Harvey Weinstein will get his way as Bully finally nabs a PG-13 rating

By Sean O'Neal | April 6, 2012 | 3:28pm

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After being pantsed by the MPAA with an R rating, leading The Weinstein Company to retaliate by spitting in the MPAA’s face by releasing the film unrated, which in turn led to the Parents Television Council—who doesn’t even go to this school—stepping in and threatening to sit on the chests of theater owners and hock moral righteousness loogies on their face, the controversy over Bully at last seems to be over. The Weinstein Company announced via press release that the MPAA had finally caved to public pressure (including a Change.org petition that notched over half a million signatures), with the board folding and granting Bully its sought-after PG-13 rating like a little bitch.

“Oh yeah, you like exposing the total arbitrariness of your judgment by so quickly reversing your entire supposed ideology—even allowing us to keep the central, offensive, F-bomb-laden scene that sparked the entire ‘controversy’ in the first place, insisting on only three insignificant edits, and then making another exception to your 90-day window between R- and PG-13-rated versions—don’t you, bitch? Say you like openly demonstrating that your entire system is governed less by strict regulation than whim, circumstance, and corporate influence! Say it!” the Weinstein Company said to the MPAA, basically, while twisting Chris Dodd’s arm behind his back (metaphorically speaking, as this is physically impossible).

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Anyway, in hindsight, the attention this entire “controversy” has received and the extra publicity it’s generated for the film—only to have the whole thing be rendered completely irrelevant, just in time for its April 13 wide release—suggests that, yet again, the only real bully in this situation is Harvey Weinstein, who once more created an attention-getting “cause” that turned out to be a great marketing ploy, then forcibly held America’s head down in his swirlie of bullshit. Oh well. At least now the movie can finally stand on its own merits, and we can get back to class.