James Bond No Longer A “Virgin “

The working world, as you well know, can be a cut throat place where you spend part of your day on the job and the rest trying to get a leg up on the competition.

But sometimes you have to wonder how far “too far” really is.

Take this story as an example.

When passengers on board a British Airways flight watched the new James Bond flick “Casino Royale”, some sharp-eyed viewers who’d already seen the film noticed something was different about it.

And now we know what it is.

There’s a moment in the flick where Sir Richard Branson, who runs rival Virgin Atlantic Airlines, makes a cameo appearance as an airport security scanner.

You can see his face in the original film.

But in the version being shown on the BA flight, the scene has been edited to feature him only from the back.

And the airline has also apparently blurred out a shot of one of its competitor’s tail fins, so the word “Virgin” can’t be seen.

It may seem like a petty thing to do, but there’s bad blood between the frequent flyers.

It was Virgin that provided information to U.S. and British authorities last year which led to a probe into alleged price fixing on British Airways. And it seems that bitterness lingers.

BA admits it does edit films, but only on the grounds of suitability and taste.

It appears having its arch rival get even a second of screen time in the air breaches one of those criteria, although which one isn’t clear.  

It’s not exactly corporate espionage and so far, Branson hasn’t commented on the change.

But for now, he doesn’t appear to be either shaken – or stirred – by the switch from old Virgin to new version.