Variety is reporting today that a deal has been finalized to end the four month old WGA strike. Leaders of the WGA made the announcement of the finalized deal early Saturday after spending much of Friday meeting with lawyers over the contract language. WGA West president Patric Verrone and WGA East prexy Michael Winship sent a message to members that stressed the gains made in the new-media sector. “It is an agreement that protects a future in which the Internet... Read more

A friend in the CCH (Christian Community of Hollywood) forwarded me a link to an article that recently appeared in Provocations, the Journal from something called the Trinity Forum. I’ve heard of the writer, John Seel, before, although I can’t recall if we have ever met. Apparently he has done consulting for Walden Media, so we very well may have met. I’m wondering, because his peice sounds like he has been taking notes in the back of about twenty rooms... Read more

I got this email message yesterday. Good news for Hollywood. Good news that these guys are coming up for the Church. Made my week. To: [email protected]: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 5:59 pmSubject: A New Prayer Apostolate for Hollywood Hello Barbara, This is _______, the seminarian in _____, writing to you again. First I wanted to again thank you for the great work you are doing with Act One and the Hollywood RCIA program. You are certainly doing some important work... Read more

Astute friend and Internet buddy, Terry “Get Religion” Mattingly, has kindly included some quotes from this blog in his current piece on the movie Juno. Terry is wondering in the piece if the fact that pro-lifers are rallying around the movie will sink its chances of winning prestigious awards, and specifically the Oscars. Here’s a snip or two: Every year or so, a Cinderella movie leaps into the ultimate Hollywood A-list — the Academy Award nominees for best picture. The... Read more

This site had me laughing so hard my cat jumped off my lap in terror. I have rarely visited a site that provided such a smug catharsis! As those of you with a sense of history will recall, I have a (not irrational) hatred for the song “Gather Us In.” Several really funny parodies on the site, like this: Gather Us In Here in this place, a bad song is starting,Now will the altar turn into a stage.All that is... Read more

There Will Be The Most Self-Indulgent Film-Making experience of the Year. There Will Be Caricatures Instead of Characters. There Will Be Far Too Few Plot Points. There Will Be Too Many Minutes Repeating the Same Ideas Which Aren’t So Profound Anyway. There Will Be Several Unmotivated Character Choices in Unfortunately Really Big Moments. There Will be Embarrassingly Bad Dialogue. There Will Be Headache Inducing Sound Design. There Will Be a Director Who Totally Lost Control of His Lead Actor and... Read more

Have to send another heads up out there about Juno. I saw it again tonight and loved it even more than the first time. I didn’t think of it the first time, but it really is a perfect coming of age movie. Which is a genre that has almost died in the last decade or so. I would go so far as to say this film has made me a better person. (It makes you want to be kind. And... Read more

I have been invited to be one of the presenters at the annual “Edith Stein Conference” at Notre Dame in late March. (They don’t seem to have a web site up for it yet, but here is one I found for a past conference.) The conferences always revolve around the theme of redefining feminism in a Catholic context, and so all the talks look at issues concerning women in society. They first asked me to give a talk that somehow... Read more

[The Catholic bishops of the United States have designated January 22 as a special day of prayer and penance in reparation for the massive killing that has resulted from the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision (handed down January 22, 1973) which permitted abortion throughout pregnancy.] Prayer of Reparation God and Creator of Life,You have created every human person in love,And have opened the way for each to behold your Face. But as a people, we have rejected love and... Read more

I’m having all kinds of trouble with my comments on the blog. For some reason, comments are not coming through. It is some kind of turf war between Blogger and Haloscan I think, but I don’t have the skill to know how to fix it. If anybody has any ideas, please do let me know. Meanwhile, I am sorry for all the people whose comments are not appearing. Please don’t think I am deleting or blocking you. Until I get... Read more