November 5, 2007 Archives

The idea of the likes of "Grey's Anatomy" writer Shonda Rhimes on the picket line because of her measly $5 million salary may be laughable--can't wait to see Tom Hanks out there protesting his $25 million/film--but the Hollywood writer's strike is a good reminder that everyone in our entertainment industry is not a multimillionaire. In truth, there are a lot of low-paid, struggling writers, crew members, extras, etc., without whom we wouldn't have a "Grey's Anatomy" or any of the other shows and movies we're so addicted to. Most of the coverage of the Hollywood writers strike has focused on the shows that will go dark--Leno reruns, anyone?--but let's not forget that there are people, with families and careers to worry about, marching those picket lines.

The N.Y. Times reports today that, Rhimes's millions aside, many Hollywood writers make under $50K, and a full 48 percent of West Coast union members are unemployed. Sure, plenty of others make six figures, and I'm not exactly weeping for them. But at the heart of the strike is a basic issue of fairness: Writers are being asked to do more work writing for new platforms, like webisodes and DVD extras and are seeking a higher share of profits from those products.

Two weeks ago Christians across the United States were abuzz about accusations that British author Philip Pullman allegedly is selling "atheism for kids" (or so says Bill Donohue of the Catholic League) through his multi-award winning, fantasy trilogy "His Dark Materials", which has already sold over 12 million copies worldwide and is coming to the big screen in December in the form of the movie "The Golden Compass."

Last week, during a visit to New York City, Pullman finally got a chance to respond to these accusations and made big headlines once again--this time for not promoting atheism in the trilogy. On Friday he appeared as a guest on the "Today" show, saying that:

What I was mainly doing, I hope, was telling a story, but not a story like Tolkien’s. (To be honest I don’t much care for "The Lord of the Rings.") As for the atheism, it doesn’t matter to me whether people believe in God or not, so I’m not promoting anything of that sort.

From last night's annual "Treehouse of Horror" episode, a segment on Ned Flanders turning the church into a "Heck House":

Interesting post by Rod Dreher over at Crunchy Con about the new movie "Bella," which is being heavily marketed to Christians. The movie is about a woman who becomes pregnant by accident and is planning to have an abortion until she decides not to. See here for Rod's take.