines carry young children as well as a diverse population of passengers from diverse cultures, many airlines require movie edits for language, sex, violence and political or religious content. The film distributor generally handles this process."

I remember flying from Los Angeles to Dallas and watching a cut of the Jennifer Lowe Hewitt film Heartbreakers that featured a digital insert over the cleavage of one ghost whispering actress. This reflects an oddly reciprocal effect between films edited for American vs. European airlines; Europe edits out violence, and America edits out sex. Apparently breasts might incense an American passenger to hijack the plane and fly to Club Med, but a bullet-riddled body will lull them into complacency.

I suppose I can understand the need to edit films on flights, because in a way it is forced viewing. You can't exactly get up and leave the theater if something on the screen bothers you. It is also understandable that you wouldn't want to watch anything that features a spectacular plane crash on a flight, for obvious reasons. However, more planes are starting to feature in-flight entertainment that allows each individual passenger to choose what they want to watch. What happens if the person next to you on that JFK-to-SFO flight wants to watch something featuring ultra-violence and you find that objectionable? It's hard to go through a flight with blinders on, but perhaps the next-generation of flight entertainment will feature a digital alternative.

What do you think? Should films be edited for airlines, or should you be able to watch whatever you want?

Early buzz about John Cameron Mitchell's follow-up to Hedwig and the Angry Inch was that it was going to be loaded with real sex -- not the blue-lit, horizontally docking faces of mainstream movies but not the characterless coupling of porn, either. After years of buzz, actually seeing Shortbus leaves you wanting to invent new adjectives -- Fucktastic! Cocktacular! Breastalicious! -- but it also leaves you more than a little impressed by how funny and loose and, yes, emotionally engaging the film is. All the sex makes Shortbus kinda hot, but what's surprising is how Mitchell's sensibility and comedic charm makes it warm, too.

James (Paul Dawson) and Jamie (PJ De Boy) are a gay couple dealing with the monotony of monogamy -- and, as we learn, the fact that one half of the couple is a bit more hopelessly devoted than the other. Couples Counselor Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee) is trying to help Jamie and James -- although when she reveals she's never had an orgasm with her husband Rob (Raphael Barker), the phrase "physician, heal thyself" flits through your mind. Jamie and James invite Sofia to a sex/performance space called Shortbus, where Sofia meets and befriends the Dominatrix Severin (Lindsay Beamish). Of course, these are contextual introductions: The film opens with James masturbating furiously before Jamie gets home, Rob and Sofia running through a gallery of positions like they're proofing the Kama Sutra with an imminent deadline and Severin beating the hell out of an annoying-yet-appealing client in a hotel suite overlooking Ground Zero.