In the May 14 edition of Variety, the Catholic League ran a full-page ad requesting VIACOM chief Sumner Redstone to condemn the Catholic-bashing film, “Sister Mary Explains It All”; it is scheduled to air on Showtime on May 27. We subsequently issued news releases objecting to the movie and to the anti-Catholic comments made by the film’s director, Marshall Brickman, Showtime CEO Matt Blank and actress Diane Keaton (she plays the malicious nun). On May 15 and May 17, Catholic League president William Donohue wrote to Sumner Redstone asking him to condemn the Catholic bashing associated with the movie.
Showtime released the following statement today: “This does not reflect the opinion of Showtime or VIACOM. ‘Sister Mary Explains It All’ is an award winning play that is clearly a satire. Both Showtime and VIACOM reject intolerance in all its forms.” William Donohue responded as follows:
“To say that it ‘does not reflect the opinion of Showtime or VIACOM’ to air this movie is to lie: this is not a film that has been previously released—it is a Showtime original based on the viciously anti-Catholic play ‘Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You.’ Moreover, it fails to persuade to say that the movie is based on ‘an award winning play.’ The racist movie, ‘The Birth of a Nation,’ was named by the American Film Institute as one of America’s 100 greatest films. But Showtime would never insult African Americans by airing this ‘award winning’ movie. As for the bit about the movie being a ‘satire,’ if this were true then somebody needs to explain why the ADL, the American Jewish Committee and the National Conference of Christians and Jews blasted the play for its bigotry. And to say that ‘Showtime and VIACOM reject intolerance in all its forms’ is also a lie: Brickman and Blank recently cited their Jewishness as reason why it is okay to dump on Catholics.
“We are launching a boycott of Showtime and will ask our allies in various activist organizations to join with us. Redstone is a fraud.”
