Naked Men: A Double Standard?
Jason Segel‘s much-more-than-a-glimpse nude scene (pictured) in this Friday’s release “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is “giving rise” to all sorts of media analysis about the double-standard about Hollywood’s attitude towards nude scenes for men (infrequent) versus nude scenes for women (ubiquitous). These articles have the usual party line about how the recent crop of hit comedies feature out-of-shape men, whereas women must be perfect 10s if they bare all. (With the notable exception of Kathy Bates in “About Schmidt.”) I find these articles full of blather. Just off the top of my head (okay: with help from this article), I can think of several major actors who’ve gone commando onscreen — and I’m not just thinking of Ewan MacGregor. There’s Tom Cruise in “All the Right Moves” (1983), Bruce Willis in 1994’s “Color of Night,” Daniel Day-Lewis in “Stars and Bars” (1988), Richard Gere (in 1980 for “American Gigolo” and again in 1983’s “Breathless”), and Harvey Keitel (for 1992’s “Bad Lieutenant” and 1993’s “The Piano”). Did I miss anyone major?
