Gary Spinelli is celebrating the opening of the new Tom Cruise movie — “American Made.” He wrote the script.
But like an extra whose part ends up on the cutting room floor, not all of the screenplay made it into the movie.
Most notably — according to The Hollywood Reporter — a scene in which then Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton is depicted getting a lap dance at a strip club.
“In the script, it’s the moment when the movie’s real-life protagonist Barry Seal, played by Tom Cruise, hatches an idea to enlist Clinton… in the CIA-backed scheme” involving cocaine smuggling, money laundering and illegal arms exporting.
The scene was nixed because Cross Creek Pictures, the producer and financier, wanted to keep the film from being political, unnamed sources told THR.
“Another scene cut from the film would also have implicated [George H.W.] Bush, who was then Ronald Reagan’s vice president, in the illegal scheme that sent arms to the Contras and even trained them on U.S. soil in Mena [Arkansas],” THR said. “The scene in the script put the former president in the same room as Seal.”
Hollywood was hammered for the deletion:
film on theory Clinton & G.W. Bush involved in cocaine cut Clinton gets lap dance. don’t want to be political. WHAT? https://t.co/TLpM984ATB
— Steve Schrader (@AnArtfulPenguin) September 29, 2017
What would the dirty Clinton’s do without their Hollyweird friends? @TomCruise cuts Bills lap dance from movie!https://t.co/xakyeegC0L
— Deplorables4Trump (@lbrot1) September 29, 2017
They could have depicted a lot worse than a lap dance. https://t.co/RtKQ9TOx7A
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) September 29, 2017
https://t.co/8VHTPKgrIQ It was that, or half the cast would turn up missing. The Clinton’s are quite experienced at this.
— PaulE (@paul8248) September 29, 2017
New Tom Cruise Movie Scrapped Bill Clinton Lap Dance Scene at Last Moment https://t.co/QG1h8bg41Q pic.twitter.com/zEmGRzRQ08
— BFH (@BigFurHat) September 29, 2017