Despite this sounding like the happy ending that everyone involved had been hoping for, Slate's Kim Masters reports that it's unclear when the kids will be reunited with their now-estranged families, a situation that could be complicated if the children apply for asylum when in America on visas the studio is trying to arrange so that their peripatetic talent can reap some of the acclaim (read: promote the film by cheerily waving to some cameras to let everyone know they're OK) their brave performances have earned them:

Paramount marketing executive Megan] Colligan may feel better, but another source involved in the Paramount effort doesn't. "No matter how you look at it, their families are going to be split—maybe temporarily or long-term," he says. That's a fairy-tale ending? [...]

Of course, as our source on the studio's team points out, it's quite possible that once the children get their feet on American soil, they'll do what many in their position might do: seek asylum. If that's granted, this source says, "The studio doesn't pay anything and the American taxpayer has to cover everything." Family members at home would not be in a position to apply, so the split would seem to be indefinite.

When this idea was raised within the studio, our source says, it was met with a shrug. Asked about the issue, producer Rebecca Yeldham told us that the question of seeking asylum "has never come up in our dialogue with the families." And have the children shared any thoughts on being separated from their families for months, if not longer? Yeldham said she talked to the children last week and found that "all four boys were so happy—so enthusiastic and very excited to be where they are."

No doubt the Kite Runner boys aren't the only kids who might be excited and enthusiastic over a chance to be feted by a Hollywood studio, presumably with a little Disneyland thrown in.

Indeed, it's a dream that every child actor forced to leave their homeland by their participation in a culturally inflammatory rape scene shares, in which untold weeks of fretting about being separated from their parents are quickly forgotten as they placidly glide across shallow water in one of It's A Small World's boats, humming along to its trauma-erasing, endlessly looped theme.

• The Kite Runner Boys [Slate]
• Previously: Paramount Gets 'The Kite Runner' Kids Out Of Danger Zone, Into Temporary, Luxurious Safehouse [Defamer]

"I can't really tell you what a weight came off when they landed safely," said Megan Colligan, a Paramount marketing executive involved in the effort. The group exodus from Kabul did not come in time for the boys to obtain visas and attend the "Kite Runner" premiere, which will take place on Tuesday night at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.

But Paramount executives and others involved in the relocation effort still hope to bring the co-stars to the United States to be honored somehow and to grant their wish to visit as tourists.

"We owe these kids some carefree moments as children after everything that has gone around them," said Rich Klein, a Middle East specialist at the consulting firm Kissinger McLarty Associates, who was hired by the studio. [...]

Paramount is putting them up at a luxury hotel until more permanent housing and jobs for their guardians can be found; the boys are to attend a school with other Afghan students. The studio is also paying a per diem to relatives left behind in Kabul, and has offered to keep the entire arrangement in place long enough for the boys to graduate from high school if they choose to stay.

Studio executives asked that the specific city in the United Arab Emirates not be named, saying unwanted media attention could make it difficult for the boys to adjust to their new surroundings and could even complicate efforts to extend their temporary visas there. Other news outlets already intend to report on the boys' location, said a consultant to Paramount, who insisted on anonymity because he had not been authorized by the studio to speak on the matter: "People are being excessively aggressive. I understand the interest, but there's something bigger at stake here. The best possible outcome would be in 20 years to see a where-are-they-now piece on VH1."

Unfortunately, best-case scenarios rarely come to pass; Paramount, despite doing its best to shield the minors until they're need for that Where Are They Now? The Lost Children of The Kite Runner' 20 Years Later special mentioned above, might have to settle for a more feasible VH1 property that can simultanesouly build some buzz for the movie's eventual DVD release, such as The Surreal Life: UAE Luxury Hotel, which follows the displaced young stars, their families, and a number of studio handlers as they all try and coexist in a single high-end suite in their new homeland.

• 'Kite Runner' Boys Are Sent to United Arab Emirates [NY Times]

The filmmakers have repeatedly said they had no inkling of the danger during the making of the film. "Nobody that we were working with [in Afghanistan] ever said this could be anything but a positive thing for these kids and their families and for their culture," says producer Rebecca Yeldham. "There was such joy and enthusiasm for the sincerity and seriousness of our approach." [...]

Yeldham says the scene was in fact depicted in a less harrowing manner than originally planned, in part "out of respect for concerns of the families and out of respect for the culture." (Apparently, the filmmakers had some inkling of these issues after all.) She also said that the studio wanted to be sure the movie got a PG-13 rating so it could "reach out and touch audiences around the world of all ages."

Ahmad Kahn said he declined to remove his trousers for the scene. He and his father became concerned that the studio would use computers to make the sequence more graphic. Yeldham says that is not the case. But she acknowledged that a body double was used, in one case to show a boy undoing a pants buckle and in another to show pants being tugged slightly down. "We shot those for continuity," she says. "There was no nudity involved." Somehow, we suspect that the Mahmidzada family will be unpleasantly surprised to see that bit of continuity.

"This has been a labor of love for four years," Yeldham says. "We have taken great pains to do right by Khaled's beautiful book. And, none of us being of this culture or faith, we really, really carefully undertook every step of this process and tried to do the right thing by the kids and the families always. It's tough to be on the receiving [end] of fraudulent accusations when you know that you can hold your head high because you did do the right thing."

One has to wonder if Paramount, crumbling under the building pressure of the controversy as the release date approaches, will decide it needs to sacrifice its filmmakers' uncompromising vision in the interest of peace. While critics will probably find replacing those rape-establishing continuity shots with something far less culturally explosive, such as an innocuous, violence-defusing title card reading, "And then Hassan and the nice man shook hands and went on with their day, having never been unclothed in each other's presence. The end," a creative disaster, the alteration may save the studio the expense of having to put the children through college.

• Previously: Studio Delays 'Kite Runner' While It Tries To Figure Out How Long It Needs To Protect Endangered Child Actors [Defamer]

In an effort to prevent not only a public-relations disaster but also possible violence, studio lawyers and marketing bosses have employed a stranger-than-fiction team of consultants. In August they sent a retired Central Intelligence Agency counterterrorism operative in the region to Kabul to assess the dangers facing the child actors. And on Sunday a Washington-based political adviser flew to the United Arab Emirates to arrange a safe haven for the boys and their relatives.

"If we're being overly cautious, that's O.K.," Karen Magid, a lawyer for Paramount, said. "We're in uncharted territory."

In interviews, more than a dozen people involved in the studio's response described grappling with vexing questions: testing the limits of corporate responsibility, wondering who was exploiting whom and pondering the price of on-screen authenticity. [...]

So on Sunday Rich Klein, a Middle East specialist at the consulting firm Kissinger McLarty Associates, flew to the United Arab Emirates to arrange visas, housing and schooling for the young actors and jobs for their guardians. (The United States is not an option, he said, because Afghans do not qualify for refugee status.)

Those involved say that the studio doesn't want to be taken advantage of, but that it could accept responsibility for the boys' living expenses until they reach adulthood, a cost some estimated at up to $500,000. The families, of course, must first agree to the plan.

While we're sure that Paramount will take its responsibility for ensuring the safety of its young stars as seriously as a joint committee of their public relations and legal departments tells them to, the realization that they might have to pay for the boys' upbringing for years has surely frustrated the forward-thinking executive who long ago suggested that the production's dedication to authenticity was fiscal insanity; he'll be unbearably smug in the coming weeks, reminding everyone within earshot about how he wanted to shoot the entire movie in the safety of a Van Nuys soundstage with "ethnic enough" kids from Reseda, and replace that controversial, violence-inciting rape scene with a relatively harmless spanking.

• 'The Kite Runner' Is Delayed to Protect Child Stars [NY Times]