ENCINO, Calif. — Gelson's Markets here opted to distribute a guidebook to a national film festival on a request-only basis after a customer complained to store management about a movie still inside the book. A spokeswoman for Gelson's, one of the event sponsors, declined comment. According to Christian Gaines, director of festivals for the American Film Institute, the chain had planned checkstand displays of approximately 5,000 free guides to the AFI Festival, scheduled to start later this week. However, it decided not to put the books out after a customer objected to a small photo on page 18 of the 30-page booklet — a shot from a movie that showed two women, wearing only G-strings, looking over their shoulders in a department-store dressing room. Instead of the checkstand displays, Gaines told SN, Gelson's came up with the idea of putting up AFI posters in its stores with a snipe letting customers know they can get the guidebooks upon request at the manager's desk.
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