Radio host Sook-Yin Lee was given the thumbs-up yesterday from her bosses at the CBC to strip and star in what is destined to be a steamy, controversial film by U.S. director John Cameron Mitchell.

After several weeks of fence-sitting, the public broadcaster finally gave Ms. Lee the nod to appear in Short Bus, an independent movie that Mr. Mitchell promised yesterday from New York will raise the bar for explicit sex in film.

Ms. Lee, host of CBC's Saturday afternoon radio show Definitely Not The Opera, said yesterday she is relieved and ecstatic to be given the go-ahead to accept the role in the movie to be made by her long-time pal Mr. Mitchell.

With a healthy dose of nudity, the film will be about a pan-sexual community of New Yorkers grappling with relationships, sexuality and their identities.

"I'm super happy," enthused Ms. Lee, who is in her early 30s. "I'm so relieved that I can keep doing the movie and also that I can keep doing my job and that the two worlds can be part of one."

Ms. Lee acknowledged that the project, though not in production yet, already is causing a stir. She added she is grateful "that the government [the CBC is a public corporation] is essentially behind us. It is a very good thing," said the former MuchMusic VJ, actor and musician.

"We are still very repressed as a society. With Short Bus we are just trying to make sex a bigger part of our dialogue, to show people we mustn't be ashamed about it. But many people are really freaked out about our sexuality and our bodies. This can be groundbreaking."

Initially, Ms. Lee and her radio bosses did not see eye to eye on the art-house project. Before Christmas, CBC radio executive Jane Chalmers strongly recommended that Ms. Lee turn down the role, warning it could hurt her credibility and that of the CBC. That stand angered Ms. Lee and supporters in the arts community, who launched an e-mail campaign soliciting support for the radio host.

Letters poured in from a veritable who's who of the North American arts elite, including Moby, Bruce Cockburn, Douglas Coupland, Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Yoko Ono, Gus Van Sant and Julianne Moore, all of whom argued for the artist's right to free expression.

Yesterday, CBC spokeswoman Ruth Ellen Soles said censorship was not the point. "Did we bow to pressure? No."

She added that the CBC's hesitation to rubber-stamp Ms. Lee's involvement stemmed from the amount of time the radio host would be absent while filming.

"Once we received further information about the film project, including the amount of time away from DNTO, she has been given the go-ahead to continue to participate in the feature film.

Freedom of expression was certainly not the issue. The issue was a matter of the format and process of the production of the film, and mostly her time commitment away from CBC."

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