Platonic 'Planet of the Apes'

April 9 -- None of the apes in Tim Burton's version of Planet of the Apes will be of the "damn dirty ape" variety.

Fox studio execs have nixed director Burton's plan to have Mark Wahlberg, who plays the displaced human, and Helena Bonham Carter, a sexy ape scientist, consummate their mammalian attraction.

Special effects guru Rick Baker, who created more than 500 ape costumes for the film, told the New York Daily News that Burton "wanted to have this sexual tension between [the two]. Tim wanted her to be sexually attractive to [human] men." But we'll never get to see that hairy pairing due to its alleged nod to bestiality.

"Fox thought American audiences would recoil and that the movie would get an NC-17 rating," a studio spy tells the Daily News. "That would kill the movie [for] kids."

A 20th Century Fox rep denied reports of a studio veto. But one of Carter's pals backs up the nixing of the couple's dirty monkey love, stating, "The scene was in there originally, but the studio freaked out."

Wahlberg and Carter will have to settle for a prim kiss when the film rolls into theaters July 27.