Curses! 'The King's Speech' is cleaned up

The star, Colin Firth, didn't want it. Co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush didn't want it. The director, Tom Hooper, and the writer, David Seidler, didn't want it.

Nevertheless, the re-edited, family-friendly, PG-13 version of "The King's Speech" is coming to theaters Friday.

If you've seen the crowd-pleasing original -- which won four Oscars, including best picture -- you might be trying to recall what, exactly, needs sanitizing. The movie was rated R, primarily for a scene in which Firth, as King George VI, battles his severe stammer by unleashing a string of royal obscenities. It was one of the film's most memorable moments, and it had a compelling back story: Seidler, the Great Neck-raised screenwriter, overcame his own stutter much the same way.

In the weeks leading up to the Oscars, producer Harvey Weinstein floated the idea of an edited version to draw a wider audience. Instead, he drew fire.

"I am against it," Firth said.

"If you cut it, then you're going to cut one of the key thrills of the film," said Rush, who helped produce the movie.

"It's the whole point of it," Carter said.

"I wouldn't support cutting the film in any way," said Hooper.

And Seidler told Newsday: "Listen, Harvey is a very brilliant marketer and a very intelligent guy. This was not one of his better ideas."

We'll see about that when the PG-13 film opens on 1,000 screens nationwide. It will be the only version available in theaters.