MOVIES - March 1, 1989

A multimillion dollar TV ad campaign for Blake Edwards’ new R-rated film, “Skin Deep,” has been toned down because all three networks found the commercials too risque, which strikes the film’s producer, Tony Adams, as ironic. “The biggest hypocrisy is that when the networks promote their own movies, there are no bounds. They show the most provocative sex scenes ever,” Adams told The Times on Tuesday. “We’re an R-rated movie, so we know we couldn’t air our ads until after 9 p.m. ‘L.A. Law’ has more double-entendres and sex scenes than we were showing. In testing the TV spots, we didn’t get any negative reaction. But we had to pull the whole campaign over the weekend.” Edited and “milder” spots began airing Tuesday and will blitz the airwaves prior to the film’s national opening Friday. John Ritter stars in “Skin Deep,” which Adams describes as a “typical Blake Edwards farce about how difficult it is for a man to change.”