At the Sundance Film Festival director Jason Reitman was shocked, when he discovered that a steamy sex scene featuring Katie Holmes, which was in the movie when it debuted at last year's Toronto Film Festival, has vanished from his film Thank You For Smoking. "We were sitting there in shock," the movie's writer-director told the Los Angeles Times. "And I turned to other people who had worked on the film, and were completely confused. But the audience didn't seem to notice or care," E!Online quoted the filmmaker, as saying.

Rumours are that Katie's sex scenes have been yanked, and the first accusation has been directed at Tom Cruise, who, it's believed, has used his showbiz influence to kill the footage, as he didn't want his missus to be seen cavorting in the nude.

However Reitman tried to clear Cruise's name, by telling the Times that the scene was accidentally cut when two reels were spliced together in Los Angeles as filmmakers prepared a print for Smoking's four festival screenings.

Reitman also said that he plans to restore the sex scene when Fox Searchlight releases Thank You for Smoking in theaters on Mar. 17. (ANI)