LETHAL ADS

“Lethal Weapon” opened in Britain last week following “wildly enthusiastic” sneaks in 30 cities across the country.

But for three days--in the wake of the Hungerford Massacre--the TV ads for the film took a beating.

Four of the country’s five regional networks chose not to run the 30-second spots touting the hot-shooting Mel Gibson-Danny Glover cop picture.

“They deemed them distasteful,” said a London source affiliated with the film. “TV executives made a tenuous connection between a gun-toting Mel Gibson and a story about two cops in the U.S., and a lunatic in a city west of London.”

The massacre was carried out by a lone gunman--deemed a “Rambo” by the local press--who killed 16, injured 14, then turned his gun on himself.