MONA SPEAKS

According to a Reuters dispatch today, a Japanese acoustics expert who specializes in voice-related technologies, has simulated the likely voice quality of the women who posed for Leonardo da Vinci's famously mysterious Mona Lisa painting. According to Reuters correspondent Toshi Maeda:

Dr. Matsumi Suzuki, who generally uses his skills to help with criminal investigations, measured the face and hands of Leonardo da Vinci's famous 16th century portrait to estimate her height and create a model of her skull.

"Once we have that, we can create a voice very similar to that of the person concerned," Suzuki told Reuters in an interview at his Tokyo office last week. "We have recreated the voices of a lot of famous people that were very close to the real thing and have been used in film dubbing."

The chart of any individual's voice, known as a voice print, is unique to that person and Suzuki says he believes he has achieved 90 percent accuracy in recreating the quality of the enigmatic woman's speaking tone.

"I am the Mona Lisa. My true identity is shrouded in mystery," the portrait proclaims on a Web site at http://promotion.msn.co.jp/davinci/voice.htm (Note: I recommend you visit this web site, which appears in Japanese, but just click on Mona Lisa and seh will speak to you in haunting Italian--talking about who she might actually be. The voice quality is really interesting--DB).

"In Mona Lisa's case, the lower part of her face is quite wide and her chin is pointed," Suzuki explained. "The extra volume means a relatively low voice, while the pointed chin adds mid-pitch tones," he added.

The scientists brought in an Italian woman to add the necessary intonation to the voice.

"We then had to think about what to have her say," Suzuki said. "We tried having her speak Japanese, but it didn't suit her image."

Experts disagree over who was represented in the portrait, with some saying the smiling woman is Leonardo himself, or his mother.

The team also attempted to recreate Leonardo's own voice in a project timed to coincide with the release of the film "The Da Vinci Code." Suzuki said he was less confident about its accuracy because he had to work from self-portraits where the artist wore a beard, concealing the shape of his face.

Suzuki's work has made contributions to criminal investigations -- in one case after he successfully aged a person's voice by a decade. A recording of the voice was broadcast on television, leading to the apprehension of a suspect.

THE NY TIMES LOOKS AT GOD IN TODAY'S MOVIES--AND DOESN'T FIND A PROFOUND MESSAGE:

The New york Times today looks at the Da Vinci Code and other films that tackle the subject of God, and seems disappointed to find that this trend is more like another Hollywood fashion than a spiritual quest. Here are some choice quotes from the article:

You don't believe in God?" Tom Hanks's character asks Audrey Tautou, who plays his partner-in-ciphers in "The Da Vinci Code."

"Do you believe in God?" Liev Schreiber's character asks a therapist who doubts that his adopted son, Damien, has devil genes in the new version of "The Omen."

"Get right with God," William Hurt preaches in the small, intense film "The King," but he's playing an evangelical minister, so he's a lot more certain.

With echo upon echo of faith-based dialogue, movie theaters today often sound like church. But what seems like a new willingness to explore questions of faith — as if Mel Gibson's blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ" had made religion safe for Hollywood — has the spiritual depth of the "Daily Show" segment "This Week in God," with its quiz-show-style "God Machine" that spits out religions to satirize.

"The Passion" may have proved that religion could be marketed to a large audience, but the current films use religion merely as a topical hook. "The Da Vinci Code" is a mystery whose largest theme is not Jesus' divinity but the possible corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, a subject more political than spiritual. "The Omen" (set to open June 6) is a flat-out genre movie, a remake of the 1976 thriller that happens to hinge on the idea that a little boy is the devil's son. Even a more thoughtful film like "The King," with Gael García Bernal as the illegitimate son of the minister, is less about religion than hypocrisy: can the born-again minister live what he preaches?

What's surprising — especially in a country with a politically organized religious right — is the skepticism running through these films. Institutional religion is often villainous here, while genuine matters of faith are given the familiar Hollywood bromide treatment.

The current wave of religious-themed films doesn't speak to the audience's beliefs, but to its taste for pop entertainment, like "Da Vinci." That film's enormous box office seems to be holding up; the novel is already a cultural phenomenon, and it is even less about faith than the movie is. What sets the book apart from other best sellers is its subject: Did the Catholic Church murder through the centuries to cover up the idea that Jesus was mortal and had a child? The book's potted history lessons about Knights Templar and the sacred feminine follow an old publishing formula: novels that make people think they're learning can draw readers who don't usually like novels. But it's the tantalizing centuries-long cover-up that drives the page-turning chases and murders.

And while the movie's fidelity to the book is the flaw that makes it seem like some lifeless, illustrated version of the swifter novel, one of the film's biggest departures is its blunter dialogue about faith. Akiva Goldsman's leaden script, not Dan Brown's novel, has Robert Langdon (Mr. Hanks) and Sophie Neveu (Ms. Tautou) stop for a chat about whether a deity exists. Sophie answers no to the God question, saying, "I don't believe in some magic from the sky, just people."

By the end, when her skepticism has been challenged, Langdon tells her that it doesn't matter whether Jesus was mortal or divine. "The only thing that matters is what you believe," he says. That line, invented for the movie, sums up its attitude toward faith: a reassuring humanist shrug that says, "Whatever."

NOW HERE'S WHAT I CALL A REAL STAND OF PRINCIPLE


The Solomon Islands, which has no movie theaters, has announced plans to ban "The Da Vinci Code" from showing in movie theaters. Manasseh Sogavare, the island group's political leader, believes the content of the film could destroy the moral fabric of Christian society. Some 97.1 percent of the islands' 500,000 people are Christians.

None of the accounts of this story I read explained how you can ban the showing of a film when you have no theaters to begin with.

THE NUN WHO LED DA VINCI CODE PROTESTS MAY NOT BE A REAL NUN

In the ever-curiouser and curiouser story about what is fact and what is fiction in The Da Vinci Code, consider this news today from the BBC that Sister Mary Michael, the nun frequently seen in world TV reports leading protests against the Da Vinci Code (including recently at the Cannes Film Festival), may not be recoignized as a nun by her order. Here are excerpts from the BBC report:


Da Vinci code nun 'not genuine'
By Ben Davies
BBC News reporter

A woman who led protests against the Da Vinci Code dressed in a habit is not a real nun, says the Catholic Church. Sister Mary Michael appeared in the world's media denouncing the controversial book as "blasphemy".

The Catholic Church says Sister Mary is not "canonically recognised" even if she does do "good works".

She was connected to the Carmelites but left and is now a "maverick" and a "one-woman order", a spokesman told the BBC News website.

Sister Mary Michael hit the headlines in August 2005 after she mounted a prayer vigil outside Lincoln Cathedral while the Da Vinci Code was filmed there.

Asked about her status as a nun, Sister Mary Michael said: "I am attached to the Carmelites and that's it."

But the spokesman for the Nottingham diocese in which she lives, Rev Philip McBrien, said: "Her connection with the Carmelites ended a long time ago. She has never been professed by our bishops and she doesn't belong to any recognised order.

"She has no official connection with any order or any of the parishes. She's a one-off, a maverick.

RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT THE DA VINCI CODE MOVIE--COMING VERY SOON


In this post are excerpts from an interview I did with journalist Erik Floren, who interviewed me last week for the Edmonton Sun, a newspaper in Canada. The article ran on Sunday. It has a pretty good set of quotes from me about my views on the upcoming Da Vinci Code movie and the phenomenon surrounding it. I hope you find it of interest. The weblink for the full text of the article is:

http://www.edmontonsun.com/Entertainment/Spotlight/2006/05/14/1579185-sun.html


May 14, 2006

Da thriller in theatres
Author of unauthorized guide dispels myths as big screen version of book makes debut
By ERIK FLOREN, EDMONTON SUN

You read the book - now you eagerly await the movie.

You're certainly not alone.

With more than 46 million copies of The Da Vinci Code in print worldwide, Dan Brown's controversial thriller appears to have a built-in audience for the theatrical release on Friday.

The runaway literary blockbuster could easily translate into the runaway movie blockbuster of the summer.

Or even bigger.

"I'm expecting the film to be perhaps the biggest grossing film of all time," said The Da Vinci Code expert Dan Burstein, reached by telephone at his Connecticut office.

Burstein is the editor of Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code, the world's No. 1 bestselling guide to the book. As an authority with a non-religious perspective, Burstein has been interviewed extensively, including appearances on the History Channel, Inside Edition and in Forbes and The Washington Post.

"With 40 million buyers worldwide of the book, you can imagine the film is going to be seen by even more people," said Burstein, who predicts the motion picture could eventually surpass the box-office earnings of The Titanic.

"The fact is, the movie is going to be very controversial and get a huge amount of media - probably as much or more as Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ two years ago," said Burstein.

"It will be shown in almost every country in the world and it cuts across demographics and age and racial lines. I've rarely known of a movie that had so much potential to address so many different demographic niches simultaneously."

In the publishing world, The Da Vinci Code has become its own industry. At last count there were more than two dozen books featuring some form of the The Da Vinci Code in their title, cashing in on the enormous popularity of the novel.

Despite coming out in print four years ago, The Da Vinci Code continues to sell like no other novel, and still sits atop many international bestseller lists. Then again -in addition to being a rip-roaring read - the book has generated tonnes of publicity, no small part due to controversial allegations about the Bible, Jesus Christ and the early history of Christianity.

Especially controversial is the proposal that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene married and sired a dynastic bloodline - and that it was covered up by the Catholic Church.

Not surprising then, although the work is labelled as fiction, the Vatican has not been amused. In its latest broadside, Monsignor Angelo Amato blasted The Da Vinci Code as full of anti-Christian lies. Amato, the No. 2 man in the Vatican's powerful doctrine agency, urged Catholics to boycott the movie.

Other Vatican officials also called for boycotts of the book last year, suggesting The Da Vinci Code espouses heresy. But that's all just a tempest in a theological teapot, insists Burstein.

"The great quote from a bishop used by Dan Brown in his speeches, is if you look at everything the Catholic Church has withstood over the last 2,000 years - from Roman suppression to the Reformation to everything else - I think it can withstand the criticism of a novelist from New Hampshire," he laughed.

"And if The Da Vinci Code is shaking people's faith, the church has to engage in that issue, and ask, why? Because amid all the fiction and fantasy in The Da Vinci Code, there's some pretty provocative issues about the role of women in the church, about why Mary Magdalene was known as a prostitute for 1,500 years and about why these alternative gospels were suppressed (from the Bible) 1,800 years ago," said Burstein.

"These are very legitimate questions that should be discussed and debated." Those very questions are the reason Burstein - whose day job is managing a venture capital firm in New York - decided to publish Secrets of the Code.

"I was a fan of The Da Vinci Code and found it fascinating on many levels. I wanted to know more about the issues, and did my own independent research. There was so much debate about what's real and what's not in The Da Vinci Code - I wanted to go on the hunt," he said.

What Burstein found during his hunt was lots of errors big and small in The Da Vinci Code on matters of fact. What has everyone debating is actually very subjective matters of religion and theology - where there is no truth.

"If you're a highly religious person and you believe The Bible is the literal word of God, then obviously you're going to think that's a fact. But the fact that you believe that doesn't make it a fact," said Burstein.

While Burstein doesn't suspect any hidden agenda, he does think the writer was motivated by two strong beliefs.

"The first is Brown's belief that even though we live in the information age, there are powerful people in society that like to keep certain important truths from being widely known.

"What (Brown) also believes, I think very deeply, is that we are not aware of how much the original message of Jesus - the human being, the anti-Roman Jewish revolutionary who favoured the oppressed and the poor and the downtrodden and the women and the people of darker skin - got convoluted, changed and corrupted when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire of Constantine."

As with the book, Burstein feels his Secrets of the Code - a collection of original thought and writing from key authors and scholars active in their fields - will serve as an interesting companion to the movie, but recommends first seeing the film.

"If you come out of the theatre asking a lot of questions and wanting to know what you've just seen, you should definitely pick up a copy of our book. It will shed a lot of light.

"I also will not be surprised if a lot of the people who like the book are disappointed with the film, because I think it's very, very difficult in film to capture many of these bigger issues."

The special effects used in the Harry Potter movies made many parts of the book come alive on screen; but that won't be a luxury afforded with The Da Vinci Code movie, he speculated.

"A lot of the things that make the book most interesting is really mental and intellectual, and it's quite difficult to bring those things to life (with special effects)," said Burstein.

Still, those very issues and ideas are likely magical enough in themselves, having already helped launch The Da Vinci Code into a global phenomenon.

Indeed, a book selling 40 million copies is no ordinary novel. And the impact of The Da Vinci Code on our collective pop-cultural psyche is still growing. For this motion picture should reach even more people, further advancing the issues and ideas. So just how much is truth, and how much fiction?

"I think the truths are big and important - but metaphorical - they are not fact truths," said Burstein.

"We don't know that Jesus or Mary Magdalene were ever married. But the idea that they might have had a different kind of relationship than the one traditionally described is a very powerful one worth considering," he added.

"The stuff (in the novel) about the Priory of Sion is all made up, taken from a now very well-known documented 20th-century French hoax created by Pierre Plantard - and the stuff that's in the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail and was the basis for the London lawsuit."

That much-publicized court battle kept The Da Vinci Code in the news. London's High Court cleared Brown of copyright infringement last month, mere weeks before the movie was to open. British authors Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh had sued Brown, alleging his novel "appropriated the architecture" of their 1982 work The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.

Both books explore the theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, had children and his bloodline survives today.

"The irony about the Priory of Sion is that it's a hoax. Nobody should have a copyright to it because there's not even a shred of truth to it," laughed Burstein. "That there's a Priory of Sion going around today that has this long-term intellectual legacy that goes back to Leonardo Da Vinci is just a concoction.

"But it's interesting to consider because the people put into it - like Leonardo and Isaac Newton and Victor Hugo and Claude DeBussy and Mozart - were all one type of heretic or another. All of them believed in some kind of magical alchemical spiritual truths that were more important than, you know, common experience of science and nature and logic. And that's true. That's why they were included," said Burstein.

"So it's still an interesting idea to think about, but it's fundamentally false," said Burstein.

Isn't that the bottom line to The Da Vinci Code? That, whether book or movie, it is interesting to contemplate?

"Exactly. And that's what our book is all about, taking the people who want to think about those things and allowing them the materials and space to extend the conversation."

I RATHER LIKE THIS LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF A JAMAICAN NEWSPAPER

I find it interesting for several reasons:

--One, it is a breath of fresh air for a person of obvious deep religious faith to be so relaxed about opening one's mind to interesting ideas that might be in the Da Vinci Code;

--Two, because it tells us something about the international scope of the debate over DVC;

--Three, because it showed up in my Google Alerts today and reminds us of how, in the age of instants search engines and blogs, a single writer with a thought to communicate can rise out of the billions of bits of data flowing through cyberspace and get our attention with a headline like: "Da Vinci Code Does Not Threatent the Bible; and

--Four, because the writer also seems to find our Secrets of the Code to be of interest.


Herewith, from the "Jamaican Gleaner," a letter to the editor from a writer named Pansy Gayle.


Letter of the day - Da Vinci Code does not threaten the Bible
published: Sunday | May 14, 2006

THE EDITOR, Sir:

RE THE Da Vinci Code(by Dan Brown) and the Unauthorised Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code by Dan Burstein, I read both books and found them to be mesmerising. Good writing, I say, coming from one who often loses interest if the author cannot keep my attention after a period of time.

Dan Brown's revived my interest to such an extent that I now do a lot more reading. Dan Burstein should be read after The Da Vinci Code. Both books should be read to get an empowered understanding of Christianity.

THOSE THREATENED

Those who feel threatened are not as grounded in their Christian faith as they ought to be.

Is there a fear that some people will become enlightened and brave enough to question issues they have read in the Bible, without feeling they are blaspheming? The Holy Bible is made up of different writings from different people at different times. Some are divinely inspired, I believe, by the spirit of the most high God; some are historical records of a 'nation'; some are letters written by followers of Jesus. The list goes on.

From the list, some writings were chosen to be part of another book called the Bible. Is it inconceivable that we do not know all the facts? Do we even care? Do most 'Christians' really read and understand Revelations. If they truly aspired to practice Jesus' teachings, acknowledge that they too are sinners, seek after righteousness continually, live a life based on faith in the spirit of the most high God, and learn to enjoy life whatever the condition, they would be amazed how rich their spiritual lives would become without craving after money.

Reading both books has not in any way diminished my faith in God nor stopped me from practising the teachings of Jesus and other prophets of old. I have been enlightened, nonetheless. Know for yourself the God you serve.



PANSY GAYLE

plgayle05@yahoo.com

BLASPHEMY ON STEROIDS, OTHERCOTTS, SPY MOVIE DISCLAIMERS, THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES, AND A BIT OF SANITY FROM REV. JIM GARLOW WHO ADVOCATES "DA VINCI CODE PARTIES"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The New York Times's Laurie Goodstein did a good job the other day summarizing some of the many positions Christian religious leaders are taking in the run-up to the opening of the DVC movie. Excerpts follow:

Many Christian leaders across the country are girding themselves for battle with "The Da Vinci Code," the movie based on the blockbuster novel by Dan Brown that opens on May 19. Whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, Orthodox or evangelical, they agree that the book attacks the pillars of Christianity by raising doubts about the divinity of Jesus and the origins of the Bible.

But they are not at all in agreement on how to best respond to a movie that one leader called "blasphemy on steroids." Some will boycott it. Others will use it as a "teaching moment." Still others will lodge a protest by seeing another movie.

Until recently, the prevailing strategy was to hitch on to the Da Vinci steamroller and use it as an opportunity for evangelism. For months, clergy have been giving their flocks books and DVD's debunking the novel, and some have even encouraged their congregants to see the movie with a nonbeliever.

"I think we really have to see it, at least some of us," said Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, a prominent evangelical school. "It's very important for some Christians at least to be able to engage in an intelligent discussion."

But in recent weeks, calls for boycotts and protests have grown louder, from the Vatican to conservative Christian groups in the United States. They acknowledge that a boycott is not likely to make a dent at the box office, but say the co-optation strategy promoted by others will not adequately convey how offensive "The Da Vinci Code" is to their faith.

"Christians are under no obligation to pay for what Hollywood dishes out, especially a movie that slanders Jesus Christ and the church," said Robert H. Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, an affiliate of Concerned Women for America, a conservative Christian group based in Washington.

"I don't have to see 'The Devil in Miss Jones' to know it's pornography, and I don't have to see 'The Da Vinci Code' to know that it's blasphemous," said Mr. Knight, who plans to join religious leaders from groups like Human Life International and Movieguide in Washington on May 17 to announce boycott plans.

A third strategy now gaining currency is being called an "othercott" — urging people to see a different movie on the day "The Da Vinci Code" opens, like "Over the Hedge," an animated family feature. The idea was dreamed up by Barbara Nicolosi, a former nun who now directs Act One, a program in Los Angeles that coaches Christian screenwriters.

Talk of "the movie being an opportunity for evangelism is a line completely concocted by the Sony Pictures marketing machine," said Ms. Nicolosi. "All they care about is getting the box office, and if they don't get the red states to turn out, the movie tanks."

To be sure, there are many Christians who do not regard the book or the movie as a threat. But the outrage is widespread, and the divisions on strategy do not run along denominational lines. Some evangelicals are calling for a boycott, while others are telling their flocks to see the film. Roman Catholic officials are not on the same page either.

The debate has been colored by the Muslim riots over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Most American media outlets refrained from showing the cartoons, and now some Christian leaders are asking why Christians should be expected to sit by while the media promotes a movie that insults their savior.

In Rome recently, Archbishop Angelo Amato, the No. 2 official in the Vatican's doctrinal office, told Catholic communications officials: "If such slanders, offenses and errors had been directed at the Koran or the Holocaust, they would have justly provoked a world uprising. Instead, directed at the Church and Christians, they remain unpunished. I hope you will all boycott the movie."

Cardinal Francis Arinze, a prominent Vatican official from Nigeria, said in a recently released documentary made by a Catholic film agency that Christians should take "legal means" against "The Da Vinci Code," though he did not explain how.

But in the United States, Catholic bishops have opted to take an "educational" approach, said Msgr. Francis Maniscalco, a spokesman for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. They have produced a Web site, pamphlets and a documentary, "Jesus Decoded," that will air on NBC affiliates.

"We believe we can fight the Da Vinci Code's position from the point of view of scholarship, and we don't have to shut them down," Monsignor Maniscalco said.

Opus Dei, a Catholic group with a starring role in "The Da Vinci Code" as the evil guardian of the conspiracy, has consistently asked Sony Pictures to add a disclaimer to the movie. But the film's director, Ron Howard, told The Los Angeles Times last week, "Spy thrillers don't start off with disclaimers."

The prevailing evangelism strategy will affect thousands of churches. Focus on the Family, the conservative media ministry founded by Dr. James Dobson, has enlisted 3,000 churches to show a simulcast on the issue the weekend the movie opens.

The Rev. Jim Garlow, pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, has trained more than 200 pastors in how to encourage their congregations to use the movie to share their faith by throwing "Da Vinci Code parties" in their homes.

"It's the task of the missionary to learn the language of the indigenous people," he said, "and Dan Brown's book has become a universal language. It simply opens doors."

TROUBLING SIGN #2: MORE EXTREME NEGATIVE REACTIONS: THE PHILIPPINES

(Reuters) - The Philippine government should ban the controversial movie "The Da Vinci Code," a senior official in the mainly Catholic country said Wednesday, describing the religious thriller as blasphemous.
The film, based on the best-selling fiction novel of the same title, is due to open in Manila's cinemas next week.

"I think we should do everything not to allow it to be shown," said Eduardo Ermita, executive secretary to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, expressing his personal opinion as a "devout Catholic."

He told journalists the state's censors should take a closer look at its guidelines before giving the green light to the film whose central premise is that Jesus Christ sired a child by Mary Magdalene.

More than 80 percent of the Philippines' 85 million population are Roman Catholic. Along with Malta, the Philippines is one of only two countries in the world without a divorce law and frowns on the promotion of artificial contraception.

"In the name of many like you who love and revere the Son of God made Man, I strongly appeal to you that the showing of the film 'Da Vinci Code' be banned throughout our land," said a Roman Catholic archbishop in a letter to the chief censor this week.

Ramon Arguelles of the archdiocese of Lipa, south of Manila, said the movie was an affront to Christianity, reminding the censors that the government had imposed a ban on another movie, "The Last Temptation of Christ" in the 1980s.

Ermita said Arroyo, also a devout Roman Catholic, has not made any statement on the issue. She is due to return from a four-day state visit to Saudi Arabia Thursday.

"It's something that we should not be talking about," he said, referring to the movie's storyline. "We might get struck by lightning."

A TROUBLING PORTENT OF THINGS TO COME: EXTREME REACTIONS IN INDIA TO THE UPCOMING OPENING OF THE DA VINCI CODE FILM:

A Roman Catholic organization in India has urged Christians to starve themselves to death to protest the release of "The Da Vinci Code" in movie theaters there, Agence France-Presse reported. Joseph Dias, the secretary general of the Catholic Secular Forum, who spoke of the "fast unto death" as a demonstration of "the extent that our feelings have been hurt," said that it is "a more Christian way of doing things rather than pulling down things and tearing them up."

The forum said that it hoped that thousands of people would turn out for a protest today in Mumbai to burn effigies of Dan Brown, the author of the best-selling novel that is the basis for the film, scheduled for international release on May 19. Yesterday about 100 people gathered in Mumbai to burn pages of the book, but the police stopped them from torching an effigy of Mr. Brown. About 2 percent of the 1.1 billion people in India are Christian.

WITH ALL THE IMPORTANT ISSUES SURROUNDING THE DA VINCI CODE, AND THE VERY SERIOUS DEBATES AND CONTROVERSIES, EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE IT'S A GOOD IDEA TO REMEMBER THIS IS JUST A NOVEL, JUST A FILM, JUST A WORK OF POP CULTURE--I GOT A GOOD LAUGH OUT OF THIS REPORT FROM SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, AS REPORTED BY HOLLYWOOD.COM:

HOLLYWOOD - Tom Hanks poked fun at the religious controversy surrounding his new film The Da Vinci Code by facing criticism from mock priests, cardinals, nuns, Popes and even Jesus Christ as he guest-hosted Saturday Night Live.

The Oscar winner's new movie, which is adapted from Dan Brown's controversial novel of the same name, has upset Catholic Church officials because it questions longstanding beliefs about Christ and an alleged bloodline.

But Hanks, who insists the film and the debate it will spark will actually help to swell church numbers, is taking the criticism in his stride.

Hosting Saturday Night Live for the eighth time, Hanks opened the show by taking questions from regular cast members dressed as clergymen and clergywomen--and Jesus himself...The highlight of the skit came when show regular, Jason Sudeikis, dressed up as a comedic Jesus. He quipped, "Mr. Hanks, I saw your film and I just want you to know that I forgive you."

But when the actor asked if he'd actually seen all of The Da Vinci Code, Sudeikis' Jesus joked, "I haven't seen that. I was forgiving you for making The Terminal... I saw that on an airplane and people were still walking out."

AN INTERESTING COMMENT FROM OPUS DEI

Opus Dei continues its media offensive. Of all the many critics of the Da Vinci Code novel and upcoming film, Opus Dei has positioned itself as the most visible and vocal critic. I have no problem with their reaction--they feel defamed by their portrayal in the Da Vinci Code and they are using their prodigious resources and media savvy to fight back. To me, however, it is unfortunate that Opus Dei is becoming so central to the controversy over the Da Vinci Code, because I happen to think there are dozens of more interesting questions to discuss than the portrayal of Opus Dei.

In all the media coverage of Opus Dei's position, I found this quote from an Opus Dei scholar of particular interest: “If you find what you see there (i.e., in the Da Vinci Code) attractive, you will probably enjoy a Catholic Mass....I’ve seen people who have come back to their faith after reading The Da Vinci Code.”

Here's a fuller version of the story with the quote in context:


Catholic scholars gathered in Rome today to explore whether the soon-to-be-released film version of The Da Vinci Code will help spread hostile sentiment against the church or provide an opportunity to draw people closer to religion.

Scholars including members of Opus Dei – the conservative religious order depicted as a murderous, power-hungry sect in the best-selling Dan Brown novel - were participating at the forum on the potential effects of the movie, set for release on May 17-19 around the world.

“The movie will reach more people, so in that sense it will be a bit of a step forward for the book’s ideas,” said the Rev. John Wauck, a professor at Opus Dei’s University of Santa Croce in Rome.

The book also targets Opus Dei for its purported political and economic power as well is its use of “corporal mortification,” the voluntary punishing of one’s body as spiritual discipline.

Several high-ranking prelates are members of Opus Dei, an order which was particularly favoured by the late Pope John Paul II.

“As a book, The Da Vinci Code doesn’t merit serious attention,” Wauck said before the conference.

“However, as a phenomenon it demands serious attention, because a book that sells 40 million copies is not just a book, it tells us something about our society and the world we live in,” Wauck said.

The novel’s success is a sign that there is “tremendous religious ignorance” but that readers also have a thirst for history, art, symbolism and a more spiritual life, Wauck said, indicating that the movie might draw some people closer to Catholicism.

“If you find what you see there attractive you will probably enjoy a Catholic Mass,” he said. “I’ve seen people who have come back to their faith after reading The Da Vinci Code.”

Opus Dei has refrained from calling for a boycott of the movie, but is among those asking Sony to issue a disclaimer with the film that would clarify that it is a work of fantasy.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has declined to reveal whether the film would bear a disclaimer but has said the work is not a religious one and is not meant to criticise any group.

The CBS affiliate in Boston, Channel 4, carried an intriguing and original report today:

Despite the charges in some quarters that the Da Vinci Code is "anti-Catholic," the channel 4 report notedd, "In our exclusive Fast Track we asked Boston area Catholics who've read the book about the story's accuracy. Sixty-six percent say 'The Da Vinci Code' is 'very' or 'somewhat' accurate."

This is one of the first quantifications I have seen of an obvious trend: Many ordinary people who happen to be Catholics have found many interesting ideas and food for thought in the Da Vinci Code.

The Boston TV report went on, however, to quote C.J. Doyle, who heads the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, an anti-defamation organization with about 1700 members. He says people should stay away from the movie. "This is a blasphemous fable. And frankly, I'd urge every Catholic never to go to another movie involving Tom Hanks or purchase any product from the Sony Corporation," according to Doyle.