Stay Tuned for the Nudes

Here was the headline of the CBS release:

NUDITY? “I DON’T SEE THE BIG DEAL,” SAYS HELEN MIRREN AS SHE KIDS MORLEY SAFER ABOUT DOING THEIR “60 MINUTES” INTERVIEW IN THE NUDE.

For one brief shining moment I was ready to celebrate one of the gutsiest programming moves in recent years, one calculated to suggest the ludicrousness of a fixation on nudity. With CBS fighting the FCC's indecency crackdown, what a stroke of genius to have both Safer and Mirren in the nude for their interview about how Mirren, and her mother, think her past nude scenes (Caligula, Calendar Girls) are no big deal.

By John Eggerton

They could have blurred the two, the way ABC did with its video of the McDonald's worker hoaxed into stripping and doing jumping jacks and more.

Remember, Mirren is the one who got the knickers of decent folk in a twist with her "tits over ass" idiomatic exclamation at the Emmys.

It was not to be, however. The headline was only a teaser, referring to Mirren's joke to Safer about how she is still doing nude scenes: “I’m still doing it!, she told him. "Oh it gets better as you get older, Morley. You should try it. Yes, I think we should do this interview, both of us, in the nude. You’d love it!"