Daniel Day-Lewis and director Pat O’Connor criticised Columbia Pictures for effectively shelving their 1988 film *Stars and Bars*, despite the years of work invested in it. Day-Lewis said the decision appeared driven by the prejudices and convenience of a small number of people rather than the film itself, calling that treatment “really despicable”; the episode illustrates how studios can limit a completed film’s chance to find an audience.

The comedy-drama follows a British art expert sent to the American South to acquire a Renoir, and featured Day-Lewis alongside Harry Dean Stanton and Martha Plimpton. Day-Lewis had committed to it after a demanding six-month shoot on *The Unbearable Lightness of Being*, describing the timing as “grossly inconvenient”, while O’Connor had spent three years on the project; they were told it might receive only a single New York screening.