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Does Hollywood apply a double standard
to the Jewish and Catholic religions?
A Hollywood insider takes a look at
the controversy behind "Dogma."
it
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=WISE NEWS
41
11/26
1999
(248) 354-6620
BRADLEY POMERANCE
Special to the Jewish News
Oscar win for Best Picture. It only
seemed natural that Miramax would
distribute Smith's most recent effort,
hen the much-anticipat-
Dogma.
ed film Dogma hit the-
However, a first draft of the script
aters earlier this month,
illegally made its way onto the
whatever pos-
Internet and into the
itive buzz the picture had
hands of William
Above: Kevin Smith, right,
received was drowned out
directs Alanis Morisette, as Donohue of the
by the controversy relating
Catholic League.
Goch and Alan Rickman,
to the movie's depiction of
as a seraphim whose job it Upon reading dialogue
Catholicism and the faiths
about Joseph and
is to be the Voice of God,
of Dogma's producers,
Mary's sex life and a
in "Dogma," a film that
Harvey and Bob Weinstein, has resulted in death
portrayal of a descen-
and its writer/director,
dent of Jesus employed
threats for its two Jewish
Kevin Smith.
producers, Harvey and Bob by an abortion clinic,
Smith is best known for
Donohue, without
Weinstein.
his award-winning films
having seen the film,
Clerks and Chasing Amy.
launched an all-out
Both of these movies were distributed
assault against Dogma.
with care by art film powerhouse
What is most troubling about this
Miramax Films, who last year nur-
brouhaha is the often inflammatory
tured Shakespeare In Love to an upset
rhetoric of Dogma's opponents, which
has done more to divide two great
Brad Pomerance is the entertainment
religions than to unite individuals of
and media correspondent for Los Angeles-
faith.
area National Public Radio affiliate
Instead of focusing exclusively on
KPCC-89.3 FM The views expressed in
the allegedly blasphemous portions of
this article are solely his own.
the film, Donohue has suggested that
Hollywood applies a double stan-
dard to the Jewish and Catholic
religions. "If Jews can complain
about Palestinian sympathizer
Vanessa Redgrave playing Jews [in
movies], we can complain against
[Dogma]," he said.
In a recent editorial, Professor
Thomas Doherty of Brandeis
University claimed that "if
Hollywood routinely portrayed
Orthodox rabbis as sordid agents
of Israel, editorial pages across the
nation would launch cruise mis-
siles at the offenders."
Posted on the official Dogma
Web site, one piece of hate mail
exclaimed, "If you attacked the
Jewish religion — Reform or
Orthodox — in the same man-
ner, our Jewish friends would
have you sued beyond compare."
That Jews or the Jewish reli-
gion may or may not be depicted
by Hollywood in a profane man-
ner should be irrelevant to the
question of whether Dogma's
alleged heretical treatment of
Catholicism crosses the line.
Actually, Dogma is a satirical
work starring Ben Affleck and
Matt Damon. They play angels,
stuck on Earth for defying God, who
are trying to make their way back to
heaven by concocting an irreverent
scheme to become eligible for entrance
into the Pearly Gates. As a practicing
Catholic himself, Smith sees his movie
as nothing less than "a recruitment
film for the Catholic Church."
Given that the film contains gratu-
itous violence, foul language and fart
jokes, Smith professes that the picture
"is too adolescent to be taken serious-
ly." Evidently not.
The battle between the Catholic
Church and Hollywood actually traces
its recent history back to the 1988
release of Universal Pictures' The Last
Temptation of Christ. This war escalat-
ed even further when the Catholic
League formally targeted the Walt
Disney Company in 1995. The
League led a boycott of the entire
Disney empire when its subsidiary,
Miramax Films, released Priest, a film
depicting a Catholic cleric as homo-
sexual.
In 1997, the League mounted
another protest against Disney and its
ABC network over Nothing Sacred, a