Once again, the Catholic League has locked horns with Miramax, the movie production house owned by Disney. This time the battle is over the film “40 Days and 40 Nights.” Josh Hartnett plays a Catholic who pledges to give up sex for Lent but has his will tested by his ex-girlfriend. Because the movie opens during Lent (March 1), William Donohue asked Disney chairman Michael Eisner and Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein to reschedule the opening until after Easter.
Donohue’s request was made on February 5 and the next day he was rebuffed by Miramax. So when we learned that the annual Disney Shareholder’s meeting was scheduled for February 19 at the Hartford Civic Center, we decided to take action. We placed an ad on the op-ed page of the Connecticut daily, the Hartford Courant, on the same day, asking shareholders to press Disney to dump Miramax once and for all.
