Warner Bros. denies delaying Alexander over gay scenes

MSNBC.com's Jeannette Walls followed up on a report she ran last week, quoting an insider who said that Warner Bros. had pushed back the release date of Oliver Stone's new epic Alexander because studio executives were skittish over gay love scenes in the film between Colin Farrell (as bisexual conqueror Alexander the Great) and Francisco Bosch (who plays Persian eunuch Bagoas, thought by many historians to have been Alexander's lover). Warner Bros. refused to comment when Walls filed her original story, but since then she received a denial from the studio. Warner Bros. president of production Jeff Robinov wrote in an e-mail to Walls: "That is completely untrue. Warner Bros. Pictures is proud of Alexander and thinks it is an exceptional piece of filmmaking. We've moved the release date, as we said earlier, to position it better for Academy consideration. We also want to allow ourselves more time to complete some of its ambitious visual effects.... Any speculation that the studio is trying to cut scenes from Alexander based on their depiction of the sexual relationships of the lead character is false and does not accurately represent the content of the film, which portrays Alexander the Great as heroic and a man of his time and culture."