Sunday, August 17, 2008

Pastor Rick Warren and Bill Maher: God deserves better friends and enemies.

It might be one thing if Orange County megapastor Rick Warren wanted to have an ecumenical conversation on faith and values and invite clerics from various religions--or even a private sitdown with the two Presidential candidates.  But to read that Warren spent some of yesterday basically inflating his ego ("I CAN SUMMON BARACK OBAMA AND JOHN McCAIN AND THEY WILL APPEAR BEFORE ME!!!) and mainstream recognition value by imitating last year's CNN "values" interview program (hosted by Soledad "gosh and golly" O'Brien) is disconcerting.  And, like Soledad, Warren asked a variation of "what's your favorite worst sin": http://news.aol.com/elections/article/mccain-and-obama-cite-moral-failures/135340?icid=200100397x1207606354x1200393589

In other religious news, Bill Maher's likely-to-be-smirky mockreligionumentary RELIGULOUS is getting an out-of-town tryout at the Laemmle multiplex in conservative Claremont, California.  Maybe Bill, director Larry Charles and distributor Lionsgate are trying to figure out how to manufacture some controversy for the film, which is about a month and a half away from its official release (this could mean some dumb, transparent tactic like hiring background actors from a nonunion agency to play outraged Christians for a fake-amateur YouTube video).  Here's a link to the Laemmle site: http://laemmle.com/viewtheatre.php?thid=17

Update (8/19/08): RELIGULOUS is playing in Claremont, as well as in the NYC area, for Academy Awards Documentary Feature qualification purposes.  Thanks to Jeffrey Wells for revealing this in HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE: http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2008/08/suburban_bookin.php

 

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