The Jackal, opening November 14 and starring Richard Gere and Bruce Willis, features Willis as a villain who can blend into any situation. At one point, Willis' character goes into a gay bar and meets a gay man (Steven Spinella). According to sources who saw an early test screening last spring, when Spinella's character was shot by Willis, the audience reacted with inappropriate applause.

GLAAD approached Universal and Sean Daniel, one of the producers of The Jackal, to express their grave concerns over the scene and the reactions from test audience. When the final cut was done, GLAAD Entertainment Media Director Chastity Bono was invited to preview the film, which now explicitly shows that the reason Willis shoots Spinella is because his cover is blown. In addition, Richard Gere approached GLAAD with concerns after seeing audience reactions from early screenings and told the organization he was very happy the problem had been resolved prior to release.

"All involved were appalled by the possibility that the audience could burst into applause because of the death of a gay man. It is very black-and-white now," said Bono. "The way that Universal and the producers of The Jackal edited the film after audience reaction and GLAAD's concerns makes it explicit that the motivation for the gay man being killed has nothing to do with his sexual orientation."

"GLAAD's interest in the situation and Chastity Bono's quite insightful articulation of the impact of how we depict things put a healthy and smart frame of reference (around) how the scene should play," said Daniel. "She made it clear that she was not calling in any way to position GLAAD as a censor, [but that we] should be thoughtful because we are dealing with issues that carry a lot of weight out there in our culture. That's a good message."

GLAAD Executive Director Joan M. Garry remarked that this pre-release adjustment signals just how effective the organization's new proactive work within the entertainment media is. "We applaud Universal and the producers of The Jackal for their willingness to listen and their eagerness to ensure that representations of lesbians and gay men are handled with fairness and accuracy," she said.

GLAAD is the only national lesbian and gay multimedia watchdog organization. GLAAD promotes fair, accurate and inclusive representation as a means of challenging discrimination based on sexual orientation or identity.