Things are heating up in the old Salt Towne tonight!
They certainly are, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, Brewvies is seeking about half a million dollars in attorney fees from the state after winning their case stemming from screening the film “Deadpool” the depicts sexual acts while serving alcohol.
Hey! Not so fast with the shaming. According to the Trib article by Sean Means:
On Aug. 31, U.S. District Judge David Nuffer ruled that a section of Utah law, which covers alcohol being served in the vicinity of depictions of nudity or sexuality, hampered free speech and was unconstitutional.
Which basically means that having a beer and seeing boobs or wang and what people do with them portrayed in a narrative, in a movie theatre doesn’t make you criminal. Nor does owning a theater showing R-rated movies with these scenes while serving alcohol. After all, there are no kids allowed in Brewvies, thank god! It’s not like having a beer or a Moscow Mule while seeing people get biological will make you do what this guy did…
So it’s really good that adults can be adults in movies and don’t have to worry about this:
That being said, $500,000 is a lot of change for taxpayers to cough up for a privliage we should have had anyway. It is the First Amendment after all.
Seth is right. Free speech doesn’t always equal good speech and since that’s subjective, it can be tough since we obviouly don’t all agree what’s in good taste, dangerous, criminal, and otherwise. This is why we have courts and the courts ruled that the State of Utah was wrong in this instance. That’s great for those of us on Brewvies’ side and for anyone who wants to see “Deadpool” in a movie theater while enjoy a delicious Bohemian Pilsner…
…but that’s okay, because the marketplance allows for many places to show these movies that don’t serve beer and can be attened by those who don’t like alcohol or anyone who’s drinking it.
But still…we, the taxpayers are on the hook for this.
So Deadpool and I are wondering what you think about this whole ordeal. Go ahead and tell us: