LITTLE ROCK — Denzel Washington’s character in Flight drinks a lot throughout the film, but his portrayal of a highly functioning alcoholic airline pilot isn’t going down well with brewing company Anheuser-Busch or the distributor of Stolichnaya vodka. Anheuser-Busch said Monday that it has asked Paramount Pictures Corp. in Los Angeles to obscure or remove the Budweiser logo from the film, which at one point shows Washington’scharacter drinking the beer while at the controls. Budweiser is hardly the only alcoholic beverage shown in Flight, which earned $25 million in its debut weekend and is likely to remain popular with audiences. Washington’s character frequently drinks vodka throughout the film, with several different brands represented. William Grant & Sons, which distributes Stolichnaya in the United States, also said it didn’t license its brand for inclusion in the film and wouldn’t have given permission if asked. Although product placement, where companies pay producers to have their brands seen on-camera, has become ubiquitous in movies and television, experts say studios are not obligated to get permission before featuring a product in their work.
Bruno Mars’ recent appearance on Saturday Night Live was more like Saturday Night Fever: He says he had so much fun hosting the show, he’d be happy to do it again. “Whatever SNL wants from me, they can always call me,” the smiling 27-year-old said in an interview. “I don’t know who told them I can act or anything ‘cause I can’t. I don’t know what they saw. [But] whatever they need from me, they can get.” The singer-songwriter’s Oct. 20 appearance as host and musical guest gave the NBC variety show its second-best ratings this season behind last Saturday’s episode hosted by comedian Louis C.K. Mars was praised for his hilarious and silly sketches, particularly one skit where he did impersonations of other musicians as a live fill-in at Pandora when the company’s computers crashed.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 11/07/2012