Wasn't going to blog today, but this story had to be pointed out.

Mel Gibson has claimed mysterious enemies are plotting against him and harassing his family because he is making a film about Jesus Christ.
The Australian actor and director has just started shooting The Passion in Italy, a Biblical film shot entirely in Latin and Aramaic - the long dead language of the First Testament.
"When you take up a subject like this, it brings out a lot of enemies," he was quoted saying in Britain's Daily Express newspaper.

Mel, you needn't flatter yourself that these people hate you personally. You're right, people do get hangups when their Lord and Saviour gets put up on the screen, but they don't get these hangups just because YOU're doing it. Martin Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ attracted protests left right and centre and is still banned in some countries. Other countries, including the UK, used to ban all screen depictions of the anointed one. I saw a documentary once about Jesus films which had a clip from a mid-1930s French film called Golgotha where you heard the man's voice but never saw him because he wasn't allowed to be shown on screen there even then. Shit, just about any treatment of him in any form, let alone film, is liable to piss someone off. It's not just YOU, Gibbo. Thanks to Adam for the link (I've finally added him properly to the blogroll)...

posted by James Russell | 10:07 PM