The release here of the film "The Naked Gun" has drawn the ire of the Iranian Embassy, which demanded it not be shown because of a scene that mocks the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
A letter sent by the embassy Friday to the Department of Foreign Affairs said the Paramount Pictures film insults the memory of Iran's late spiritual leader."In this film, the great personality of our respected leader, who was the leader of the Moslem world, has been disgraced," the letter said. "The embassy expects the Department of Foreign Affairs to stop (the) showing of this film as well as its rescheduling or reshowing in the Philippines."
The 1988 movie, whose complete title is "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" stars Leslie Nielsen as the incredibly incompetent detective Lt. Frank Drebin.
In one scene, Drebin punches a character made to look like Khomeini and reveals a spiked, punk hairdo under his turban.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer on Saturday quoted Manuel Morato, chief of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, as saying he had ordered local cinemas to cut the scene.
Morato was further quoted as saying that his office had initially approved the scene being included because it was "done in jest and, therefore, not offensive."
Khomeini, who died in June 1989, is not the only world leader mocked in the movie.
In another scene, the police detective grabs a character made to look like Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and rubs off the birthmark on his head.