Zack and Miri freak parents out

Ads for Kevin Smith's new comedy, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," look harmless enough. Two stick figures, identified as "Seth Rogen" and "Elizabeth Banks," stand near a camera. That's it. The trouble appears to be the "porno" part. People think it's pushing a real work of porn, which I suppose is the genius of the title. Nonetheless, posters for the movie have been refused all over the country, and the Boston Herald recently ran an item featuring a child-development professor who said they are inappropriate for children, which always sounds like code for "inappropriate for parents." ("Daddy, who's Elizabeth Banks?")

The movie, which opens next week, is about making porn but is not pornographic -- it didn't make me want to have sex, anyway, but it did make me laugh. The obscenities, the sex talk, and the excretions put Smith and Miramax in a fight with the MPAA over a possible NC-17 rating. It's Rated R now. That still makes the movie tougher for certain people to see than the shooter movie "Max Payne," which opens tomorrow and is rated PG-13. If you're keeping score at home, watching a bunch of stunt men shoot at Mark Wahlberg for 90 minutes is more permissible than seeing Seth Rogen topless.