![](http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/WWxAWot3EnmE45WSwFWLiA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTMxMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_ca/News/Capress/CPT113014278_high.jpg "Actor Liev Schreiber is shown in a poster for the movie "Goon".")
Actor Liev Schreiber is shown in a poster for the movie "Goon".Irish writer Brendan Behan famously said "there is no such thing as bad publicity, except your own obituary."
Most recent example: The new hockey movie Goon profiting from a fresh wave of notoriety over a sexually suggestive poster on the eve of its opening.
The comedy, written by and co-starring Canadian Jay Baruchel, with Liev Schreiber and Sean William Scott, was already being debated over its sympathetic depiction of hockey enforcers at a time people are learning more about the brain damage a career as designated tough guy can produce.
Outdoor advertiser Astral Media has removed more than three dozen posters from Toronto bus shelters Wednesday, just as the film held its gala premiere at the city's Scotiabank Theatre, the Toronto Star reported.
The reason was public complaints to Toronto City Hall about Baruchel being shown making a suggestive gesture with his tongue and two spread fingers that is generally recognized as signifying having oral sex with a woman.
"Today of all days, they had to take them down," moaned Franck Mendicino, senior vice-president of marketing of Goon distributor Alliance Films.
Baruchel reacted to the news by repeating the gesture for photographers on the premiere's red carpet.
"It must be exhausting to be that uptight," he said, adding the poster pose was a "reflexive motion" in an attempt to be funny.
Mendicino told the Star the posters had been up for two weeks and he had heard no negative comments. He blamed city officials.
"Apparently different districts of Toronto had lodged complaints," he said. "They deemed the artwork too offensive."
Elyse Parker of the city's transportation services office said the final decision was not theirs. Staff contacted Astral after receiving at least one complaint and the company removed the posters without further discussion. The Star was unable to get a comment from Astral.
That didn't stop the Hollywood Reporter, the movie industry bible, from reviving the city's old blue-stocking reputation.
"Jay Baruchel making a lewd finger-and-tongue gesture in a movie poster to promote the lowbrow Canadian hockey flick Goon has shocked Toronto Brahmins," the paper reported.
"Another classic example of the cultural divide between Quebec and Ontario, I guess," Baruchel, who grew up in Montreal, told the entertainment daily.
But co-star Schreiber was more sympathetic to the move.
"Having two small children myself, I can appreciate somebody being offended or not wanting that out there on the streets," he told the Star at Wednesday's premiere.
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