Moviemaker wants more male nudity in films

Viewer discretion is strongly advised.

Here’s the naked truth: Male genitalia is getting unprecedented screen time at the multiplex these days, thanks in large part to comic mogul Judd Apatow (and his band of merry collaborators), who has pledged to shake Americans from their squeamishness.

Exhibit A: the Apatow-produced, R-rated heartbreak comedy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” which hits theaters today.

Protagonist Jason Segel (“How I Met Your Mother,” “Freaks and Geeks”) is presented in his full-frontal glory over the course of a cringe-worthy breakup scene that involves him naked, dripping wet and sobbing like a 6-foot-4 baby.

For emphasis, the camera cuts away from close-ups of his teary visage (he’s being dumped by his girlfriend, Kristin Bell, as the titular Sarah) to wider shots three times.

At last month’s South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, every time Segel was shown au naturel, it nearly brought the house down with laughter.

Segel, who also wrote the film’s script, based the scene on a real-life naked breakup of his own. He contemplated the inequalities between male and female film nudity before putting himself on display.

“When a woman does nudity in a movie, men immediately switch into a sexual mode,” says Segel, 28.

“For women, from what I understand, it’s not like that. They see a naked, out-of-shape man crying, and it’s funny – something weird, disturbing and disgusting we can all laugh at.”

Apatow – the comedy rainmaker behind “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up,” “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” and “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” – has made it a sort of personal mission to up the on-screen male nudity quotient.

In the 2007 faux musical biopic “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” Apatow positioned a penis behind the head of the film’s star, John C. Reilly, during an orgy scene. The upshot: Some 20 audience members reportedly stormed out of a test screening in disgust.

The closing credits for another film Apatow produced, the teen comedy “Superbad,” feature a hilarious illustrated montage of male sexual organs.

“America fears the penis, and that’s something I’m going to help them get over,” Apatow told the World Entertainment News Service in December.

“It really makes me laugh in this day and age, with how psychotic our world is, that anyone is troubled by seeing any part of the human body,” he said.

By baring all, Segel joins a select boys club of big-name stars who have gone memorably bottomless. Among them: Tom Cruise in “All the Right Moves” (1983); Bruce Willis in “Color of Night” (1994); Daniel Day-Lewis in “Stars and Bars” (1988); Richard Gere, in “American Gigolo” (1980) and again in “Breathless” (1983); and Harvey Keitel, in “Bad Lieutenant” (1992) and “The Piano” (1993).

Ewan MacGregor deserves special notice for his appearances in four films that stand in contrast to his iconic turns as Jedi master Obi Wan Kenobi in the “Star Wars” prequels.

The Scottish actor went nude for the independent films “Trainspotting” (1996), “The Pillow Book” (1996), “Velvet Goldmine” (1998) and “Young Adam” (2003) .

“If doing full frontal gets me into that club, I’m happy to do it,” Segel said.

Ironically, the spike in male movie nudity comes at a time when actresses are more and more reluctant to take it off on film for fear of being immortalized in the buff on Web sites.

“It’s more of a concern for actresses now than it has been in times past,” said Mike McPadden, editorial director of mrskin.com, a Web site dedicated to “celebrating nudity in film and TV.”

“Nudity is instant and permanent,” he says. “We get it right away, and it lives forever. So when it does happen, it’s a big deal.”