MOVIE CRASHERS

Armed Guards at ‘The Butler’ Spark Outrage

At Regal Cinemas in Maryland.

Moviegoers at a Regal Cinemas in Silver Spring, Maryland, were forced to watch Lee Daniels’s The Butler with a few uninvited guests: the police. The audience—most of whom were black—left the movie insulted at what appeared to be an “abnormally heavy” amount of security, including double ticket validation and armed guards facing the audience. A tweet by one of the viewers, Tiffany Flowers, captured the insulting nature of the incident. “@Oprah I went out to support #TheButler last night and @RegalMovies thought it’d be cool to extend the onscreen discrimination to the crowd.” Regal Entertainment Group released a statement Sunday denying any wrongdoing.