Bad taste is not a criminal offense

Movie producers to remove printable, fake purple heart medals from website.

Following complaints from a congressman, the producers of "Wedding Crashers" on Monday yanked from the movie's Web site a printable Purple Heart advertised as a gimmick to pick up women and get free drinks.

The movie characters _ played by Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn _ use the medals to pick up women. But advocates for a bill introduced by Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., say it's no joke _ impostors also use the fake medals or fraudulent stories of medals to get ahead in business.

It's a paper heart, people. The proposed bill to protect legitimate medal awardees sounds like a good one. I hope it passes. But it takes a crude joke on a Hollywood website for this to make the news? There's a sad commentary in there somewhere about how the public views our service members.