In tents: Bravo responds to the brouhaha over their editing of "Brokeback Mountain"

Last week we mentioned that the gayest not-gay network on the dial, Bravo, would be airing the network premiere of Brokeback Mountain immediately following the GLAAD Media Awards, and was advertising the combination like a sort of gay "rock block". This savvy programming and promotional one-two sounded encouraging at the time, and one imagined that if anyone were actually going to watch what is soup-to-nuts a thoroughly adult movie on basic cable, that Bravo might be as good a pick as any to do the ritualistic replacement of F-bombs and trims for time.

But things didn't go as smoothly as expected. It seems that, aside from the obvious cuts for profanity, nudity, and gratuitous use of spit-lube, the network's version of the film cut something that had no reason to be censored: namely, a tender kiss between Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal).

Fans of the film were incensed at the cut, with message boards ablaze with comments about the edit. Here are some of the more angered responses over on the IMDB boards: 

"I am absolutely disgusted!!! I'd rather they hadn't shown it at all. F*ck BRAVO! They are HYPOCRITES!"

"But this is a LOVE STORY, for chrissakes -- and yet those hamfisted meatheads hacked out the SECOND NIGHT IN THE TENT?? I suppose some moron thought they needed to "protect the children". What BULLSCHITT!!!"

"I'm sure some random 10-year old from Sandusky, Ohio would be more traumatized by watching 5 minutes of The Real Housewives of Orange County than they would by seeing the pup tent scene from BBM." 

We didn't catch the televised version ourselves but when readers tipped us off to the brouhaha, we contacted Bravo to find out what the deal was.

Here's their response: 

"This was an unfortunate mistake. While editing the film for cable broadcast, the kissing scene in question was removed. The scene will appear in all future airings of Brokeback Mountain on Bravo, as it should have been included in its cable premiere." 

We can approach this from a few different angles, but I for one am inclined to take their response at face value. Honestly, for them to deliberately remove a kiss (when others were left intact) for the purpose of undermining the gay romance of one of the most universally embraced gay-themed films in history and then to promote the network premiere in association with a gay media event would be suicide. 

We'll know for sure if the net is on the level the next time Brokeback airs.