From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 26 February

For those who revel in titillating, sex scenes in movies, let me assure you, actors loathe doing them; furthermore, they are totally phony, and meticulously choreographed!

I HATE to be the harbinger of disappointment but that is the reality. If you are seeking out and watching them to be teased, then you are being fooled. It is acting – ‘dress-ups for grownups’ – nothing more, nor less. The actors, however hot-and-steamy you might imagine it to be, are not enjoying the action, at all! For the most part they find it deeply embarrassing, and something they were prefer to avoid.

Actor, Penn Badgley, star of the Netflix show You, revealed in an interview how he requested the creator of the show – a woman – to reduce the number of intimate scenes he was expected to perform. To his delight, she capitulated.

Social mores have come a long way from the days of the Hays’ Code – a self-imposed industry set of guidelines for all the motion pictures released between 1934 and its abandonment in 1968. It prohibited profanity, suggestive nudity, graphic or realistic violence, sexual persuasions, and rape.

In the 1920s, following a series of notorious scandals, including the unsolved murder of actor William Desmond Taylor, and the rape/murder allegations brought against silent movie star Fatty Arbuckle, the film industry moved to implement self-regulation. Consequently, and following political pressure, William Hays, a Presbyterian elder, was enlisted to rehabilitate Hollywood’s image. He implemented what became known as the movie industry Magna Charta.

Hays served for 25 years as president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, and robustly defended the industry from attacks; recited soothing nostrums; and negotiated treaties to cease hostilities.

The film industry followed the guidelines set down by the code well into the late 1950s. However, the advent of television, the influence of foreign films, the determination of the controversial and brilliant director Otto Preminger to tackle subjects considered taboo, and legal intervention – including the US Supreme Court, caused a serious weakening of moral code.

The first R rated film, The Split, 1968, starring Gene Hackman, Jim Brown, Ernest Borgnine, and Donald Sutherland, opened the flood gates for graphic violence and explicit sex scenes of all gradients.

Much of it is gratuitous, strategically place to satisfy prurient audiences. Mostly, the over-imagined eroticism does nothing to advance the narrative and is deliberately designed to satisfy the viewer’s fantasy. In short, it is an erotic deception – a sham, made even worse by the actor’s lack-of-willing to participate.

Before more permissive times, the couple disappeared into the bedroom, closed the door, and the camera cut-away to waves crashing onto the beaches. Audiences were in no doubt as to what was happening. They did not need to be an observer in what is a strictly hands-on activity!

It is a vexed question, and the answer depends on your political bent.

Should it be acceptable for a politician to defect from the party which precipitated their entry into politics?

It could be argued, with some validity, it is not the individual but the party for whom one votes. If the incumbent chooses to break the tenets of pledge the pact no longer exists; therefore, it follows, by definition, if you no longer align yourself with your voters – you are no longer fulfilling the promise which brought to the pass, then you should resign. Yes/no?

Democracy is fragile!

Celebrity politics works only if all parties, including the voters, fulfil their part of the deal.

Roland can be contacted via [email protected].