The original US release of "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" was on May 2, 1997 and contained a Princess Diana related joke. When Dr. Evil is unfrozen in 1997 he discusses with his followers various plans he has come up with. One of the plans Dr. Evil dreams up is to make it look like Prince Charles is having an affair so that he and Princess Diana will divorce. He is then informed this has already happened during the 30 years he has been frozen. Princess Diana would later tragically die in a car crash in Paris on 31st August 1997. This was two months after the film was released in the United States and so with the theatrical run almost over there was no reason to remove it. Unlike nowadays American produced films back then tended to be released internationally months after the US release and the release date for Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was 5th September 1997 in the United Kingdom. Given the recent tragic event the producers thought it would be bad taste to leave the joke in and so removed it from the UK theatrical release of the film. The joke however was restored for the UK VHS and DVD release of the film as well as in all further terrestrial and digital showings of International Man of Mystery on UK television.
Born in the forgettable year of 1993 in Manchester, England and haven't moved since. Culture lover, film buff, television fiend, sport freak, music mongol... I'm running out of silly ways to say this.
