“The Simpsons’ 20th Anniversary Special” aired on January 10th and drew some 20 million viewers. Here’s how it was flagged by the New Haven Register: “And what a mix of celebs and places it is: John Waters, Sting, the theme-song musicians, Dan Rather, Seth Myers, Mike Judge, Trey Parker and cohort Matt Stone, James L. Brooks [...]
Just as the sun sets in the morning, we know that every December the anti-Christmas folks swing into high gear. And as evidenced by the articles in this issue of Catalyst, 2009 was no exception. Save, perhaps, for one thing: the tactics this time around were noted for their novelty. Nothing gained the Catholic League more [...]
We previously reported in Catalyst that New Line Cinema has not shown much interest in making any more movie versions of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy; his first book in the series, The Golden Compass, hit the big screen in 2007, and was the subject of a vigorous Catholic League protest. At the end of [...]
Christmas bells started ringing early for the Catholic League this year. Indeed, just three days into November, we heard the call and swung into action. The next day, we scored our first victory. Initially, there was to be no Christmas Tree on the Capitol lawn in Frankfort, Kentucky. That’s because the word “Christmas” was deemed offensive. [...]
The October 25 episode of the HBO show, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” drew a sharp response from the Catholic League. The public, we are happy to report, quickly took our side. Not only did surveys reveal widespread support for our criticisms, there was strong support for the league’s position from across religious groups. The show stars Larry [...]
It’s been a wild autumn fighting verbal and graphic bombs lobbed at the Catholic Church. Most disconcerting has been the totally gratuitous nature of these ugly incidents. Sarah Silverman styles herself as an edgy young comedian. We see her as a foul-mouthed bigot. She began her October tirade against Catholicism by lamenting the problem of world [...]
In the October Catalyst, we described how bad the Penn & Teller season finale was on Showtime, asking members to let their voices be heard by contacting CBS, owner of Showtime. As always, they did not disappoint—CBS got walloped. On October 15, Bill Donohue received a call from the same high-ranking CBS official with whom he spoke [...]
The August 27 episode of Showtime’s Penn & Teller program will go down in history as one of the ugliest assaults on Catholics, or any other group, ever to air on television. Indeed, we know of no other show in the annals of television history that has even come close to this one-half hour of unrelieved [...]
Philip Pullman will release a book next year, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, that once again demonstrates his curious obsession with Catholicism. Pullman’s new book will attempt to show that St. Paul affected the Gospels more than anyone else. According to the English atheist, “He had this great ability to persuade others and his [...]
Bill Donohue serves on the Christian Film & Television Commission’s Board of Reference, the chairman of which is Ted Baehr; he publishes MOVIEGUIDE, a publication which monitors Hollywood from a Christian perspective. Baehr has asked his board members to support him in a petition drive aimed at curbing offensive fare in the movies. We urge you [...]
