Thailand Bans New King & I Flick

Plans to film the new Jodie Foster movie, Anna and the King in Thailand have been thwarted after the Thai official film board panel claimed the movie would violate the country's le majesté (attack on a sovereign) laws. According to the Nation newspaper, the Thai government - which banned the 1956 Yul Brynner starred musical The King and I in Thailand on grounds of 'historical and cultural distortions', - is likely to reject a request by 20th Century Fox to film there. The panel decided that the new film - which also stars Chow Yun Fat - sounded little different from the original The King and I. In addition, the newspaper said, controversy is brewing over plans to film another Fox film, The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio, on Thailand's Phi Phi island, with protesters charging that the production could spoil the island's unique ecology.