In November 1997, we learned that NBC paid author Glenn Kleier $1 million for the TV rights to his book, The Last Day; a miniseries was planned. The novel was certain to offend Catholics. We know this because Rich Horgan, who worked with Kleier on the book, said “This is a book that’s going to be a sort of kidney punch to organized religion, and to the Catholic Church specifically.”
- Fast forward to January 4, 2000. That’s when we read a news story that explained how fear of a boycott killed NBC’s plans to air the show. Kleier was quoted as saying, “The Catholic League lobbied hard against the movie.” Talk about an easy win—all we did was throw the initial news story in a file!
