Is this a sign that our deeply sick culture can start to turn around?
Or is it only, as the story suggests, that the movie makers find artificially enlarged breasts less titillating?
But think of what this story is telling us between the lines: that breast implants in actresses between the ages of 18 and 25 (and who knows? perhaps in women generally?) are so common that a casting call must specifically ask for women with natural breasts.
The last time our culture said anything even implicitly critical about breast implants was in a Seinfeld episode in the early 1990s ago when Jerry dumps a girlfriend because he thinks she has implants, but then becomes obsessed with whether she really has natural ones.
Disney wants women with natural breasts for new ‘Pirates’ movie
New York Post, March 21, 2010
Disney is searching for real treasure chests for its upcoming shoot of the next “Pirates of the Caribbean” swashbuckler—that is, women with natural breasts.
The movie studio has banned actresses with artificial enhancements for the fourth installment, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” directed by Rob Marshall and starring Johnny Depp as the drunken buccaneer Jack Sparrow.
The filmmakers sent out a casting call last week seeking “beautiful female fit models. Must be 5ft7in-5ft8in, size 4 or 6, no bigger or smaller. Age 18-25. Must have a lean dancer body. Must have real breasts. Do not submit if you have implants.”
And they warn that there’ll be a “show and tell” day.
To make sure LA talent scouts don’t get caught in a “booby trap,” potential lassies will have to undergo a Hollywood-style jiggle-your-jugs test and jog for judges. If there’s nothing moving from the waist up, they’re saying, it’s a dead giveaway that you’re not all flesh and bones—and you’re out.
Apparently, the bouncier the better, especially for sword-fighting action sequences, according to the Sunday Times of London.
“In the last movie, there were enhanced breasts to give that 18th-century whorish look, and men were pretty well padded too, and no one worried,” a former casting agent said. “But times are changing, and the audience can spot false breasts.”
Keira Knightley, 24, who was 18 when she shot the first Pirates movie, did not have to face the indignity of a breast exam.
“I am not that well endowed, so they literally painted in my cleavage,” she said.
“It took about 45 minutes every day for makeup artists to add shade and volume, and it looked fantastic until it got too hot shooting.”
Knightly said she tried alternatives such as a bodice, which shrank her waist to 18 inches and squeezed her breasts “up and out.”
But it also made it hard to breathe and left her with only enough air for 10 minutes.
“After that I started passing out,” she said.
The naturally endowed actresses must also be able to swim and dive for the summer shoot in Hawaii. The movie is set for a May 2011 release.
Ian McShane will play Blackbeard, and Penelope Cruz replaces Knightley as Sparrow’s love interest.
A Disney spokesman refused to comment.
cynthia.fagen @nypost.com
Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 22, 2010 04:31 PM | Send