… unless you read Other Crap and the Fun House.
If you follow this page and others dedicated to film nudity, you have certainly seen some lovely captures of Charlize Theron’s butt in The Cider House Rules.
But what you may not realize (unless you are a member at the Fun House) is that there was an earlier version of this scene which included lengthy topless exposure. To my knowledge, this variation has never appeared as “deleted footage” or “alternate footage” on any DVD or Blu-Ray. It is one of the rarest items in my collection. The quality is not good.
My collages appeared in the Fun House on the page from March 27, 2000, and a single frame (from somebody else, I think) appeared on March 12.
The well-known film critic, James Berardinelli, wrote:
“The topless version of the Cider House Rules scene was in the version that was shown at the Toronto Film Festival in September 1999. It was subsequently re-edited to achieve a PG-13 rating for its theatrical release. To my knowledge, there was only a single print struck with the full scene so, somehow, you have footage from it. It was likely made internally at the studio or at the festival. It likely no longer exists except possibly in a private collection.”
Somebody must have made a bootleg cam recording at the Toronto screening, and I somehow stumbled over it, probably on an IRC channel, way back in the year 2000.