KEY POINTS:
LONDON - Britain's Royal Opera House agreed to stop using a picture in its advertisements after an actor complained that his penis had been air brushed out of a nude image.
Argentinian Juan Pablo Di Pace, who stars alongside Meryl Streep and Colin Firth in the new film version of Mamma Mia!, appeared to have no penis at all in the full-frontal shot used in publicity material for a production of Verdi's Rigoletto.
The actor complained to the opera house via his lawyer that the photograph, taken during a 2001 production of the same opera, was used to promote shows six years later, even though he no longer worked there.
"In his letter he expressed a concern that, to Juan's embarrassment, his penis had been airbrushed out," said a Royal Opera House spokesman.
"We explained in our correspondence with him that we had legal reasons why we had to do that because we are not allowed to display posters with nudity."
The picture features a nude and seemingly unconscious Di Pace supported by a woman in the centre of a busy scene.
In posters for the show, which appeared at London Underground stations, the actor's modesty was covered by a cloak, while in brochures and leaflets his penis disappeared entirely.
"Basically, when he was a kid he agreed to get his kit off. He had no agent, he obviously had a good body, they used it and he agreed, fairly naively. He's 28 now, and he basically just said they should get a new poster - he's not even in this show," Di Pace's publicist told Reuters.
The Royal Opera House, established in 1728, said it would not use the image again.
- REUTERS
