Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut nixed in 'New York, I Love You'

EW has confirmed that Scarlett Johansson’s first directorial effort, a movie short starring Kevin Bacon, has been left on the cutting room floor of the upcoming anthology film New York, I Love You. But, contrary to the many Internet rumors, it’s not because the footage was unwatchable. “It’s not a bad piece at all,” says one insider on the film. “In fact, I quite liked it.”

The compilation features 12 love stories, all set in New York and shot by filmmakers as varied as Mira Nair (Vanity Fair), Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth), Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace), and Brett Ratner (Rush Hour). So why axe Scarlett’s piece? It seems her somber story about an obsessive-compulsive man who only finds peace when he reaches Coney Island and buys a hot dog just didn’t jive with the rest of the shorts. “It’s shot in black and white and there’s very little dialogue or interpersonal relationships,” explains the insider. “It just didn’t work in the context of the movie.”

But that doesn’t mean you won’t be seeing the featurette. Distributor Vivendi Entertainment plans to use Johansson’s short and the mini-movie from Russian filmmaker Andrei Zvyagintsev — which was also cut from I Love You – as promotional material for the collaborative indie (debuting later this year). The shorts will be put online ahead of the film’s release to whet fans’ appetite for the unofficial follow-up to 2007’s anthology Paris, je t’aime. As if that’s necessary given the star-studded collection of actors and directors! Check out the trailer here.