A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : POST-RIOT HOLLYWOOD : Some Changes Had to Be Made

Later this summer, a bad, white Los Angeles cop will beat a black man to a pulp. This is not a prediction, it’s a scene in an upcoming thriller, “Unlawful Entry,” starring Ray Liotta as a sadistic police officer bent on insinuating himself into the lives of a young couple after their house is burglarized.

But as most everyone is aware, and most particularly the film’s producers, Largo Entertainment, the beating scene has Rodney King written all over it.

Are the filmmakers concerned? Absolutely. They’re having the scene cut down, but not cut out.

“(The scene’s) just too crucial to the plot. Believe me, if they could get away with getting rid of it altogether, they would,” said someone familiar with the project.

A spokeswoman for Largo said “Unlawful Entry” is being edited “for strictly creative reasons.”

“Unlawful Entry” is the latest example of the fallout from the recent riots. Universal pulled “Looters” from its summer schedule because the studio believed--with some justification--that to release a movie with that title, and featuring rap stars Ice-T and Ice Cube, was unseemly at best, and potentially explosive, at worst, in the wake of the riots.

Perhaps there is a line that Hollywood won’t cross, after all.

In the past, it seemed, the credo was, if it’s controversial, so much the better for business.

So why should movies that allude to L.A.’s recent civil unrest be viewed differently than say, “Lethal Weapon 3,” about a couple of wise-cracking L.A. cops on a rampage--the No. 1 film in the country?

“Studios that order such scenes be trimmed or even eliminated from the final cut (of “Unlawful Entry”) are concerned about touching the same emotions that trigger the real violence,” said Del Reisman, president of the Writers Guild of America, West. “They are also concerned, as they always are, about protests with various groups that would affect box office. That’s always on their mind, because it’s their business.”

In other words, cartoon violence is acceptable; violence that’s too close to real life events is not.

But before the L.A. riots, studios did not hesitate to release films, even when violence was predicted. The directors of “Boyz N the Hood,” “New Jack City” or “Juice” --movies made by black filmmakers about black youths that sparked rage, even death, at some theaters--were not asked to tone down their stories.

But the post-riot atmosphere is different. The urban violence that may have seemed so abstract to the mostly white Hollywood Establishment became only too real when it was right outside their windows. All the studios closed down during the riots and one, Paramount, the only major studio left in Hollywood, escaped destruction while buildings near it did not.

“While everyone’s nerves are raw from those damn helicopters and fires, nothing’s going to be made about (violent L.A.) for a while,” said one screenwriter who asked for anonymity. “But as we all know in this town, the memory’s short and they’ll be back peddling the same violent crap before you know it,” he said. (Funny. That’s exactly the scenario of the back-peddling gore producer character played by Steve Martin in “Grand Canyon.”)

Another cynical Hollywood observer makes this educated guess (with tongue firmly planted in cheek): “Trust me. Someone, somewhere is pitching a riot love story in which a hooker with a heart of gold meets a businessman and together they ride through the riot torn areas in a limousine.”