![\"\\u200bBoth](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/u200bboth-political-commentators-andy-twelves-and-alice-grant-took-aim-at-the-decision.png\")
<\/p>\nGB News guests teamed up to slam the “silly” decision to slap the 1961 adaptation of West Side Story with a trigger warning.<\/p>\n
Political commentators Andy Twelves and Alice Grant criticised the decision, with the latter branding the move as part of the “woke agenda”.<\/p>\n
The once family-friendly, PG-rated film adaptation of the legendary Broadway musical is now a 12 certificate.<\/p>\n
The story is inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, setting the tragic romance in 1950s New York.<\/p>\n
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) declared the change after reviewing a number of themes and scenes which could “trigger” younger viewers.<\/p>\n
A warning addresses sexism and “occasional transphobic remarks”, which is believed to be highlighting comments around “tomboy” Anybodys, a character interpreted as refusing to conform to gender norms.<\/p>\n
Both guests appeared baffled at the move, with Mr Twelves saying: “I think it’s a bit silly.”<\/p>\n
Mr Twelves went on to say if a warning should be supplied, it should address the brutal violence depicted, with the film including several scenes where stabbings take place.<\/p>\n
He continued: “Unfortunately, you know, kids are starving. People are freezing to death.<\/p>\n
Andy Twelves and Alice Grant took aim at the decision<\/p>\n
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GB NEWS<\/p>\n
“There are bigger things to think about than West Side Story for most people and the Government and any quango probably should.<\/p>\n
In agreement, Ms Grant blasted the “oversensitiv-isation” of media. <\/p>\n
She added: “It just reminds me of when I recently saw a trigger warning similarly on Breakfast at Tiffany’s with Audrey Hepburn because of stereotypes, there may have been portrayed in the film.<\/p>\n
“As you said, there are so, so many worse things happening in our media and in our culture on our streets.”<\/p>\n
Another warning for West Side Story now addresses “moderate violence, sexual threat [and] discrimination”, stressing characters smoking cigarettes and reference to alcoholism.<\/p>\n
It flags people being “stabbed with clear sight of knife impact, though there is no blood” and another character being shot.<\/p>\n
![\"Eamonn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/eamonn-holmes.png\")
Eamonn reflected on going to see Grease for the first time in the cinema<\/p>\n
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GB NEWS<\/p>\n
Instead, Ms Grant condemned the “massive rise” of violence in films. <\/p>\n
“There are shows I don’t think I would feel comfortable showing children, which seem to have no warnings whatsoever to do with violence.<\/p>\n
“And yet when it’s something that is on the woke agenda, like gender or stereotypes, that seems to be flagged, this doesn’t really make sense.”<\/p>\n
GB News star Eamonn Holmes pivoted the discussion to his latest rewatch of 1978 movie musical Grease, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.<\/p>\n
He said: “I remember going to see it when I was 17. I was shocked because it mentioned lots of things that you shouldn’t mention, about pregnancies and contraception and all sorts of things.<\/p>\n
“You were thinking, ‘oh my goodness, what sort of film is this?’ <\/p>\n
“And I watched it again on Christmas, Christmas Day. I really believe this may be one of the finest films ever made. So people, we all change over time.”<\/p>\n
At this point, Ms Grant added: “I think you make a really interesting wider point, which is that there used to be a sort of point to films and to media that should be to sort of elevate you slightly culturally, or at least to give you a feel good factor. <\/p>\n
“Something that you watch and you come away from feeling inspired in some way.<\/p>\n
“But recently, I find especially on Netflix, and the shows designed for teenagers and adolescents are so awfully depressing,” she added, condemning the “dark subjects” that the shows address.<\/p>\n
“As I’ve got older and you get pressures of work coming on you and things, I want something to entertain me, and you look at what’s at the cinema and this is about death, depression, people being kidnapped, people being tortured.<\/p>\n
“I want escapism. I want Star Trek Wrath of Khan. That’s what I want. I want something like that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GB News guests teamed up to slam the “silly” decision to slap the 1961 adaptation of West Side…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,921,93,61,60,43,52345,111878],"class_list":["post-215302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-video-news","tag-woke-madness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}