Given that it opens with a tsunami so realistic that it got an Oscar nomination for its special effects, Hereafter (out this week from Warner Home Video) got yanked from theaters in Japan even as it hits video store shelves in the United States. But that sort of ouchy coincidence happens all the time in every corner of pop culture. For instance:
· The Greatest American Hero: This popular TV show told the story of schoolteacher Ralph Hinkley, Jr. (William Katt), who's given a costume by aliens that endows him with superpowers. The show first aired on March 18, 1981, and 12 days later, John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. On the episode of the show that aired the night of the shooting, the sound of a passing airplane was used to cover up the teacher's last name; subsequent episodes overdubbed students, changing their references to him to "Mr. H," until the show finally changed his last name to "Hanley" later in the first season.
· Assassins: Stephen Sondheim's brilliant musical about successful and would-be presidential assassins (including Hinckley) got stymied by historical events twice on its way to Broadway. The show was first staged off-Broadway in December 1990, with the intention of moving it to the Great White Way within a few months. But then Operation Desert Storm happened in January of 1991, and producers worried that audiences wouldn't be in the mood for a bleak musical about the dark side of the American Dream. A revival of the show was set to finally open on Broadway a decade later, in November 2001, but this time 9/11 waylaid the production. It wasn't until 2004 that the show finally got its Broadway moment -- even winning five Tony Awards -- but some say the reason the show closed that summer was so as not to coincide with the Republican National Convention happening in New York that August.
· Glitter: Another bit of bad timing around 9/11 happened with Mariah Carey's gloriously disastrous screen vehicle. The movie was originally scheduled to open on Labor Day weekend of 2001, but got pushed back three weeks when the singer was hospitalized for exhaustion. A lot happened over those 21 days, and when the movie finally opened it not only faced critical drubbing but also caused a lot of cringing among audiences over the several appearances of the Twin Towers during various parts of the movie.