This weekend, my wife and I saw “Knocked Up,” a movie you might say we’ve been waiting to see for about nine months – or since we found out that, like the couple in the movie,  we’re also having a baby. The more reviews I read, the more excited I was to see it. So excited, in fact, I went to extremes to avoid interviews with the cast and clips from the electronic press clip – the EPK, as they’re called. I even drove my wife nuts slamming the “mute” button every time Katherine Heigl, Seth Rogen and gang appeared in a commercial. All this in an attempt not to have the movie and its jokes ruined for me.

Now don’t get me wrong: Hosting a daily movie news show is a lot of fun.  You spend every day, thinking, writing and talking about movies.  On the great days you get to interview actors and directors that are true geniuses.  Will Ferrell and Sam Raimi come to mind.

There is one down side…you see every trailer, clip, and interview about every movie. And not just once -- multiple times.  So avoiding “Knocked Up” proved impossible.  By the time I saw the movie, I could recite every line from the trailer. I knew them so well that while I was watching the movie, I knew exactly which scenes from the trailer were coming up. 

Or so I thought.

Turns out some of the lines from the trailer aren’t actually in the movie!

I won’t give away which exact lines were changed in “Knocked Up”, but I will tell you they involve the scene where Heigl’s character tells Rogen’s character that she is pregnant.  I’ll also tell you that the scene is better in the movie than it is played out in the trailer.  All part of director Judd Apatow’s genius.

“Knocked Up” isn’t the only movie that has done this.  More and more trailers feature scenes that were either cut out of the movie or were shot just for the trailer.

“Borat” is probably the most notable example of a trailer and promotional campaign that featured multiple scenes that were not in the final cut of the movie.  Two specific examples: Borat taking pictures of a man over the wall in a bathroom stall and Borat in a parade in his underwear are nowhere to be found in the movie, but they are in almost all of the advertisements and trailers for the movie.

The trailers for Jerry Seinfeld’s new animated “Bee Movie”  are all live action.  They feature Seinfeld and Chris Rock dressed up as characters from the movie. These trailers offer us no clues as to what the movie is about or who the characters are, but they do their job. They are very funny and make me look forward to the movie. Even animated movies are not immune – we’re told The Simpsons Movie trailer includes only one scene from the actual movie.

Is this false advertising?

NO! Take it from someone who sees a lot of trailers - it’s actually the best thing ever!  When you see the trailer, you’ve often seen the best parts of the movie.  Especially in comedies, I always feel like I have seen the funniest jokes, but if the scenes are different, it’s all new.

To some, showing scenes and lines from a movie that are not in the actual movie may seem misleading – but  isn’t that the goal of trailers anyway?  They are supposed to make the movie look better than it really is so that we buy tickets. The phrase “lipstick on a pig” comes to mind when I see some trailers.

As long as these additional scenes are not too misleading, scenes that are in the trailer and not in the movie is a good thing for the average moviegoer.

Hyping yet not giving away the entire movie: The best combo this side of popcorn and butter.