As if it isn't enough to be badgered by paparazzi and crazed fans, now David and Victoria Beckham, Britain's celebrity royals, are reportedly being fought over by Tom Cruise and Madonna. Does Tom want the soccer phenom to star in his next movie? Nope. Does Madonna want the former Spice Girl to do a duet? Nope. According to MSNBC.com's The Scoop, Madge and Tom are waging a battle to win the super couple over to Kabbalah and Scientology, respectively.
Pictures of Posh with Cruise's fiance, Katie Holmes, have been splashed all over the celebrity gossip magazines for the past few months. But it seems that Jewish mysticism is winning out: Those same tabloids are now carrying pictures with Mrs. Beckham sporting the red string bracelet popular among Kabbalah enthusiasts.
"Perhaps Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie have the edge," Rick Ross of Cultnews.com tells Scoop, "since Ritchie after all is a Brit and his wife keeps a house in the English countryside."
Perhaps Madonna and Cruise should just get together and form a religion called Sciencabbalism. Maybe then they'd finally land America's celebrity royal, Oprah--who according to reports, has so far been able to resist the efforts of both the couch jumper and the Material Girl.
It took almost a full seven seasons of "The West Wing" for writers to finally address what I think is the most romantic storyline in this show's entire run: Will Josh and Donna EVER get together? I mean, for real this time? As "The West Wing" draws to a close for good (sniff, sniff), I am anxiously waiting to see how the relationship between these two "friends" and colleagues resolves (or doesn't).
Viewers have watched as the tension between these two characters has been building for years, with flirtation, stolen glances, sighs, clever banter, and even long hours of intense devotion at hospital bed sides. I've heard of Christian couples waiting until they reach the altar for a first kiss (but then again, they tend not to date that long beforehand) and boyfriends and girlfriends waiting a full year before they lock lips, but SEVEN years? I have always felt that Donna and Josh have taken their chastity thing a bit too far.
The answer to my question was at least partially addressed and sealed with a kiss during the episode "The Cold" when--hooray, hooray--as Donna knocked on Josh's door to deliver fantastic news about the polls for Matt Santos, and in Josh's happiness he grabbed her and finally gave her the on-screen kiss we'd all been waiting for (well some of us at least, since I know many out there are still rooting for a return of Mary-Louise Parker's women's rights character, Amy, not only to the show but a place at Josh's side.)
And (most) viewers rejoiced! The question burning my brain now is, where to from there for Josh and Donna?
Unfortunately, and in typical "West Wing" fashion, post lip-lock viewers so far have only seen Josh and Donna briefly hem and haw about the meaning of this new drama in their long-term relationship. Is their long time relationship destined to end with only a kiss and confusion? I wondered sadly, as the credits rolled after last week's episode. Yet, evidently it will not, since scenes for this Sunday's upcoming episode, "Election Day," included a glimpse of Josh and Donna in bed together.
Hooray? Personally, I think they deserve a little more romance than a one-night stand, but I'll just have to wait and see. I think I'll set my expectations high and hold out for a marriage proposal by season's end and just hope for the best (and that, as much as I love Mary Louise Parker, that pesky Amy won't return to ruin it all....).
Tangos and foxtrots are hot, hot, hot once again, thanks to shows like “Dancing with the Stars” and movies like “Mad Hot Ballroom.” And now you can take a spin around the dance floor with a new movie that celebrates life, death, and a mean quick-step. “Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School” was the big crowd pleaser last summer when I saw it at the Waterfront Film Festival, and the film is finally releasing in theaters nationwide this weekend--only 15 years after producer Randall Miller originally shot the story as a short film with the same name.
“Marilyn Hotchkiss” tells the story of Frank Keane, a recently widowed breadmaker (played by indie film favorite Robert Carlyle), who is making a delivery run one day when he comes across a terrible car accident. He stops to help the man in the wrecked car (John Goodman) but then recklessly promises the dying stranger that he will honor the man’s final wish by keeping an appointment the man had with a childhood sweetheart at a place called the Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School.
Though the childhood sweetheart never shows up, Keane is drawn to the slightly eccentric atmosphere of the school as well as the oddball characters he meets there. He begins to take dance lessons and becomes an immediate hit with the ladies there--though the other men in the class have a different take on Keane’s sudden appearance on the scene. From there, he begins a slow process of healing, as he begins to fall in love with a woman, Meredith (Marisa Tomei), he meets in class.
“Marilyn Hotchkiss” might be too sweet or sentimental for some and a few of the plot points are a little implausible, but what I liked best about this movie--in addition to the phenomenal supporting performances from such unlikely actors as Donnie Wahlberg---is the way it represents the process of grieving. All of the characters in this movie are grieving the loss of something--a spouse, a reputation, a leg--and in the process of wallowing in that grief, they have become disconnected from the world around them. “Hotchkiss” celebrates the uneven, uncomfortable growth each character experiences as he or she takes a leap of faith by once again daring to accept the unconditional love of another--a risk that in Mariyln Hotchkiss' world is only slightly greater than the risk of embarrassing yourself by trying to learn that quick-step.
The category “Christian rockers whose band is not Christian”—think Scott Stapp, or P.O.D.--is getting less exclusive every day. But at least one band is willing to sue to get on it. Mute Math, a Louisiana prog-rock group, is suing Warner Brothers for labeling them a Christian band. Headed by Paul Meany, formerly of the out-Christian act Earthsuit, Mute Math played to raves at Christian festivals over the summer and opened for Mae, a Christian band, last fall. But when Warner released their EP on its Christian subsidiary, Word Records instead of one of their mainstream labels, the band balked, first putting their full album out on a label co-owned by Meany called Teleprompt, then filing suit.
Naturally, the band's move has bred resentment in the evangelical ranks that calling any entity Christian is a litigatable offense. But think of the upside: the case may yield a court-approved definition of the term “Christian band.” A Mute Math spokesperson sketched out a sort of negative definition in saying what Mute Math is not: "Mute Math is not a worship artist. They don't preach from (the) stage. They don't preach in their interviews." That’s a start. But Meany himself intimates there’s more to the distinction when he told Billboard, “I had no desire to be the Christian version of a real band."
Whether you’re pro-choice or pro-life, you have to wonder if holding those horrible posters and lingering outside clinics is the best way to protest abortion. Daniel Edwards, a sculptor based in Connecticut, has come up with a better way. Edwards has created an homage to the creative force in the shape of Britney Spears giving birth to her now 6-month-old son. Edwards found notoriety last year when he produced a sculpture of Ted Williams's surgically removed and cryogenically frozen head. The life-size resin figure, titled "Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston" depicts a pregnant, nude Britney crouched over a bear skin rug, with a look of severe concentration on her face and Sean Preston’s head emerging at the other end.
Britney fans are irate, sending the Brooklyn, N.Y., gallery where the statue goes on display next month more than 3,000 emails in less than a week. Activists on both sides of the debate are riled too: pro-choicers, of course, because they don’t like its message, but pro-lifers also complain it demeans their cause. Every individual is precious, of course, but it's true that we’ll be stunned if an abortion opponent ever asks, “What if Sean Preston Federline’s mom had an abortion?”
"This song goes out to everybody that wants to be free. Your addiction, lifestyle, or situation may be big, but God is bigger," proclaimed "American Idol" contestant Mandisa as she strutted onto the stage last night to sing the 2000 hit "Wanna Praise You" by the gospel duo Mary Mary. The song, also known as "Shackles" was described by the powerful vocalist--a leader at Living Proof Live conferences who's not shy about talking about Jesus, especially to judge Simon Cowell--as a "testimony that there's nothing too hard for God."
While her spirited performance had members of the audience, including Season 3 contestant George Huff, up in their seats, Cowell found the performance to be "a bit indulgent," noting that he "just didn't get the performance." Paula Abdul, however, judged it more than worthy, saying, "There's a new religion and 40 million people have now joined the church of Mandisa."
So, while we know Abdul's a convert, we'll have to wait and see on tonight's results show how viewers judge Mandisa's no-holds-barred testimony.
Imagine getting the family together for some nice evening TV and watching a music video showing:
• A girl pulling a string on her sweater to immediately enhance her breast size; • A girl in a tanning booth looking gross, then begging friends for attention; • A girl on a plastic surgery table awaiting breast augmentation; • A girl giving a speech as the President of the United States.
Those are all part of Pink’s “Stupid Girls” video, which is not always what you'd call family fare but is nevertheless relevant and powerful. It's part of an emerging genre of music encouraging young girls—and everyone young at heart—to resist the cultural messages we may see around us and instead pursue a true sense of individual responsibility and choice. “Stupid Girls” is about the potential in teenage girls, which can be wasted when they conform blindly to what they see around them. A lyrical highlight:
What happened to the dreams of a girl president? She’s dancing in the video next to 50 Cent
The video stretches the boundaries of PG-13, showing bolemic girls vomiting in the restroom and several other disturbing scenes, but the only thing scarier is the reality of the events in adolescent (and adult?) culture.
Also high on the charts is Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten,” with words and images to “reach for the distance, so close you can almost taste it, release your innovations” because “no one else can speak the words on your lips.” The wonderfully encouraging message continues with:
Drench yourself in words unspoken Live your life with arms wide open Today is where your book begins The rest is still unwritten.
Her honest assessment that “we've been conditioned to not make mistakes” is followed by her declaration that “I can't live that way.” She then invites us to “feel the rain on your skin” because “no one else can feel it for you.” This is the kind of authenticity that is required for a lifelong spiritual journey and one that many young people seek.
And finally, Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day” offers a realistic connection for anyone who needs a dose of realism rather than a message that ignores how hard life can be and how discouraging tomorrow can seem. Consider:
Sometimes the system goes on the blink And the whole thing turns out wrong You might not make it back and you know That you could be well oh that strong And I'm not wrong.
The music video for this song offers a nice positive ending, but the lyrics are giving comfort to tens of thousands of people whose bad day is oh-s0-real and for whom the connection to Powter overcomes the age factor which music executives said would stifle his career.
The ultimate peer pressure message for all ages is “you must change your behavior and conform to societal norms to be loved and to feel important.” I don’t remember electing media executives to be our Values Directors and therefore I celebrate those artists whose music and message invites us—and our kids—to think, feel, search, and act for themselves.
ABC’s "Boston Legal" regularly raises ethical and moral questions, and this week’s topic was polygamy. Two sharp and attractive clients babysit each other’s kids and share groceries, lawn equipment... and Ray Anderson. “We’ve done nothing wrong, there is no victim here,” said Mrs. Anderson #1. “In this chaotic world we live in, where there is no stability, we have found a way to raise a family in a cooperative and loving way,” said Mrs. Anderson #2.
Denise, the Boston Legal attorney whose own escapades have included affairs with a dying man and a pretend policeman, reminds them of this current fact: “Guys, the law on polygamy has been settled for a long time.”
Mrs. Anderson #2: “So, it’s time for a change.” Mrs. Anderson #1: “We are very commited to this.” Mr. Anderson (with a smile): “I know I am.”
As their case moves to the witness stand, the two Mrs. Andersons explain how their mutual efforts help to raise great kids, work in successful careers, sustain a happy household, and keep “their” man happy. They win over the judge, who is obviously jealous of their peace and happiness, as well as their attorney, who argues the logic of changing polygamy laws that were written during a "different economic construct"--when women didn’t work or vote.
Denise then argues (overstates?) that with current divorce rates at 43% and with 60% of men and 40% of women having extra-marital affiars, many people are practicing sexual polygamy, just not institutionalizing it. The show’s case for a new normative behavior is countered only at its end by a rather simple-minded (and suddenly old-fashion-sounding) attorney, who makes his case not along moral lines, but economic ones, citing tax-deductions and health insurance among the problematic issues were polygamy to be legalized.
The show’s relevance may seem laughable to some, but it shouldn't be, considering the advances in the homosexual agenda, which is practiced by a much smaller percentage of people than those practicing heterosexual promiscuity. What made the Boston Legal episode powerful was the comparison: Sexual “polygamy” is practiced to some degree in our current society, though not accepted socially, legally, or institutionally, which sounds a lot like how homosexuality has been practiced over the recent decades.
Boston Legal again brought a comedic flare to a current issue, turning a farcical topic into a challenge for the spiritual person who should be sure of his or her convictions and the foundations upon which they’re based.
A study published recently in the Journal for Adolescent Health concluded that media—TV, movies, music, and magazines—operate in teenagers’ lives like a “super peer,” a beyond-cool kid whom the whole class models its behavior on. And sex is what this cool kid is recommending.
By comparing a group of U.S. teens’ answers about what they watch, read, and listen to with their sexual activity, researchers determined that the teens got much of their input about sexual behavior from media sources. This could be a problem because, the report says, “media programming rarely depicts negative consequences from sexual behaviour, and depictions of condom and contraception use are extremely rare.”
The good news is that parents, religion, and school came in a strong second in kids’ sexual decision-making.
The editors of the design magazine I.D. have no beef with intelligent design as a concept. Their annoyance with the debate is based purely on the confusion they felt on hearing their magazine’s title so frequently out of context. Their response, however, is a thoughtful, captivating March/April issue devoted to “Design and Religion: New Forms for Faith.”
Spanning a number of faiths, stories examine material religious culture, from the architectural transformation of a Houston sports arena into Joel Osteen’s megachurch to new household technology that allows Orthodox Jews to finesse Shabbat restrictions—programmable light-switch timers are just the start of it—to art inspired by Icelandic folklore. Designers can’t resist kitsch, so Jack Chick’s evangelical shock-tracts are studied, as are Barnaby Barford’s prank Christmas ceramics. But overall the editors’ degree of seriousness and professionalism, whether they are examining a new mosque in Singapore or showcasing four architects' mockups of their dream meditation spaces, is itself an uplifting experience.
The metaphysical motif of the final “Sopranos” season rolled on last night, as a comatose Tony,shot by his Uncle Junior, chose not to “walk into the light,” even as he was driven toward it by Paulie Walnuts’s yammering at his bedside.
As revealed during last week’s episode, Tony's mind, in his coma, is replaying his life, though this version is far different than what actually happened. In his reverie, Tony, some sort of salesman, is in possession of a briefcase belonging to a Kevin Finnerty. Checking into a hotel, he is asked to present ID, and having no other ID, he uses Finnerty’s. At that point, a group of Buddhist monks accost him, demanding accountability for a bum heating system Finnerty sold their monastery.
Forward to this week’s episode, and Tony finds himself served with papers by the Crystal Monastery. Hoping to uncover the true identity of Kevin Finnerty, he seeks out the monks, who chuckle each time he tells them that he isn’t Finnerty. If you haven’t gotten it by now, Tony’s new name is a thinly veiled reference to the concept of infinity. One of the merry monks explains that, in the end, everything is one, but for now, someone needs to be responsible--for the heating system, in this case. Tony has also been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and therefore, isn’t sure whether or not he really isn’t Finnerty, so he heads to a Finnerty family reunion in search of more answers.
Upon reaching the Inn at the Oaks, he is greeted by a man he does not recognize, played by Steve Buscemi--who played Tony’s cousin in season five, and whom Tony had to murder. Tony starts walking toward the door, but doesn’t want to relinquish his briefcase. The man tells him that he has to, that his family is waiting for him, and that there’s no business allowed inside. Tony is hesitant to let the man have the case, though he doesn’t seem to know why, until he hears a small voice--Meadow’s voice--calling him back. Tony slowly opens his eyes to see a blurry Meadow and Carmella at his side.
Will Tony be a changed man after his near-death experience? Will he take responsibility for his actions, as the monks have asked? In his coma, did he overhear anything that he shouldn’t have?
The episode raises many questions and is full of just as many afterlife clichés--the Buddhist concepts of consciousness and existence, the idea of heading into the light (Tony keeps seeing a beacon in the distance), and the hope that we are all to be reunited with family at the end. But Tony chooses not to transcend. No matter how tempting the afterlife looks, his family still needs him.
If you’ve ever wanted to witness a crucifixion with your own eyes, well, now you can, thanks to the online computer game Roma-Victor. The multiplayer game is designed to be an authentic recreation of the British Empire in Roman times, in which players live virtual lives as slaves and citizens. However, for players who attempt to abuse the game or cheat in any way (called “ganking”), Roma-Victor has decided only one punishment is brutal enough--crucifixion.
The first crucifixion of a player was held just last week. Cynewulf--who is actually some guy from Flint, Mich.--was the first player within Roma Victor to be crucified. He was hung on a cross for a full seven days through digital reconstruction at the provincial town of Corstopitum (modern day Corbridge in Northumberland, England).
Kerry Fraser-Robinson, the CEO of the game’s publisher, said in a statement on the Roma-Victor website that while crucifixion in present-day society carries with it religious overtones, game-makers added crucifixion as a punishment simply as a way to make the game historically accurate. The game is currently in the final stages of testing and will officially launch on July 1, after which thousands of players will be able to live out their own virtual lives in ancient Britain. However, Roma-Victor has--so far, anyway --decided not to add to its arsenal of tricks either virtual penance or virtual forgiveness for virtual sins. Too bad. That might make for a truly fresh addition to the world of gaming.
Easily the best media moment for the Mormon Church in the past year is “New York Doll,” a documentary about the last days of rock bassist Arthur “Killer” Kane. The movie, released theatrically last fall and on DVD April 6th, shows that it’s possible to be a Latter-day Saint while maintaining legendary cult status, reuniting with your old band, and finding redemption.
Kane was a founding member of the New York Dolls, a group that was for the punk/New Wave revolution what, say, Buddy Holly was to rock ‘n roll’s first generation: a bolt-from-the-blue talent that changed everything, then vanished. The film finds Kane living in Los Angeles in 2004, 30 years after the band dissolved, thanks to drug-related deaths, heroine and Kane’s own alcoholism. After hitting bottom—he jumped out a window after seeing former bandmate David Johanson in the movie “Scrooged”—Kane discovered Mormonism, which he credits with saving his life. We meet Killer’s co-workers at the Family History Center at L.A.’s LDS Temple, as well as his former and current bishops and other assorted Mormons—all apparently reasonable, faithful people who accept Kane’s history and support him when the call comes from London for a reunion with the two other remaining living Dolls.
Greg Whitely, the director of “New York Doll” met Kane at church, and the film appealingly recreates his slow-dawning realization that Kane, a gawky, seemingly naïve specimen, is the object of awe and respect among some of rock’s top names. What makes “New York Doll” a serious spiritual film is Kane’s (and his co-religionists’) appreciation for the Dolls’ reunion as a sacred moment. The concert's critical and musical success pales for Kane next to the chance to restore his relationship with Johanson, whom he’d turned into a symbol of his own failure and lost glamour, and whose attention and love he still seeks out as a supplicant.
Kane’s renewal doesn’t return him to a pure state, but gives him his life back with his scars intact. We see that he sees it, and through the rasping, impish Johanson’s goading about his conversion, Kane exhibits a dignity that his old pal’s stardom can’t tarnish. Kane unexpectedly died less than a month after returning from London, from leukemia, and this film is the perfect epitaph to a life badly lived, but fully realized.
The creators of "South Park" promised a war against Scientology, and they made good on their pledge last night, with the opening episode of the always-irreverent series' 10th season.
The brouhaha started when, as you probably know, Isaac Hayes, the voice of “Chef,” quit “South Park” when they mocked his religion, Scientology, in an episode about Tom Cruise. Show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone questioned Hayes’ motives, since the show has skewered Christianity, Judaism, and practically every other form of worship that exists. Parker and Stone then released a press statement with their declaration of war: “So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!" (You can read more about the whole saga in this blog post.)
Last night's season premiere, called “The Return of Chef!”, was the next battle in that war, and Parker and Stone can declare themselves the winners this time. Parker and Stone concocted a scenario in which Chef gets kidnapped and brainwashed by a child-molesting cult called the “Super Fun Club.” Kyle, Stan, and Cartman areworried about their friend, so they take him to a psychiatrist. Even if you don’t know much about Scientology, you probably remember the uproar that surrounded Tom Cruise’s appearance on “The Today Show,” when he criticized Brooke Shields for taking antidepressants and railed against the evils of modern psychiatry.
In the end, Chef died. Well, he didn’t just die--he was impaled, shot, struck by lightning, and eaten by a bear. The show’s writers added more insult to injury with Kyle’s eulogy, in which he urged the mourners (and the audience) to remember the guy Chef was before “the fruity little club… scrambled his brain.”
But rather than focusing all their anger on Hayes, the person who actually quit the show, Parker and Stone lashed out at Scientology as a whole. This may have something to do with the rumors that Tom Cruise himself was responsible for getting reruns of the episode that mocked him yanked from Comedy Central’s lineup. Best part? The drama’s not over. This morning, as employees around the country gathered at their water coolers, Fox News’ Roger Friedman announced that Hayes had had a stroke in January and that the decision to quit must have been made by someone else. Is this a clever PR stunt? Or an ill-timed medical announcement? No one’s sure yet, so stay tuned.
Did somebody say “Passion Effect”? A recent CNN piece claims the greatest boon of Mel’s “The Passion of the Christ” fell not to Christian filmmakers but to two Christian P.R. firms that help Hollywood navigate church basements to market their movies to the faithful. For its recent release "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," CNN explains, Disney hired California-based Motive Marketing, which "designed and maintained an extensive 'faith and family outreach' marketing effort, while Grace Hill Media handled the movie's grassroots publicity.”
Most Christian media endeavors are treated as suspect—when they are not subliminally trying to convert the public, they are moneychangers in the Temple. And the article has Paul Lauer, president of Motive Marketing, defending the idea of doing p.r. for Jesus: “The company's goal isn't about marketing movies as much as providing congregations with tools to further their goals.” Motive, he points out, provided study guides for church groups and teachers for both “Narnia” and Mel’s “Passion.”
Don’t discount the importance of these firms, however. Not only are Lauer and the folks at Grace Hill relentless and sharp (Lauer was behind the masterly marketing of “The Passion”), Christian P.R. is crucial to the rise of Christian-oriented entertainment. Hollywood execs have long realized that the evangelical market is out there; but until they can reach it and move it, they aren’t likely to cater to it. As Motive and Grace Hill prove their worth, the suits will be more comfortable green-lighting faith-based films, creating the long-awaited "Passion Effect."
In "National Lampoon’s European Vacation," Rusty Griswold discovers, much to his dismay, that every English television station airs the exact same show on cheese-making. So, when I saw that my local PBS station was airing a documentary called “The Cheese Nun,” I was both intrigued and hesitant. What Sister Wendy is to art, Sister Noella is to cheese. A Benedictine nun in Bethlehem, Conn., this former Sarah Lawrence student has been dubbed the “celebrated champion of France's famous raw-milk cheeses” by the New York Times, which also notes that she has “achieved near rock-star status among cheesemakers and cheese-lovers."
A cloistered nun--and in-house cheesemaker--at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, Sister Noella earned a doctorate in microbiology from the University of Connecticut after the abbey sent several sisters out into the world in order to learn new techniques to help with their farming and food production routines. She soon earned a Fulbright Scholarship and traveled around France for a year, visiting with traditional cheesemakers. Not only did she learn techniques passed down from generations, but she also studied the microbes and fungi from the historical cheese caves that give les fromages their distinctive tastes.
Due to modern methods of mass production, traditional cheese making is a dying art, and these microbes may be lost to modernity--though not if Sister Noella can help it. This is one nun on a distinctively different crusade.
The documentary, originally aired in 2004, is fascinating for a number of reasons: The microbiology of cheese, as it turns out, is extremely engaging, as is the French tradition of cheese-making. But most delightful is Sister Noelle herself, whose enthusiasm is absolutely contagious. And while she enjoys a cloistered lifestyle, much like her cheeses as they age, she does get out to accept numerous honors, including the French Food Spirit Award.
Well, not the Methodist Church, but the "Inside Man" star is said to have bought an apartment in a historic Methodist church near Washington Square Park in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. A realty company is converting it into a luxury condiminium project called the Novare. I’m assuming it was not the developer’s classy tagline for the place—“Come to Be Reborn”—but the 23 foot ceilings that attracted Denzel.
Even a jaded Gothamite wouldn’t be stripped of his Balducci’s shopping card for finding the conversion of a house of worship into exclusive condos a little tacky. New York Episcopalians still shudder when they pass the former Church of the Holy Communion at Sixth Avenue and West 20th Street, which was sold with the understanding the landmark building would be a drug rehabilitation center; shortly after it became the Limelight disco, which was reknowned for being, well, the opposite of a drug rehabilitation center.
The checkered past of Denzel's new residence—formally the Washington Park Methodist Church from its founding in 1860 until last year—cranks up the irony further: During the upheavals of the 1960s, the "Peace Church" served as a meeting and performance hall for Vietnam War protesters, folk singers and social action groups, including the Black Panthers.
When I saw the title of the film "On a Clear Day," my first impulse was to complete the old phrase--"you can see forever." But this movie isn't about seeing forever; it's a small, intimate look at ordinary people who deal with forces much larger than themselves. Frank (Peter Mullan) is a lifelong factory worker who has recently lost his job, he’s estranged from his adult son, and he’s listless in his marriage to wife Joan (Brenda Blethyn). So, to combat his boredom and depression in forced retirement, he comes up with the idea of swimming the English Channel.
Immediately, I’m thinking of other British working-class-triumph films like “Billy Elliot” and “The Full Monty.” Sure enough, once the movie starts, the other staples of this genre begin to appear. There’s the motley cast of friends, including the lifelong best buddy, the out-of-place foreigner (here, a Chinese shopowner who rarely speaks but is secretly wise), and the young ne’er-do-well who just wants to fit in (“Lord of the Rings” alum Billy Boyd). There’s the wife who keeps a secret from her husband, although it’s a pretty tame one--she’s taking classes to get her license as a city bus driver. In true spiritual fashion, she has to take the test three times before passing.
Whether you’re watching Frank go through a grueling training process or watching as he tries in vain to have a conversation with his son (a stay-at-home-dad who thinks his father is ashamed of him), you’re always hoping he succeeds. Peter Mullan wisely doesn’t play Frank like a hero. Frank makes mistakes and often mistreats the people around him. His goal of swimming the Channel is also a way for other characters to make life changes of their own, whether it’s rekindling a marriage or standing up to discrimination.
“On a Clear Day” is a feel-good movie and isn’t the least bit embarrassed about it. Gaby Dellal’s direction is straightforward up until the very end of the film when she lets symbolism go a little bit too far. The most agonizing plot detail--that Frank and Joan had another son who drowned as a child--is never given the proper emotional levity. It’s used as a hamfisted device to explain first Frank’s motivation for swimming and second his disconnection from surviving son Rob.
“On a Clear Day” is at its cinematic and spiritual best as a film about rebirth. The role of water in the story is multifold. The denouement of Frank and Rob’s argument with each other comes when Rob jumps into a pool with all his clothes on. Frank’s redemption is also found in water--the cold, black water of the Channel--as his family stands on the French shore hoping he makes it across. There are some beautiful shots of Frank alone in the water, his arms and legs moving in time. It’s a shame the film can’t just let Frank swim in peace, because the story would be much more powerful if he could.
A critic for Canada’s National Post examines the new field of Seinfeld Studies, as it is represented in “Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain,” a recently published collection of academic writings on the cultural significance of the long-running sitcom. Among the theses included: “Seinfeld, Situation Comedy, and the Encounter with Nothingness,” “Seinfeld is a Jewish Sitcom, Isn't It: Ethnicity and Assimilation on 1990s American Television,” and, inevitably, “Jane Austen, Meet Jerry Seinfeld.” Another essay, “Male Anxiety and the Buddy System in Seinfeld” might as well be titled “Jerry Seinfeld, Meet Jerry Falwell,” as it exposes the latent homosexuality in Seinfeld and George Costanza’s relationship: a nonsexual crush that the author, Joanna L. Di Mattia, Monash University, identifies as “homosociality.”
It’s the National Post’s writer, Richard Fulford, who comes up with the question relating Seinfeld and religion: Are the Seinfeld Four in heaven or hell? The case for heaven: “World crises never intrude, politics is barely mentioned, no one worries about food or lodging, sex is available (if sometimes complicated), and money seldom arises as a serious problem.” On the other hand: “In the Seinfeldian world a great deal happens but almost none of it much matters. In all these ways it closely resembles high school. That answers the theological question. They're living in hell.”
Who says there's no "Passion" effect, no rush to mimic Mel Gibson's phenomenal success? Details magazine reports in its April cover story featuring Vin Diesel--whose recent filmography includes "The Chronicles of Riddick" and "The Pacifier"--that he is preparing to star as "one of the baddest conquerors in all history: Hannibal, the elephant-riding Alps-crosser." And, oh yeah, he's doing the film in Punic.
So, the sword-and-sandals epic isn't exactly the type of "religious revival" media speculated about after "The Passion of the Christ," but Diesel certainly is making like Mel and joining the dead language club. "It is nutty!" Diesel explained to queries from Detail's Kevin Gray. “But I don’t have a choice. I got to do it right."
Let's hope it's more "Boiler Room" right, than "xXx" right.
Blowing up a national landmark to make a statement about terrorism. Unleashing a dangerous virus for political gain. No, I am not describing the latest news headlines. It's the plot of “V for Vendetta,” the latest blockbuster action flick from the makers of the “Matrix” trilogy.
In the film, based on a graphic novel of the same name, “V” (played by Hugo Weaving) is an anti-hero living underground in a futuristic and totalitarian Great Britain. He has spent years plotting an elaborate plan of revenge against everyone who was once involved in a horrible scientific experiment in a prison camp where he was tortured. His plans take a detour, however, when a young woman, Evey (Natalie Portman), comes to his aid and he must return the favor. “V” begins to care for Evey, and she soon becomes inextricably involved in his crusade to rally the fearful masses from complacency to revolution against the military regime under which they live.
“Vendetta” wants to be an important movie about ideas--political, moral, and spiritual--and it certainly starts out that way. In the first 15 minutes, we are inundated with numerous not-so-subtle references to 9/11, the Iraq war, the Patriot Act, and the potential legacy of the current Bush administration. The movie is also quick to take on religion, as spiritual books such as the Koran are banned in this Orwellian society. And while the government slogan, seen everywhere in the film, states, “Strength in Unity. Unity in Faith,” the slogan is not referring to faith in God but blind faith in a corrupt government. Even “V” himself doesn’t have much use for God, as he explains early on in the story: “Unlike God, I don’t leave things to chance.” (For more on the theory that this is a deliberately and completely an anti-Christian film, click here.)
And while all of the spectacular special effects and endless allegorical allusions to contemporary society pulled me in at first, by the film’s end “Vendetta” was an unsatisfying look at courage, justice, hate, and love. For the audience to care about "V" as a heroic figure, we need to see good in him that we do not see in the enemies he is fighting--but we don't. "V" is as much of a monster as the people he destroys. There is no virtue in his vengeance and no interest in his own redemption.
During its two hours of murder and mayhem, "Vendetta" didn't attempt to answer any of the significant questions it raised about life in a truly godless society, and it also didn't give those questions the serious reflection they deserved.
Dover, Penn.--the town made famous last year because of a court decision to overturn a school board requirement to teach intelligent design in the classroom--is about to get the Hollywood treatment. Variety reports that Paramount Studios is developing a film version of the trial, which will focus on the way the court’s decision divided the community. Ronald Harwood, the screewriter for the project, has said that he is using "Inherit the Wind," the well-known play about the Scopes monkey trial, as his moral touchstone for the project.
Before he was the 40-year-old virgin, Steve Carell had a hilarious cameo role as the competition news anchor to Jim Carey's Bruce in "Bruce Almighty." Now, Universal Pictures plans to release a Summer 2007 follow-up called "Evan Almighty," with Carell as its central character.
"Evan Almighty" will see the return of Morgan Freeman playing the part of God, who informs Evan (Carell)--an anchorman-turned-politician--that a flood is coming so he must build an Ark in the style of Noah.
In my opinion, Carell's few minutes on screen during "Bruce Almighty" completely stole Jim Carrey's thunder. That, together with Carell's recent successes in "Anchorman" and "Virgin," makes me think that "Evan Almighty" will be a Summer '07 must-see.
The April issue of GQ, the magazine for dudes with elegantly mussed hair, baits us with the cover line, “The New Christian Sex Craze.” This continues a series of articles on conservative Christians, most of which have peddled fringey crackpots as just average Christian Joes. The sex craze in question, however, turns out to be the chastity movement, which writer Walter Kirn discovers with a visit to the L.A.-based Christian college Biola University and an interview with Stephen Arterburn, co-author of the Christian man’s no-sex guide “Every Young Man’s Battle.”
Kirn, who admits that he grew up a sexually repressed Mormon, confesses a lot of admiration for both the boys of Biola—who use scotch tape and paper to hide Jennifer Aniston’s curves on magazine covers and talk dirty to one another to quell urges—and for Arterburn. He’s astonished at how chastity has become a form of rebellion, in which sex is ardently hoped for but delayed: “The new abstinence is not anti-sex but pro-sex, and that’s it’s ingenious selling point,” he writes.
Strangely, Kirn is the one who comes across as anti-sex: His repeated jibe against the passionate for Christ is that they are bound to be disappointed when the real thing happens.
Within seconds after the opening credits of "Thank You For Smoking"--the new film directed by Jason Reitman, based on the novel by Christopher Buckley, with an all-star cast including Robert Duvall and William H. Macey--the film's central character, Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), a successful pro-tobacco lobbyist, explains in voice over narration: "I front an organization that kills 1,200 people per day."
As the film progresses, Nick's blunt self-awareness and string of self-associations and rationalizations about his job are never-ending. His alliances include membership in a group he refers to as "The M.O.D. Squad"--M.O.D. standing for Merchants of Death--which meets regularly for dinner and drinks. The group has a membership of three, and Nick tosses off the group's name with a chuckle, as if it's quaint. Nick's role is as the "Merchant" representing Big Tobacco, while his two fellow "Merchants" represent the firearms lobby and the alcohol lobby, respectively.
In one of Nick's stand-out moments, which is touching and reflective (insert sarcasm here), his son asks him about his job and whether or not any average Joe is qualified to be a tobacco lobbyist. Daddy responds to his son's question with complete sincerity and a straight face: "No. It requires a certain moral flexibility." "Moral flexibility," of course, is one way of describing life as the "front man" for a product that kills 1,200 people a day.
And yet, throughout the film, Nick Naylor somehow retains a kernel of sympathy from the viewer.
How does he do it? Perhaps it's the father-son relationship that gives Nick's character its redeeming quality, despite all the moral problems I have with his character and job. His dedication to being the best dad he can possibly be is evident throughout. He approaches fatherhood with all the tenderness, love, and effort one can hope for from a weekend-divorced dad, albeit in a rather offbeat, unusual manner (since most dads are not sincerely trying to instill disturbingly distorted pro-tobacco, lobbyist-tactic moral lessons into their kids). The father-son dimension in this narrative is amazingly well-developed and crafted, making the viewer care and empathize in a way that reminded me of Tony Soprano's character: He is a man who wants desperately to be a good family man, yet who commits all these reprehensible acts.
Or maybe it's simply the comedy factor, since this film offers many laugh-out-loud moments, not least of which includes Nick's son's attendance at a school called "St. Euthanasius." Rob Lowe puts in a few hilarious moments as a ridiculous Hollywood executive who dons a kimono when he's alone. The humor overall is certainly dark, but not so dark that you feel disturbed leaving the film. Which perhaps is the biggest part of the problem: Nick Naylor as a character manages to charm--even seduce--the audience, with his regular-guy, dedicated-dad persona, in such a way that you almost want to forgive him. You almost want him to win--despite his horrific allegiances. Which means that somehow if you end up with the least bit of sympathy for Nick, you are de facto sympathizing with Big Tobacco and the firearms and alcohol lobbies by default.
It's amazing what a persuasive character can do. Or is it just that there's a little redemption in everyone--no matter what they stand for?
"The West Wing’s" great run is on its last leg, but producers are making a run to the finish, which will include special guest appearances (Jon Bon Jovi’s on next week) and cameos from the show’s former stars. I was also glad to see—at least for one final time—"West Wing" return to its roots of leveraging its political plotline to engage in the kind of moral and ethical dilemmas that should always matter for a spiritual seeker. When Ron Silver’s character Bruno (who advises Alan Alda’s Arnie Vinick in his presidential campaign against Jimmy Smits’s Matt Santos) finds Santos’s briefcase with damaging information inside, he confronts Vinick with the opportunity to take Santos down with the information inside.
“It will make you President,” he says.
Vinick’s absolute resolve to “give it back immediately” turns into “I don’t wanna know anything about it” to “let’s sleep on it” to “keep it,” as he becomes aware of the secret hidden inside. This, I believe, is the kind of moment that defines the true spirituality of any person: Can we do the right thing, even when it may keep us from achieving an ambition or living a dream? Vinick eventually chooses to give the briefcase back, but there’s still room for the secret to get out.
I’m curious to see what they do with this one, and will tune in for the kind of typically bold writing that often marks a show’s final weeks. And even if it’s lame, I’ll at least get a Bon Jovi song, some reunion cameos, and the memory of a show which often moved past politics to ask the significant questions of life.
Now we are beyond the second episode into the premier season of HBO's new family drama "Big Love"--and I am disgusted. I blogged earlier about my concerns for what looked to be "Big Love's" attempt to "normalize" a polygamous relationship--and after Episode 2, my fears have been confirmed.
Poor, poor Bill Hendrickson! He's popping the Viagra to keep up with all three of his wives, who are just dying to bed him as he makes his nightly rounds. And though Barb, Nicki, and Margey bicker and fight over who gets him when and how much, they still submit to what Bill calls "the principle" (polygamy within their breakaway version of Mormon faith) and his God-like rule over the family finances, home life, and sex schedule.
Whether it's Carmela's staying in a seriously problematic home life on "The Sopranos" or the three "Big Love" wives who negotiate whatever power they can grasp, TV's message about women and religion lately seems to be: Just do the best you can with what you got! Grin, bear, and work with it.
I find that seriously depressing and unsatisfying. While I cringe at times watching Carmela's sacrifices, Barb, Nicki, and Margey just take the cake on "Big Love."
Dedicated "Sopranos" fans were shocked last week by the end of episode, the surprise shooting of Tony Soprano by his Uncle Junior (who's gone a bit senile in recent years). Last night's follow-up show focused--of course--on the aftermath of the shooting, as experienced by both Tony, through a series of coma-induced dreams, and as experienced by his family in their intense grief at the possibility of loosing him.
After last season's downward turn in Tony's character--when he was forced to live without Carmela's constant presence and her capacity to keep him at least somewhat grounded despite his criminal tendencies--I can't help but wonder: Is this shooting the beginning of Tony's path to redemption? Is his suffering in a hospital bed a painful penance for his sins? Is Tony's spilling of blood--something that often happens on the show to others but never in any significant way to Tony before now--a kind of Jesus-like giving of his own blood as payment for his past digressions and even those of his captains and heavies?
Two significant things in last night's episode raised this question for me. First were the dream sequences Tony experienced. In his dreams, Tony was a regular salesman with no criminal past who's stuck on a sales trip trying to get back to his perfect-sounding family. In other words, Tony's fantasy is of being a regular guy, not a mobster who is continually juggling his role as a hardened criminal and dedicated family man. What will happen if he comes out of this coma? Will Tony express the same desire to turn away from mafia life and set himself on a straight and narrow path like in his dreams? Will this near-death experience allow him to finally free that sympathetic, caring man we can all see glimpses of here and there throughout the entire run of "The Sopranos"?
The second significant moment came from Carmela, whom I've always regarded as the moral compass and central religious figure on the show. Carmela recalls, while weeping at Tony's bedside, when several years earlier, while she and Tony were fighting she told him he was going to hell. Tears fall down her face and onto her husband's body as he lays there in a coma, and Carmela tells Tony that he's a good man, that he's not going to hell, that she is sorry for ever saying that. Are Carmela's confessions, her forgiveness, and especially her tears a kind of "christening moment" for her husband? A renewed welcoming back into not only her family's life, but also a baptismal renewal for his life and path in general?
Maybe I'm too optimistic. But maybe there's hope for Tony yet.
We all loved “Walk the Line” and Reese Witherspoon’s Tennessee-belle acceptance speech at the li’l ol’ Oscuhs. And we hated to see Dolly Parton’s “Travelin’ Thru”—the only Best Song nominee to mention Jesus--get passed over in favor of some rant about pimps.
So if you’re like us, set your Tivo now for the Academy of Country Music Awards, which announced its nominees last week and will be televised from Las Vegas on May 23. Three of this year’s Song of the Year nominees make a big deal of faith: "American Idol" winner Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” which recently got bucked out of first place on the Country charts by fellow nominee “When I Get Where I’m Going,” Brad Paisley’s duet with Dolly; Brooks & Dunn are also nominated for their “Believe.”
We’re feeling like Jesus is a lock—and if He wins, we’ll celebrate by throwing on Alan Jackson’s new album, “Precious Memories,” a collection of gospel favorites (he reportedly recorded the album at his mother’s urging), including “Washed in the Blood of the Lamb,” “I’ll Fly Away,” and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”
The Hasidic reggae singer Matisyahu is everywhere these days--Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, record store displays, iTunes most-downloaded lists--but the phenomenal, and surprising, success he's found doesn't seem to be enough for him. The New York Times reports that, on the eve of the release of his new album, "Youth," Matisyahu called his longtime managers--and fired them.
Aaron Bisman and Jacob Harris, the young men who founded the nonprofit music label JDub, had the foresight and creativity to look at a bearded, black-hatted Hasid and see his star potential. They nurtured Matisyahu's career and shared the glory of his rise to fame--only to be dumped as his career began to really take off. "He said, 'I don't know if you guys are old enough or have enough experience,'" Bisman told the Times regarding Matisyahu's reasoning.
Being the hip but squeaky-clean Orthodox Jew singing about God, the messiah, and values is a major part of Matisyahu's appeal. Along with catchy tunes, his personae is his appeal. It's hard to reconcile the idea that this Hasid would fail to show the basic Jewish value of gratitude by sticking with the managers who were responsible for his success.
Not surprisingly, some of his most strident supporters are shocked at the betrayal. One of the bloggers at jewschool.com describes his own longstanding efforts at pushing Matisyahu's career forward in every way possible, and then comments on this week's news:
The last three years for Matisyahu have been nothing less than miraculous. He has gone from playing half-empty nightclubs in New York City to playing for sold-out crowds at Madison Square Garden, and headlining with his own musical heroes like Phish’s Trey Anastasio and Bob Marley’s backup band, The Wailers....
While I marvel at his success, and wish to be proud that I had some part in making it happen, I can only watch in horror and disappointment as he presses a knife firmly into the back of the man squarely responsible for his stardom — the man under whose chuppah I once watched him sing: Aaron Bisman. What should be a time of simcha [happiness] and pure joy is now overcast by the shadow of gut-wrenching heartbreak.
That same blog posting quotes a Rolling Stone profile in which Matisyahu makes his naked ambition clear:
[W]hile the 26-year-old artist is devoutly religious, he is not letting that stand in the way of getting his music heard. “Who doesn’t want success?” he asks. “There’s some artists that say they don’t, and they’re not looking for it, but I’m not one of those artists.”
In the end, I guess it shows that even the most pious among us are suceptible to the seductions of fame and fortune. I am not one of those people who holds someone to a higher moral standard because he wears a yarmulke and only eats kosher food, but putting profit before people and money before ethics is not kosher in anybody's religion.
The cable channel is planning a reality show, slated to air this summer, that promises to delve "into the world of psychic phenomena in a way never seen before." "The Gift," as the show will be called, will feature eight amateur psychics who are put through an "emotionally intense 'boot camp for intuitives' run by the world's greatest psychics." A psychic "Survivor," if you will.
Apparently, SciFi already has some psychics on staff, seeing as the promotional copy asks the very same question that's in our heads: "But then again, they already know who's going to win!... Or do they?"
If you think you have the chops, you've got just one day left to submit your application at http://www.scifi.com/thegift.
What’s that saying about getting out of the kitchen if you can’t stand the heat?
Looks like Isaac Hayes, the voice of Jerome "Chef" McElroy, doesn’t like what those "South Park" boys--Matt Stone and Trey Parker--have been cooking. E! Online reports that Hayes has asked to be let out of his contract due to the series’ "inappropriate ridicule of religious communities."
Hayes, a Scientologist, did not specifically cite in his complaint the 2005 “Trapped in the Closet” episode, which goofed on Scientology with visits from Tom Cruise and John Travolta, but felt that “as a civil rights activist of the past 40 years” he could not support a show that made fun of people’s beliefs any longer. "There is a place in this world for satire,” Hayes said, “but there is a time when satire ends and intolerance and bigotry towards religious beliefs of others begins.”
Co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker feel that the only intolerance on display is Hayes’s, and that he’s "cashed plenty of checks" mocking Christianity and other religions. Stone told the AP that the team "never heard a peep out of Isaac in any way until we did Scientology. He wants a different standard for religions other than his own, and to me, that is where intolerance and bigotry begin."
In fact, while South Park has been busy parodying many religions and sects, including Christianity, Mormonism, Islam, and Judaism, the show has also been subversively teaching audiences about these faiths.
"One of the most interesting episodes of South Park dealt with a Mormon family moving to town,” noted Mark Pinsky, author of “The Gospel According to Disney,” during a Beliefnet roundtable discussion on television and religion. “In less than half an hour, the show gave a history of the denomination that was both knowing and satiric. The conclusion was a knockout--the Mormon kid who was so badly treated lets fly. Yes, our Scriptures may seem wacky to you, he says, and maybe the Book of Mormon wasn't discovered or written by Joseph Smith, but so what? My religion provides me with a stable loving family. Wow! And this from a potty-mouth cartoon!”
If Hayes was offended by the Scientology-skewering episode, he should just come out and say so. But to say that he’s taking a stand for all people of faith after almost nine years with the show seems a bit disingenuous, especially after telling the New York Daily News in January 2006 that Matt and Trey are “equal-opportunity offenders. Don't be offended by it. If you take it too seriously, you have problems,” according to E! Online.
Still, it's nice to know that there's someone willing to stand up for the "followers" of illusionist David Blaine, "Blaintologists," as featured in "South Park" episode "Super Best Friends."
Damian “Jr Gong” Marley (Bob’s youngest son) plans to keep on walking the “Road to Zion,” as one of his songs repeats. And with his latest album, “Welcome to JamRock,” released in September 2005, he has walked his way somewhere else too: the top of my play list.
“Welcome to Jamrock” is reminiscent of the music that is born from deep within long, sweeping dreadlocks and the smoke that curls around them. But what Marley has done to create this masterpiece is combine the sounds his father would approve of with the current splashiness of the American R&B/hip-hop wave. His song “Road to Zion” features Nas and “Beautiful” features bad-boy Bobby Brown.
Not only is this album blatantly and shamelessly political--Marley explains the reality of poverty and drug-addictions in Jamaica and comments liberally on war--but also it is deeply spiritual. In “Confrontation,” Marley touts the importance of having faith:
You see, you gave precious life to me So I live my life for you... You... You see, you've always been there for me And so I'll be there for you... You... …Bless your eyes and may your days be long May you rise on the morning when His kingdom come.
Like all Rastas, Marley believes that with Jah (the Rastafari word for God), everything is gonna be all right.
Will I seh, "Baby you're the cleanest The true definition of what my queen is Nothing coulda ever really come between us Share the same room and Jah will feed us."
Though religion isn’t usually thought of as arousing, who said being spiritual can’t be sexy? In “Beautiful,” Marley toasts to that and outlines the kind of passion that is all encompassing:
Now it typically became an everyday thing Regularly, physically communicating sexually, scientifically penetrating Until she start spiritually resonating Ah so mi know she real and seh she ah nuh play thing.
Whether he’s wailing in a raspy reggae that’s as buoyant as a Jamaican breeze or crooning in strong, defined dancehall style, Marley proves his ability to reconcile his heritage with the direction mainstream music is moving.
But perhaps his most recognizable creed is also his most powerful. In “Road to Zion” Marley tempts us with a call of redemption and reconnection to his Creator:
Clean and pure meditation without a doubt Don't mek dem take you like who dem took out Jah will be waiting there we a shout Jah will be waiting there!
Until we get there, Marley’s reflective, free-spirited nature promises not only a successful career but also the lightness that is evoked through listening to his precision.
And who doesn’t fall for someone who spouts truths as often as he honors humanity? “Just walk the narrow pavement/And of love not hatred,” Marley says in “For the Babies.” He continues: "And if you can't be good, at least be honest to your babies / The strength of Ras Tafari I'm hoping someday maybe / They don't obey their parents maybe they will [obey me]."
And let’s face it, who wouldn’t?
posted by Alana B. Elias Kornfeld @ 4:30 PM | Permalink |
Why do evangelicals have such an affinity for Fox News, homeschooling, and church potlucks? Is there really a "Master List" of who's actually gong to hell--and wouldn't you like to take a tiny peek at it if there was? Author and satirist Joel Kilpatrick tackles these and many other important issues as he offers his blistering commentary on the evangelical subculture in his book, "A Field Guide To Evangelicals."
The book, on sale starting today, has the same offbeat sensibility as Kilpatrick's website, Lark News, where he has poked fun at trendy Christian books such as "The Prayer of Jabez" and "The Purpose-Driven Life" and offered readers an advice column called "The Missionary Position" and an online game called "The Fantasy Evangelism League."
One of my favorite parts of Kilpatrick's "Field Guide" is his "How Evangelical Are You?" quiz. The results of the quiz will tell you your EQ--Evangelical Quotient. Here's a sample question:
3. You think “backslide” is: a. A country dance step. b. A type of alcoholic drink. c. A sinful state of non-belief.
Kilpatrick's quirky commentary in "Field Guide" is always dead-on, but yet somehow never mean-spirited in its examination of the outward manifestations of the evangelical faith. Maybe that's because secretly he's as evangelical as the people he writes about and yet smart enough not to take himself, or others, too seriously.
You’re an up-and-coming pop star. You finally got an agent. You look fabulous. Then your uncle, who you don’t even talk to, totally masterminds a plan to fly jetliners into the World Trade Center! How uncool is that? Well, maybe not so uncool. Wafah Dufour, a niece of Al-Qaeda kingpin Osama Bin Laden, is about to get her own reality show, about the trials of being a fledgling pop star, thanks to Judith Regan, the publisher and media heavy who signed Dufour last week to do the show, apparently out of sympathy for the young woman’s plight: "She wants to be recognized as a serious artist, and in the middle of all this, suddenly her uncle does something so terrifying and horrifying, and she has to deal with that,” says Regan, who was not asked, apparently, whether she had ever heard of Dufour before her uncle became notorious.
Wafah isn’t the first in her family to capitalize on the tragedy of 9/11. Her mother, Carmen Dufour bin Laden, is the author of the bestseller “Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia,” published in 2004. Wafah, an American who also has Swiss nationality, was born in Santa Monica but grew up in Saudi Arabia and Geneva. She says she no longer speaks to her father, and has little to do with the bin Laden clan, even dropping the name to distance herself from the family’s terrorist black sheep. Surely, her recent signing is, if anything is, irrefutable proof that there is no bad publicity.
The long-awaited opener to the sixth season of "The Sopranos" started out more Beatnik than Bayonne. Viewers were treated to a surreal roundup of what’s happened since we last checked in the Sopranos, some 18 months ago, with William S. Burrough’s recitation of “The Western Lands”–as featured in the song "Seven Souls" by Material--guiding the editors' cuts and splices.
In Ancient Egyptian mythology, souls traveled to the Western Lands to find eternal rest. Burroughs explains in the opening lines of his novel that each body possessed not just one, but seven souls. As each of these seven souls is described, corresponding Soprano souls--searching for their own rest, their own immortality--are reintroduced to the viewer.
"Adriana was on screen while viewers learned about 'the Shadow, Memory, your whole past conditioning from this and other lives,'" writes MSNBC.com’s Andy Denhart. "The Guardian Angel" was described as Meadow danced seductively in her underwear for fiancé Finn; Carmela was dreaming about Adriana as Burroughs described "The Double... the only reliable guide through the land of the dead"; and Janice and her new baby daughter were on screen as the narrator described "the Secret Name" who "directs the film of your life from conception to death."
Slate.com’s Troy Patterson took a broader, less literal, view of Burrough’s narrative: "Perhaps the particulars of this view of the afterlife were less important than the timbre of Burroughs' voice, a noise at once world-weary and otherworldly. Maybe this was meant as a lens for viewing the signs that followed in the episode--people wondering what would be possible if the underboss passed on; Tony's telling his shrink that, were he losing his mind like Uncle Junior, he would hope for his family to euthanize him. Was this just a tip-off that the coming season--which makes room for Jesus, Buddha, theories of universal oneness, and meditations on Indian proverbs--will up the metaphysical ante?"
In addition to the big numinous questions, there were other more subtle allusions to faith, such as Christopher's devotion to AA and Vito's zealous conversion to a healthy lifestyle.
From metaphysical to Mormons, viewers were introduced to the Soprano’s new neighbors last night, the Henricksons of “Big Love.” Bill Henrickson is a polygamist married to three wives--each with financial and physical needs all her own--with whom he has seven children, each with his or her own particluar needs. Meanwhile, Bill is trying to expand a successful hardware business while being “shaken down” by the religious leader of the rogue Mormon sect he grew up in. (While the Mormon church has outlawed polygamy for more than a century now, breakaway sects, which consider themselves Mormon, continue the practice. The Henricksons belong to such a group.) And, on top of all that, Bill's trying to determine whether his mother has been attempting to kill his father by slipping him small doses of arsenic.
You can be forgiven for thinking that Tony Soprano’s problems--multiple paramours, issues with his kids, difficulties with the family business, and family members killing each other--have simply been transported out West. Especially when it seems like the writers of the two shows are sharing notes: Tony tells A.J. at one point in Sunday's episode that, "In the end, your friends are going to let you down. Family, they’re the ones you can depend on." While Bill’s mother, Lois, similarly declares that only family will always love you.
What is interesting about both of these episodes is that family consumes the souls of both protagonists, even if they (especially Tony) don't alw
ays live up to their own ideals, and both men head atypical families coping with some very typical problems. As Denhart points out, "Those seven souls inhabit [Tony]; his family is his very being." The same could be said of Bill Henrickson, although, he has a few more family members to pack into his soul.
What if someone made a movie of your life? Would you want to watch? And if you did, what would be the highlights? What would you change? The independent film “Illusion,” currently in limited theatrical release, ponders these questions and more through the eyes of a legendary but ailing film director, played by legendary but ailing actor Kirk Douglas in perhaps his last big screen performance.
The movie begins with director Donald Baines waking up in the middle of the night to find that he has been magically transported to an old film house, where he is reunited with a deceased film editor Baines once worked with. The film editor gives Baines the chance to look at three film clips from Baines’s life The talented but lonely director has always regretted abandoning his only son, Christopher, and chooses to see three different moments from Christopher’s life as a way of reassuring himself that Christopher’s life turned out okay. The three film clips show Christopher in his teens, his 20s, and in his 30s, and all the clips center around a thwarted romance between Christopher and a woman he has admired from a distance, Isabelle. When Donald sees that Christopher’s life is about to take a dangerous turn for the worse, he hopes that he can still make a difference in Christopher’s life before it is too late.
While “Illusion” is very sweet and charming at certain moments, more often than not the movie tends to be a little too heavy-handed for me in its treatment of life, death, and reconciliation. And while the gimmick of having Baines on his deathbed in a movie theater as he observes Christopher’s life is clever at first, in the end, I felt that, as a storytelling device, it eventually gets old. Still, Douglas gives an unsettling performance, though perhaps not his best, as he fearlessly uses his own age and infirmities (he suffered a stroke a few years back) to portray an ambitious man who wasted much of his life on work that was ultimately not important. One can’t help but wonder while watching the movie if perhaps Douglas is, in some way, reflecting on his own successes and failures as an actor and a father. So for some movie buffs, his performance will be a spell-binding enough reason to watch “Illusion.”
Fans of HBO's "The Sopranos"--the award-winning mafia family-crime drama that many claim is the best show on television--will finally satisfy their long-awaited desire for a new season this Sunday, March 12th, at 9 p.m. It's been almost two years since the controversial and shocking season finale of Season Five. I won't give away that ending here, just in case people are still frantically trying to catch up before Sunday. But--SPOILER ALERT--stop reading now if you're one of those people and don't want the surprise ruined.
One of the most interesting developments in the show has been within Tony and Carmela's marriage. In early seasons, Carmela Soprano was determined to stay in her marriage despite the extreme emotional cost she experiences living with a criminal who also enjoys extra-marital affairs with just about any woman (or gumar, as they refer to these mistresses on the show) to whom he finds himself attracted. For Tony, especially given what we see in Season Five, no woman is off limits, even if it's the fiance of one of his most trusted men.
Why did Carmela stay so long? Because to Catholics, marriage is sacred, a bond formed in the eyes of God that cannot be broken.
Despite this view of marriage as eternal and unbreakable, one of the major themes of Season Five is Carmela's decision to leave Tony and ulimately pursue a divorce, much to his great anger and dismay. Regardless of her parish priest's advice to go back to the marriage, Carmela seems determined to end her bond with Tony and find a way to live independently. (A theme very consistent on the show is priestly advice that women should stay in marriages regardless of having husbands who are criminals and unfaithful, and who even may abuse them physcially.)
Without Carmela as the mitigating moral force in his life, we have seen Tony degenerate even further as a person, making him significantly less sympathetic as a character than he was in previous seasons. I am curious to see what happens in their family life, and how Carmela's and Tony's characters (and their relationship) develop as Season Six begins.
John Travolta's decision to play Edna Turnblad in the upcoming musical film version of "Hairspray" --based on the stage musical, which was based on the original film--has "raised eyebrows of Scientology watchers," reports MSNBC.com's Scoop.
Made famous by cross-dressing legend Divine (on screen) and gay rights activist Harvey Fierstein (on stage), the role would not sit so well with Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, notes Rick Ross on Cultnews.com: “If Hubbard had historically had his way there would be no John Waters films in America and no gay actors to play the part of Edna Turnblad.”
According to a recent Rolling Stone article, Hubbard believed homosexuals “should be taken from the society as rapidly as possible... for here is the level of the contagion of immortality and the destruction of ethics. No social order will survive which does not remove these people from its midst.”
That very same Rolling Stone article is rumored to have lost Men's Fitness--like Rolling Stone, published by Wenner Media--its May cover boy, Tom Cruise. New York Magazine reports that Cruise asked Rolling Stone to kill its Scientology story, and when that failed, he retaliated by bailing on the Men's Fitness cover.
The Wall Street Journal reports today on a former pastor who engaged a young atheist to attend a dozen church services in order to critique how Christianity was being offered. The pastor got the young atheist’s services by buying his soul off of eBay.
People have put their souls up for auction on the Internet shopping site before, including a British man who forked over his eternal spirit in 2002 for less than 12 pounds, a move that local clergy called “dangerous.” This time, Jim Henderson, a maverick evangelical minister whose Christian website, called Off the Map, is dedicated to “helping Christians be normal” paid $504 for the soul of DePaul University student Hemant Mehta. (The WSJ story, not available to nonsubcribers on their site, is reprinted on Off the Map.) Henderson proposed that Mehta write his critiques for the site. Mehta in return asked that Henderson donate the money to the Secular Students Alliance, which supports agnostist and atheist groups at schools.
Full disclosure: Beliefnet did not purchase my soul in return for this or any other writing, though they do retain possession of my favorite weird orange tie, which I left in my office closet when I left my position there.
It's been blamed for sparking aggression and contributing to American kids' obesity, but now the beleagured videogame is being given a higher purpose: Toppling dictatorships and spreading human rights through nonviolent struggle. No, "Doom" has not suddenly gone soft. This game is called "A Force More Powerful," and you will not find it at your neighborhood arcade. AFMP is intended to help those on the frontlines of nonviolent political and social movements to hone their skills at planning strategy and pulling off effective actions that further their cause.
I got a glimpse of the game at a demonstration for representatives of the press and NGOs. Among those showing it off was Ivan Marovic, a leader of the Serbian resistance that toppled Slobodan Milosavic. These days he's working with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, which produced the game.
Though AFMP seemed amazingly complicated, its worth at simulating real-life scenarios was obvious. The game offers several scenarios to choose from--such as "Corruption Is Stealing," "Bringing Down a Dictator," and "Eternal Vigilance" (preventing a democracy from sliding into dictatorship). Each takes place in a fictional country for which you are given all sorts of information, such as economic indicators, unemployment rates, and political realities. And if you've got a lot of data--and time and patience--you can set up your own scenario that more exactly reflects your own situation.
You, the player, control people (only "the good guys," no choosing to be a villain here), groups, and an alliance of groups that makes up your movement. The game offers more than 65 actions you can take, from raising money and publishing a website to mass protests and civil disobedience. For each person and group you control, the game tells you at every point what their core competencies are, how high their enthusiasm for your cause is, and how high their fear level is. You can see maps of the country showing where your support is the highest and of each major city showing the street grid and major buildings.
Tempted to go directly for the jugular and halt traffic throughout the capital city today? Not so fast. If people's fear level is too high, or their enthusiasm too low, no one will show up. Better to take actions to ease their fears or renew their commitment to the cause. Even if the masses do turn out, better hope they're well trained: You can't resort to violence, but the regime sure can. But if the plan does backfire, you can always send the organizer abroad to avoid arrest and publicize your cause there.
The demonstration I saw--like this description--only began to display all that AFMP had to offer. AFMP set up an online community area for players to share notes and learn from each other, and there are future improvements to the game planned. So if you know anyone looking to learn how to topple a dictator--or maybe you're looking to learn how to topple a dictator--check out "A Force More Powerful" to hone your skills.
The most recent Paris Fashion Week has sparked controversy among fashion critics and feminists alike, not so much over what the models were wearing on their bodies, but instead, what they were wearing on--or over--their heads.
The burqa (the most extreme style of covering worn by Muslim women) and the hijab (veil) have apparently been inspiring couture designers to cover and even confine women's heads, faces, and even entire bodies as they make their way down the catwalk. Some of these head coverings have prompted audiences to wonder if the models are even able to see.
At the presentation of the presciently named Undercover collection Monday evening, models stepped into the spotlight with their heads wrapped tightly, unforgivingly and, one must admit, artfully in fabric with all the translucence of a pillowcase. Could the models in Undercover even see where they were walking? Several of them wandered just a bit off-track, bumping shoulders and even meandering into the audience seating area until redirected by a handler. Each model's entire head was bound in fabric--black, brown or white--with only tiny pinholes for air. The fabric was knotted in back--or at what one assumed to be the back of the head--in the manner of a tight chignon. Sometimes the fabric was pierced with silver rings and charms, like those worn by a tribal warrior or some disaffected teen aspiring to lead a punk band.
The affect of this display on the audience watching?
There is a lot of anger... because the collection's Japanese designer, Jun Takahashi-- a man!--has decided that part of his aesthetic involved putting a woman's head into, essentially, a sack. Under the best of circumstances, a model is little more than a vehicle for someone else's creative expression. The most in-demand models are not the ones bursting with their own personality but rather those who allow themselves to be possessed by someone else's. With their identical matchstick bodies, only their faces distinguish them as individuals. In one stylistic flourish, Takahashi took that away. With their heads covered, his women are silent and powerless. They look like victims: hostages, prisoners awaiting execution, the vulnerable.
The possibility of the new "burqa-chic" ever hitting the sidewalk even on the style-conscious streets of Paris and New York is highly unlikely. As everyone knows, couture design rarely makes it's way into the real lives and onto the real bodies of people not regularly walking down the fashion runways. Regardless, while reserving judgment about the various traditional coverings for women within the Muslim faith, I find the explicitly violent edge and associations with female bondage among male desires of late extremely disturbing. What exactly are they trying to say to women?
Forget Enron exec Ken Lay's trial or the latest phone company merger, the biggest business scandal in the news this week has been the L.A. Times expose on Thomas Kinkade, the kitsch painter best known for selling warm and fuzzy paintings of cottages and lighthouses in Christian bookstores and galleries everywhere. Seems the artist--who claims he has brought “God’s light” to the masses--is facing a slew of allegations, including heckling Sigfried and Roy, urinating on Winnie the Pooh at Disneyland as a way of “marking his territory,”--and, oh yeah, committing fraud against business partners and stockholders. And, believe it or not, he is not exactly denying all of the accusations.
According to he L.A. Times investigation, the American Arbitration Association last month awarded $860,000 to the owners of two out-of-business Kinkade’s Signature franchise galleries. The arbitrators ruled that Kinkade misrepresented and manipulated the gallery owners in his business dealings with them. Several other arbitration cases are also pending against Kincade, addressing questions about whether Kinkade, who has grossed roughly $50 million dollars in the last several years, deliberately set out to devalue his publicly traded company so he could buy it back for a fraction of its worth and turn his company into a private enterprise once again.
The more bizarre allegations came out in those same legal proceedings, when former employees and business associates recounted in very specfic detail such un-Christian-like behavior as visiting strip clubs, groping a woman’s breast at a signing party, and urinating in public places, including Disneyland (poor Pooh!) and a Las Vegas hotel elevator.
In a bizarre twist to this entire drama, it's these allegations of lewd conduct that Kinkade is not denying. (He has denied the accusations of financial impropriety). In a deposition, the artist mentioned his practice of urinating outdoors, saying he "grew up in the country" where it was common. When asked specifically about the alleged Las Vegas elevator incident, Kinkade admitted it might have happened. "There may have been some ritual territory marking going on, but I don't recall it," he said. In the same deposition, Kinkade also said there was a lot of drinking and “rowdy talk” at the party in question, but he couldn't quite remember what he did to the breasts of the woman who claims he harrassed her.
I guess this new information could give Kinkade a fresh perspective, perhaps inspiring a new series of paintings such as "Watering Pooh," "Ode to A White Tiger," or "Sunset on Stripper Lane." But I hope this scandal also reminds Kinkade, as well as the rest of us, that whatever evil is done in the darkness, will sooner or later be brought into light.
Soon we will all be able to pray while we channel surf!
Zemlyanoj Val ul, a man from Russia, has trademarked something called "Remobeads," a ring of beads you can hold, pray over, meditate on, and use to see what's on VH1--all at the same time. You can even customize the beads to your favorite channels. (See the illustration below.)
Val ul's website advertises the following:
"Nowadays the TV set is no longer accepted as a mere receiver. It has transformed into a cult object, the thing we can watch and interact with for hours, the source of our knowledge and inspiration. Now you can shift between channels effortlessly--just slightly pressing the beads. The beads are glowing, so you can easily see them in the darkness. As an option you can add a sound--enjoy listening to your favorite mantras while switching the channels."
The source of our knowledge and inspiration? Listening to our favorite mantras while switching channels? Hmmm. Even as an Idol Chatterer, I don't know if I'd go that far.
Who needs to see Bruce Willis play a down-on-his-luck, tough-but-tender cop... again? That was my thought when I allowed a friend to drag me to Willis’s latest action-adventure flick, “16 Blocks.” But while “16 Blocks” has all of the typical action thriller elements--car crashes, explosions, fight scenes--it also surprised me by actually taking time to explore some deeper questions about what happens when people in power no longer value human life.
The movie begins at 8:02 a.m., when a hung over and seriously depressed NYPD detective Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) is assigned a seemingly simple task: escorting an ex-con, Eddie Bunker (played by Mos Def in a surprisingly strong performance), to a courthouse to testify at 10:00 a.m. before a grand jury. The distance between the lock-up facility and the courthouse is (you guessed it) 16 blocks. The only problem is that when some crooked cops try to kill Eddie, Jack realizes that helping Eddie arrive at the courthouse on time is going to be a lot more difficult than he thought.
What I liked best about this movie is that in between dodging bullets, Mosley becomes increasingly aware that he has lost his own moral compass. Should he value his past friendships on the police force more than he values the life of a mentally impaired criminal? If he confesses his own secret knowledge about the case in which Eddie is testifying, will he save a life, ruin his own, or make no difference at all? As Jack and Eddie go their separate ways at the end of the film, there is one moment in particular that serves as a great reminder that we should all find the courage to start over when we fail.
No, I am not exactly saying that we'll be talking about "16 Blocks" at next year's Oscars, but I am saying that this film strives to offer something beyond what this genre tends to accomplish. It offers action and adventue, with a little bit of soul.
With homes in London, the British countryside, and Los Angeles, why would Madonna be interested in a "shack" by the Sea of Galilee? According to the The Times of London and other news organizations, the Material Girl's representatives have been "cold calling home-owners in the picturesque mountain retreat of Rosh Pina and offering to pay any price to secure property," because "Kabbalists believe that the Messiah will appear at Safed and walk to Tiberias on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, traveling along the ravine that cuts through Rosh Pina." Mrs. Ritchie, reportedly, plans to build a Kabbalah study center on the site.
A woman named Shiri Havkin was approached with an offer to buy her 100-year-old ramshackle house, but thought it was some kind of joke. "The house is worth a little more than $500,000," Mrs. Havkin told The Times, "but I would sell it to Madonna for a million dollars ...."
Buying a house in a backwater between southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights: $500,000. Buying that same house if you're a multimillionaire pop-star: $1 million. Being present at the moment the Messiah appears: priceless.
Apparently, early 20th century prostitutes are the inspiration for women's fashion this coming spring. The season's whiter-than-white baby-doll dresses making their way down runways in Europe and the U.S.--from houses like Chloe and Prada--are inspired by a book of photos, "Bellocq: Photographs From Storyville, the Red Light District of New Orleans," according to The New York Times Spring 2006 Fashion Magazine.
Though prostitutes, the women portrayed in the book--in photographs taken by Ernest J. Bellocq--are (thankfully) more clothed than your average Britney Spears. It is not the first time they have been the inspiration for art-lovers over the last several decades, either--most notably, in 1970 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the movie "Pretty Baby."
The Times describes the appeal of "Bellocq's Women" as a "mix of eroticism and innocence" and "a mix of the heaven-sent and the hellbent," a paradoxical combination that somehow women are supposed to pull off as the temperatures rise and winter coats come off.
So now we've gone from prim and proper, the overwhelming theme of the last several seasons, to prim and prostitute. Will women ever escape the virgin-whore motif? Apparently not any time soon.
I read with sadness about the death of Kirby Puckett, the charismatic former star of the Minnesota Twins baseball team. Dead after suffering a stroke Sunday, he was only 45. Hard working, charming, exhilarating, dedicated, Puckett was one of my favorite players during his too-brief, but highly successful, major league career. Like so many others, I loved him as much for his winning smile and casual charm as for his baseball heroics--which is what made what happened after his retirement so painful for us, his fans.
After breaking into the majors in 1984 and leading Minnesota to World Series championships in 1987 and 1991, Puckett lost sight in one eye and retired in 1996. He was then voted into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, in 2001--but later that same year, his trouble started, or rather, became public. His then-wife accused him of threatening to kill her and told police he had a history of physically abusing her. He denied the charges, but then was hit with another accusation, this time from a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her. He was acquitted of all criminal charges but largely stayed out of the public eye after that.
Though the two stories are entirely unconnected, I can't help but connect my feelings at Puckett's death with the bombshell Sports Illustrated dropped today about home-run king Barry Bonds, rumored for years to be a steroids user. SI.com writes about an excerpt from a new book by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters who describe in excruciating detail Bonds's steroids regimen. Based on records seized by federal agents in a raid on the lab that administered the steroids, the book seems to leave little doubt that Bonds's storied career has been, indeed, too good to be true.
Lamenting the immoral behavior of athletes is a cliche by now--so trite, so last century. Yet I, forever an optimist, kept hoping the rumors about Bonds weren't true, that somehow he'd clear his name and erase any doubts about the legitimacy of his record 73 homers in one season in 2001. And today, I can't help feeling sad not just at Puckett's death--whatever his misbehavior was, he didn't deserve the lot life dealt him--but also at the fact that another champion failed miserably to live up to his public personae. I miss Puckett, but I've been missing him for five years now, ever since the Kirby Puckett I thought I knew was proven to be an illusion.
I usually like what fellow blogger Kris Rasmussen has to say, but had to disagree with her praise of Robert Altman and pan of George Clooney when it came to Oscar speeches. She called Clooney’s “the worst, most self-aggrandizing speech of the evening” and gave props to Altman for “utter(ing) some of the most eloquent words I have ever heard spoken at the Oscars.”
Beauty’s obviously in the eye of the beholder because I scored them completely in the reverse. I thought Altman bordered on arrogance in bragging that he’d opened a show the night before in London and then shamelessly promoting his current film, which opens this summer. The fact that he wasn’t as obnoxious as usual didn’t make his speech redeeming. As for the comment about his heart surgery 10 years ago, it was touching but also a shameless announcement to potential investors that he’s present in the marketplace and desiring to make more movies.
I found Clooney’s speech among the most gentle, self-deprecating, humorous, and humble speeches in Oscar history. Absent was the controversy of Jane Fonda, sour cloud of Vanessa Redgrave, nervous pall of Sacheen Littlefeather (for Marlon Brando), or fumbled racial comments of Eddie Murphy. And there were no references to politicians or parties “red” or “blue.”
Instead, Clooney was funny (“so I’m not winning Director”), self-deprecating (twice mentioning his “Batman” turn, which almost killed the franchise), and modest (his last big win was a magazine award in ’97) while humbly praising the “stellar” performances of William Hurt, Matt Dillon, Paul Giamatti, and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Regarding his politics, he mentioned Hollywood’s efforts regarding AIDS, civil rights, and racism, which are every spiritual person’s concerns and should be apolitical in nature. “I’m proud to be a part of this Academy, this community,” he said to a rising chorus of applause, ending with a gentle smile that contributed a nice start to a night of politically charged movies. That achievement, as social and political statements go, made him a winner in my book.
Last night's Oscar ceremony showcased the best and the worst of Oscar's tradition of longwinded acceptance speeches. The one moment of last night’s Oscar ceremony that I was truly dreading was 81-year-old director Robert Altman’s acceptance speech for his honorary lifetime achievement Oscar. Altman is famous among Hollywood insiders and die-hard indie film buffs like me for making inflammatory comments such as, "With Nazis like Bush in the White House, it's no wonder terrorists are attacking us" and "If Bush gets elected, I'll move to Paris." (To his credit, he kept his word, in a way, and moved to London.)
But instead of a bitter, angry tirade, Altman used his time at the podium to utter some of the most eloquent words I have ever heard spoken at the Oscars. In addition to thanking the Academy and his family, he made a special point to honor someone else--a woman in her 30s who, through organ donation, allowed Altman to receive a heart transplant several years ago. Because of her generous gift of life, Altman told the audience, he doesn't believe his career is coming to a close, but instead that he has another “40 years or more” to keep doing what he loves, making movies. How nice to see Altman recognize, even for a moment, that humility and self-sacrifice accomplishes more than bitterness and hatred any day.
Which is a lesson another Oscar winner, George Clooney, perhaps hasn’t fully learned yet. His Oscar speech, the first of the night, was by far the worst, most self-aggrandizing speech of the evening. I am a big fan of much of Clooney's recent work, but he truly disappointed me when he began his speech by saying, “There’s a lot of talk about Hollywood being disconnected from the rest of the country. And I think in many ways we are disconnected, and that is a good thing.”
Clooney then went on to give credit to Hollywood for always being the first to talk about tough social issues, while the rest of the country is only “whispering” about them. Really? No one from any “red state” can be credited with leading the way with regard to the social consciousness of our country? Saying that those in Hollywood are better informed--and care more--about social issues than the rest of the country was irresponsible and arrogant. And, in fact, Clooney seemed to recognize the hubris of his comments a few hours later, at the press conference televised on the E! channel. When a reporter pounced on his comments about Hollywood’s leadership in social awareness, Clooney backpedaled, admitting that in some cases Hollywood has actually been slow to tackle tough topics--making him look even more, well, out of touch, with the rest of us.
Though I enjoy watching the Oscars every year, this time the event became more of an opportunity to watch Jon Stewart than to view an awards show. In fact, at one point yesterday I even asked a friend, "When does Jon Stewart come on tonight?" And though Stewart was not at his "Daily Show" best in this unfamiliar setting, here are some favorite Jon Stewart moments from last night's show:
The first was his mention of Steven Spielberg's Oscar nomination as Best Director for "Munich." Considering that and Spielberg's 1994 win for "Schindler's List," Stewart said, "I think I speak for all Jews when I say: I can't wait to see what happens to us next. Trilogy?"
The second highlight was Stewart's mention of that religious group Hollywood seems to love, and the rest of us are just baffled by. Upon coming back from a commercial break, Stewart pretended he was addressing the audience about Scientology, commenting as if in mid-speech: "And that is why I think Scientology is right, not just for this city, but for the country." Considering the plethora of celeb Scientologists it could be considered a low blow. But I thought it was hilarious.
And finally, in a nod to all the right-wingers who love moralize about Hollywood's lack of family values, Jon Stewart had this to say: "I'm from New York, and I've been here a week and a half. A lot of people say this town is too liberal. Out of touch with mainstream America. A modern day beachfront Sodom and Gomorrah. A black hole where innocence is obliterated. An endless orgy of sexual gratification and greed.... I don't really have a joke here... and I just thought you should know a lot of people are saying that."
Aside from these funny moments, though, I look forward to the return of the real Jon Stewart, host of "The Daily Show."
If most of you are anything like my roommates and me, you were too busy staring at Dolly Parton’s crazy outfit and impossible breast-to-waist ratio to pay attention to what she was singing at the Oscars last night. But Dolly was there to perform “Travelin’ Thru,” her song from the "Transamerica" soundtrack, which was nominated for Best Original Song. (She already won once in this category, with the theme song from her movie "Nine to Five").
In "Transamerica," Desperate Housewife Felicity Huffman plays Bree, a male-to-female transsexual on a cross-country road trip with the son she never knew she had. And a lot of people think Dolly Parton looks like a drag queen, so it’s a perfect fit, right? Once I stopped gawking at Dolly’s platform shoes, I started listening to the words of her song. In a Dolly Parton song, it’s not at all unusual to hear rhymes about Jesus. But invoking Jesus in a song about a transsexual? Now, that’s news.
“Travelin’ Thru” was written specifically for the movie. The lyrics (“I’m just a weary pilgrim trying to find my own way home / Oh, sweet Jesus, if you’re out there, keep me ever close to you”) and could be about any traveler on any path. But knowing the plot of the film makes the lyrics come into focus. The song is about a person who wants to find acceptance after having gender-reassignment surgery. When Dolly sings “we’ve all been crucified, and they nailed Jesus to the tree,” she’s letting Bree’s voice speak through her. Despite facing humiliation and scorn, Bree always trusts that she has made the right decision.
The lines “God made me for a reason, and nothing is in vain / redemption comes in many shapes and many kinds of pain” echo loudly. Bree is defiant against the detractors who tell her that she is a freak who can never be accepted by God and society. In fact, Dolly seems to be making the argument that if God can make men and women in His own image, God can make transgendered people, too. The “keep me ever close to you” refrain is a reminder that Jesus loves all his children, even the outcasts. Calling Bree a “pilgrim” applies a classic American symbol to someone who is blazing a new trail in America. The 17th-century pilgrims wanted religious freedom, and 21st-century Bree wants her own freedom.
Although Huffman received an acting nomination for "Transamerica," the film isn’t anywhere close to being as iconic or controversial as "Brokeback Mountain." Host Jon Stewart and Oscar winners like George Clooney and Ang Lee got attention for making political comments last night. But Dolly got her point across in a subtler way. Her song was further proof that not every political statement needs to be made with a sledgehammer. This argument for diversity and religious acceptance for sexual minorities may have missed my ears the first time around, but the song will keep going long after the image of Dolly’s teased hair escapes my memory.
I can’t even remember the last time “Oscar” and I actually agreed on the winner for Best Picture. Last night, however, the Academy decided to listen to me, as well as many other critics, and they named “Crash” the best of 2005, an upset win that I predicted a few weeks ago. (But as my fellow blogger Paul also pointed out to me in an e-mail, I win the office betting pool again because even when I was wrong in my predictions, I was right!) So I hope you'll indulge me in a brief moment of gloating.
But I have to say I disagree with Paul’s comments on another topic. Earlier today, he wrote that “Brokeback” didn’t win because of some kind of intolerant backlash toward the movie’s gay themes. “Brokeback” probably hurt itself with too much hype too early in the Oscar season--and the film never had the substance or style of a movie like “Crash” to back up the hype. The truth is, “Brokeback” didn’t make the top five (top 10, yes, but not top five) of many critics’ best-of lists, and “Crash” did. For both movies, word-of-mouth caught up just in time for the final vote.
Those viewers who didn't turn off the televisions directly after the Best Picture acceptance speech last night were treated to a bit of tasteless self-promotion by ABC. Pumping the return of its regularly scheduled Sunday night lineup--"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," "Desperate Houswives," and "Grey's Anatomy"--the voice-over states: "Thank God for a new Sunday."
Is it really appropriate to thank the Lord for a new episode of "Desperate Housewives"--which many viewers say may be "jumping the shark" with the stunt casting of Carol Burnett? Many "Desperate" devotees would, indeed, thank God for a new episode, Carol Burnett and all, but I am not so sure. And while I definitely look forward every week to "Grey's Anatomy," I still feel that that tagline thanking God is tacky, somehow going beyond simple irreverence.
However, the greater sin may be ABC using such unoriginal, cliche-filled copy.
After “Brokeback Mountain” lost out to “Crash” last night for Best Pic honors, “Brokeback” screenwriter Larry McMurtry was quoted as saying, "Perhaps the truth really is, Americans don't want cowboys to be gay." And he wasn’t the only one implying that "Brokeback" offered too much man-love for Oscar.
Academy voters—said to be the blue-haired moms of the eligible, but too busy, actual ballot holders--do trend more conservative than Hollywood as a whole, but we’ll never know for certain if anti-gay sentiment had a hand in the surprise ending last night. All the same, was “Crash” producer Cathy Schulman wisest to thank the Academy "for embracing our film about love and about tolerance, about truth" when the suspicion is out there that intolerance cost “Brokeback”—a movie about love and tolerance—the Oscar?
As the cameras intrude further and further upon what used to be private Oscars night moments, we the audience get to witness fewer and fewer (truly) authentic moments. It’s an increasingly scripted evening, which is why some of my favorite moments of the evening were the unrehearsed ones, including:
• Hillary Swank jogging in her gown to catch Philip Seymour Hoffman for a hug and congratulations before the official line of interviews;
• George Clooney going backwards to hug fellow nominee William Hurt before going forward to the stage;
• Felicity Huffman with tears (and make-up) running at the surprise video greetings she got from "Desperate Housewives" gal pals during pre-show;
• Host Jon Stewart telling the group Three 6 Mafia, who won Best Song that “that’s how” to really accept an Oscar;
• Jennifer Garner's slip 'n slide, follwed by her great ad lib, "I do my own stunts;"
• Robert Altman’s “I’m not done”;
• The sheer celebration by everyone having anything to do with "Crash," from all corners of the room.
Of course, there was one big moment we didn’t get to see. Just once, I’d love to see one of the nominees for a big award look really ticked, pissed, mad, sad, ripped off, angry, or disgusted when someone else’s name is announced. Now that would be an authentic moment.
Actress Michelle Williams, who first shot to fame as beleaguered ex-bad-girl Jen Lindley on “Dawson’s Creek” and has since been Oscar-nominated for her turn as the beleaguered, heartbroken wife of gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar in “Brokeback Mountain,” won’t be getting her picture up in her High School’s hall of fame anytime soon
“We don't want to have anything to do with her in relation to that movie,” Santa Fe Christian headmaster Jim Hopson told the San Diego Union Tribune. “Michelle doesn't represent the values of this institution. We would not approve of her movies and TV shows (including the teen drama 'Dawson's Creek'). We'd not like to be tied to 'Brokeback Mountain.'”
So Hobson wouldn’t even approve of “Dick,” in which Williams and Kirsten Dunst starred as teen advisors to Republican president Richard Nixon? Tough critic. At least he didn’t get personal, pointing out that Williams, who got her start in Christian Youth theater, and her fiance Heath Ledger recently had a baby.
“I hope we offered her something in life,” Hobson was quoted as saying. “But she made the kinds of choices of which we wouldn't approve. 'Brokeback Mountain' basically promotes a lifestyle we don't promote. It's not the word of God.”
We can debate forever what exactly God says or doesn't say about homosexuality (or any other issue), but what’s not debatable is that Hobson’s school holds a set of beliefs to be true, and his comments are consistent with their message. Gotta admire them for that--most private schools would be sucking up for the big donation.
Even Carla Williams, Michelle’s mother, admits that: “For some people, 'Brokeback Mountain' is difficult. He has the right to his opinion.” But she also notes that others from the school have contacted her and asked her to pass on their congratulations to Michelle.
Carrie Underwood, country singer and "American Idol" winner, returned to her roots last night, performing her hit single, "Jesus Take the Wheel," on the show that launched her career.
Although I'm not a big fan of "Idol," Carrie Underwood, or country music, her song--which spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Country Singles chart, was better than I expected—although I must admit, I did cringe at one of the opening lines: "She was running low on faith and gasoline." The verse reminded me of one of those stereotypical, cheesy country songs: "My wife left me, the dog's dead, I've lost my job, and the mortgage is due..."
After I got over my initial dislike, I tried to focus on both the performance (which you can watch here) and the rest of the song's lyrics. Overall, Underwood was very good. She has a beautiful voice and presence and easily outshined most of this season's contestants. The lyrics, aren't all that bad either. I particularly liked the verse:
She bowed her head to pray She said I'm sorry for the way I've been living my life I know I've got to chance So from now on tonight Jesus take the wheel...
I anticipate this young star has a long career ahead of her. Which gives me the perfect excuse to dish on another Christian "American Idol" star, Clay Aiken. Aiken has long disputed rumors that he's gay, and now, according to the New York Post, the National Enquirer has published webcam pictures of the singer exposing his bod to an "online boytoy" in a bid to solicit sex. This, of course, has gotten his fans--"Claymates," as they're called--in a tizzy. Some are even considering a class action-lawsuit against the singer and his record companies, RCA and Song BMG, claiming he was promoted as a "virgin" and "asexual."
Now that the winners of the Beliefnet Film Awards have been announced (click here if you haven't seen them yet), we can finally turn our attention wholeheartedly those other awards, which are being given out Sunday night. Since there's not a lot of time between now and then, we thought it would be helpful to remind you of all that Idol Chatter--and Beliefnet generally--have had to say about the Academy Awards. (These links will all pop open a new window, so just close that page to return here.)
For starters, check out Kris's predictions of who will--and who should--take home the top honors on Sunday night, by clicking here. Best Picture Nominees
Nobody wrote about "Capote": Does that make it the least spiritual of the nominees? (Our sister Beliefnet blog Chattering Mind did discuss Truman Capote here.)
Best Foreign Film
Michael wrote about one of the Best Foreign Film nominees, "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days" here.
Hala Shah interviewed the director of "Paradise Now" here.
Finally, Paul asked here whether the success of "The Passion" has had any noticeable effect on Hollywood. (And Kris responded to him here.)
Happy watching! And please let us know what you think by using the comments link below.
Watching the Oscars has always been one of my greatest guilty pleasures. I love everything about the evening, from chuckling with Joan and Melissa as they dish the dirt live on the red carpet to watching weepy celebrities--dressed in clothes that cost more than many of us make in a year--give ridiculously long acceptance speeches. I've also won more than one office betting pool by correctly picking all of the winners in all of the major categories. So I am putting my self-proclaimed Oscar savvy on the line by blogging my predictions, as well as my personal picks, so I can be applauded (or ridiculed, if the case warrants) right here at a later date. And don’t forget you can also read about or discuss many of the Oscar-nominated movies over at the Beliefnet Film Awards.
Leading Actor The nominees: Philip Seymour Hoffman ("Capote"); Terrence Howard ("Hustle & Flow"); Heath Ledger ("Brokeback Mountain"); Joaquin Phoenix ("Walk The Line"); David Strathairn ("Good Night, and Good Luck")
My analysis: This is one category “Brokeback” is definitely not going to win. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s portrayal of eccentric author Truman Capote is Hoffman’s best and, perhaps only, chance to win an Oscar. He won this category at the Screen Actor’s Guild Awards, which is always a good indicator of who will win on Oscar night. However, this is an extremely competitive category and both Terrence Howard and David Strathairn are well-respected actors who have a chance at pulling off a surprise win.
Who will win: Philip Seymour Hoffman
Who should win: Terrence Howard for giving two completely different yet equally amazing performances (the other one was in “Crash”) last year.
Leading Actress The nominees: Judi Dench ("Mrs. Henderson Presents"); Felicity Huffman ("Transamerica"); Keira Knightley ("Pride & Prejudice"); Charlize Theron ("North Country"); Reese Witherspoon ("Walk the Line")
My analysis: The only questions here are whether enough of the Academy saw “Trasmamerica” to vote for Huffman, and whether the Academy views Huffman as a real feature film actress or simply that lady from “Desparate Housewives” who did an indie film with her husband.
Who will win: Reese Witherspoon, because she is a major movie star whose career is on the rise, and the Academy will want to celebrate that.
Who should win: Reese Witherspoon, but only because this is actually a weak category this year, and I was not a fan of “Transamerica.”
Supporting Actor The nominees: George Clooney ("Syriana"); Matt Dillon ("Crash"); Paul Giamatti ("Cinderella Man"); Jake Gyllenhaal ("Brokeback Mountain"); William Hurt ("A History of Violence")
My analysis: This category is another close three-way horse race between Matt Dillon, George Clooney, and Paul Giamatti. Each has won at least one award for their performances during the pre-Oscar award season. Many critics think that since Clooney has three different Oscar nominations, the Academy will be sure to give him at least one award, and this will be the category to do it in.
Who will win: Matt Dillon, because I think Clooney will win an Oscar in a different category, and Dillon played the best anti-hero on screen in years.
Who should win: Paul Giamatti , because he has given so many consistently impressive performances over the last few years, with “Cinderella Man” showcasing his best work ever.
Supporting Actress The nominees: Amy Adams ("Junebug"); Catherine Keener ("Capote"); Frances McDormand ("North Country"); Rachel Weisz ("The Constant Gardner"); Michelle Williams ("Brokeback Mountain")
My analysis: While Michelle Williams's performance in “Brokeback” was truly heart-wrenching, Hollywood doesn’t seem to be ready to give her credit where credit is due just yet. Therefore, the focus has been solely on Rachel Weisz for her performanceas an activist who is murdered in “The Constant Gardner.”
Who will win: Rachel Weisz, because she has won every other award this season, and it is a way for the Academy to recognize what a good film “The Constant Gardner” was.
Who should win: Amy Adams , because “Junebug” deserves some kind of nod from Oscar and her performance was touching and hilarious at the same time.
Best Picture The nominees: "Brokeback Mountain"; "Capote"; "Crash"; "Good Night, and Good Luck"; "Munich"
Who will win: “Brokeback Mountain,” partially because it will get shut out in the acting categories and partly because Hollywood loves to make “statements.”
Who should win: If you have been reading my entries here at Idol Chatter at all, you already know that I think “Crash” is by far the best movie of last year, and I am still rooting for it to pull an upset win.
One benefit of Oscar season--besides finding out which gown designer is totally hot--is the rash of articles about worthy movies that didn’t get nominated. The films that make critics’ woulda-shoulda lists are jewels that are too small, too weird, or too spiritually challenging for a statue. The San Francisco Chronicle’s version this year comes in the form of an interview with Stephen Simon, the erstwhile Hollywood producer (“Smokey and the Bandit”; "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure”) who chucked it all to found The Spiritual Cinema Circle, a kind of Netflix of the soul. Besides pumping Cameron Crowe's critical punching bag “Elizabethtown,” Simon wishes for a world in which Oscars would go to Kevin Costner and Joan Allen for “The Upside of Anger” or Anthony Hopkins in “The World's Fastest Indian."
One definition of mysticism is “a belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension.” That’s a pretty heady term to apply to a TV show--but “Lost” isn’t an ordinary show. The series begins with a plane crashing en route from Sydney to Los Angeles, stranding 42 surviving passengers on a tropical island. However, it becomes immediately clear that something is unusual on the island: A monster eats the plane’s pilot, polar bears appear out of nowhere, and people who already live on the island (“The Others”) begin kidnapping passengers.
The character John Locke (yes, named after that John Locke) has established himself as the island mystic. Locke, a Christian before the crash, has now started to believe in the island as his god. The main cause of this change was Locke's miraculous healing: Wheelchair-bound when he boarded the plane, he was suddenly able to walk after the crash. So far, there has been no explanation for why--or how--Locke was healed, and Locke gives the island all the credit. The island has enabled Locke to reinvent himself and start his life over. He may not know the island’s motivation for curing him, but he suspects that the island has some greater purpose for him that will be revealed later. That faith propels him onward.
When supernatural things start happening, Locke argues that there are some things beyond human comprehension--and that the island is making decisions for itself. Locke is one of the only “lostaways” to have seen the monster; instead of being scared or trying to kill it, his only response was to call it “beautiful.” He recognizes the monster as being part of the island’s master plan, another clue in the larger puzzle he is working toward solving.
When his protégé, Boone, dies in a freak accident, Locke lashes out at the island, crying out “I did everything you asked me to do!” Clearly, Locke believes that he and the island have a bond of some sort, and that he knows what the island wants. When telling the others about the death, Locke refers to it as “a sacrifice.”
Locke’s survival skills make him an early leader, and his island-religion is the motivation behind his choices. Although he and Jack--the man of science--are opposites, they aren’t rivals. Even when they disagree, they work together. The flaw with Locke’s mysticism is that he thinks he is the only one who understands what the island wants. It’s as if the island is his own private god, which he doesn’t want to share for fear someone else might benefit more than him. Mysticism is about identifying a greater unity, something that Locke is utterly failing to do. If he really does have insight into the strange things happening on the island, I’m sure the others would benefit from hearing about it.
Locke’s interference in the lives of other characters is often paternalistic. He insists that he knows what is best for someone else, even when his motivation is questionable. Positioning himself as a mystic might turn out to be a way of covering up a secret agenda. Maybe it isn’t the island he thinks is a god; it’s himself.
Donna Freitas has a Ph.D. in spirituality and is the author of "Becoming A Goddess Of Inner Poise: Spirituality for The Bridget Jones in All of Us."
Douglas Howe is an ordained minister, executive coach, author, and retreat leader.
Paul O'Donnell is the former Culture editor at Beliefnet.
Kris Rasmussen, the author of "WonkaMania," has been a contributing editor to the Christian music magazine CCM and a feature writer for Relevant magazine.
Plus, a number of Beliefnet editors will also be posting to Idol Chatter as the mood strikes.
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