NC-17 rating overturned on 'Blue Valentine'

[December 09, 2010]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling's upcoming drama, "Blue Valentine," has won an appeal of its adults-only NC-17 rating and will go into theaters with an R-rating instead.

Motion Picture Association of American spokeswoman Elizabeth Kaltman says the rating was lowered Wednesday after the group's appeals board viewed the film and heard arguments from Harvey Weinstein, whose Weinstein Co. is releasing it.

The marital drama initially drew the NC-17 rating for a "scene of explicit sexual content."

An NC-17 rating would have prohibited those under 17 from attending and essentially would have been a kiss of death for the film, as that rating is equated with pornography in many moviegoers' minds.

The film hits theaters Dec. 31.

[Associated Press]

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