• October 26, 1998
• Vol. 50
• No. 15

Seeworthy

Video-Store Owners Enter Stormy Waters for Snipping Titanic's Sexiest Scenes

In the weeks since the megahit Titanic was released on video, Don and Carol Biesinger's Sunrise Family Video store in American Fork, Utah, has been flooded with business. Not selling the 11-time Oscar winner but trimming its 3-hr. 14-min. length by 45 seconds—the exact time of the film's two steamiest moments between Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack and Kate Winslet's Rose. "We can hardly keep up," says Carol, 46, noting that more than 2,000 customers from all over the world have paid five bucks apiece to have them edit out the scenes in which Rose bares all for Jack to sketch and the two fog up the windows of a car in the cargo hold. "That tells me there's a real need for our service."

Paramount, which released the film, has a different word for it: copyright infringement. "We will take all necessary and appropriate action to protect our interests," says a spokesman, claiming the Biesingers are compromising the film's artistic integrity. But the Biesingers' clients say Paramount is all wet. "I wanted my kids to see the movie because it's historical, and the special effects are amazing," says homemaker Carrie Perucca, 38, of American Fork. "But I didn't want that garbage in there."

The Biesingers have sanitized videos for personal use since buying the business in 1996 and bringing flicks home to watch with daughter Connie, now 16. Don, 54, says studios should do the same. "They should put out family-friendly versions of their R movies," he argues. "They do that with airlines and TV. All it takes is a snip here and a snip there."