Responding to the social media tizzy over reported edits made to its recent televised airing of a 27-year-old movie, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation says that a scene from 1992’s “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” featuring President Donald Trump was cut for time, and that it was removed long before the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
The scene causing the hubbub involves Macaulay Culkin wandering through The Plaza hotel in New York. He stops to ask, “Excuse me, where’s the lobby?”, and Trump responds “Down the hall, and to the left.” The cameo is Trump’s only scene in the film.
Among those who criticized the scene’s removal, the hosts of “Fox & Friends” discussed the edits on air, calling the move “censorship.” While Trump has not publicly addressed the issue, his son, Donald Trump Jr, tweeted a link to a conservative blog post on the issue that accused the CBC of “left-wing bias.”
A CBC spokesperson has since clarified that the scene was “one of several” that were cut for time, since they were not crucial to the plot of the movie, and that they were edited out five years ago.
“As is often the case with feature films adapted for television, Home Alone 2 was edited for time,” CBC head of public affairs Chuck Thompson told Variety. “The scene with Donald Trump was one of several that were cut from the movie as none of them were integral to the plot. These edits were done in 2014 when we first acquired the film and before Mr. Trump was elected President.”