LOS ANGELES, May 31 (Reuters) - Elton John on Friday criticized Russia’s reported censorship of gay sex scenes in the new movie musical based on his life, “Rocketman,” calling the decision “cruelly unaccepting of the love between two people.”John and the makers of “Rocketman,” which depicts the warts-and-all rise to fame of the gay British musician, issued a statement after Russian media reported that scenes involving gay sex and drug taking had been cut from a screening in Russia. “We reject in the strongest possible terms the decision to pander to local laws and censor ‘Rocketman’ for the Russian market,” John and the filmmakers said. The English-language Moscow Times on Friday quoted a Russian film critic who had seen the film at its May 16 world premiere in Cannes as saying that several scenes, totaling about 5 minutes, had disappeared from the Russian version. John, 72, a prominent gay rights campaigner, has previously spoken out against a 2013 law banning the dissemination of “gay propaganda” among young Russians. In 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would be willing to meet with John.

Source: Huffington Post June 01, 2019 08:48 UTC