MOVIES - Aug. 8, 1990

Rated A: The New York Times has accepted an ad for a movie that carries an adults-only rating assigned to it by its own distributor. Wayne Wang’s “Life Is Cheap . . . But Toilet Paper Is Expensive” was rated X by the Motion Picture Assn. of America, but Silverlight Entertainment, arguing that the X creates an undue economic hardship on films, put its own “A” label--for adults only--on the ad and submitted it to the New York Times. The newspaper has in recent years rejected ads for X-rated movies, but has run ads for films that went out unrated. “Life Is Cheap” opens in New York on Aug. 24 and in Los Angeles in September.