It seems to me that censorship takes so many different forms that it is hard to keep up with them all. All it takes is a unique point of view and some group will find fault with it.

* Wizards and witches?…No, my child shouldn’t read about that!
* The church hierarchy is human?…No way!
* An alternate theory to the life of Christ?…It isn’t possible.

Why don’t Catholics just go with the flow and realize that these books being written are FICTION?

Something that was supposed to be taught in school is the difference between fiction and non-fiction. I believe Catholics (and several other denominations) should have a quick brush up on the definitions of these two terms:

Fiction: Literature concerning imaginary characters and events. (See that…imaginary.)

Non-Fiction: A factual literary work.

The most recent uproar is surrounding “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown. It began when the book was first released and is now making a comeback due to the big screen release of the movie.

Some of the thoughts put forth in the book are:
* Christ was married to Mary Magdalene and wanting her to be head of the church.
* There are secret organizations inside of the Catholic Church.
* Several secret meanings hidden in artwork, children’s movies, etc.

However, last time I looked, “The Da Vinci Code” is shelved in the FICTION section of the library. (I am a librarian, I should know.) That means that this book is not true…so why are religious persons taking it as “gospel”?

I personally don’t believe the Bible should be shelved in with the non-fiction. I can see it possibly being shelved as “historic fiction”, as some items have been proven to have happened. The bulk of it cannot and will never be proven as fact, so I don’t know how it can be considered a factual literary work.

So, to all the “Harry Potter” fans, “Da Vinci Code” fans, and all the fans of book that these groups are trying to take off our shelves…KEEP READING! If these groups were so comfortable with their ideas, they wouldn’t be so all-fired up about taking away others.  By Rebecca Lanham

“We put an explosive charge inside your head.”

Now that can only be a good thing if it’s the first line of a movie that you’re sitting in the theater to see. However, if you’re Ethan Hunt in Mission Impossible III, it adds a little stress to your already tense scenario of having a gun pointed at your head and your fiancée bound and gagged in front of you. And that kind of tension just doesn’t wither away.

Thankfully.

Mission: Impossible III is the best mission yet. Action movies tend to be formulaic and sequels obviously even more so, yet M:I III manages to keep the audience guessing, clinching and exclaiming “That’s so cool!” Sure it has the requisite explosions, gadgets and one-liners, but there is a freshness to it. J.J. Abrams might be why.

Each “Mission” has had a different director (Brian De Palma and John Woo respectively,) but after Tom Cruise watched a couple episodes of the television show “Alias,” he knew Abrams was his man for the third installment. With him, success was inevitable. Master of dynamic tempo and delicious intrigue, Abrams knows how to showcase impossible missions.

The rest of the team did well in choosing to accept this risky mission of sequel making. Led by Tom Cruise, the cast is stocked with talent. Say what you want about Cruise, he explodes on the big screen. I don’t know if it’s because he jumps on couches in real life but when he jumps tall buildings in the movies, it seems so feasible. If anybody can get through all of this, it’s Ethan Hunt and his team.

Ving Rhames returns as the ever faithful Luther and injects droll comic relief. Maggie Q dons audacious attire for the Vatican and Jonathan Rhys Meyers flies through windmills to support their team leader. Billy Crudup defends him in the IMF home office while the always stellar Laurence Fishburne harasses him like only a superior can.

Playing Hunt’s fiancée is Michelle Monaghan who bears a resemblance to Katie Holmes that isn’t a little creepy. (She doesn’t curl up only one side of her mouth when she speaks, but otherwise…) But who we’re all really watching is Philip Seymour Hoffman. With his Oscar win, we’re sure to see more of him in roles as awesome as this. Okay, truthfully the role isn’t that extraordinary, what he does with it is.

In between escalating missions that take Hunt and his team to industrial Berlin, downtown Shanghai and the impenetrable Vatican, Hunt is at home with his fiancée trying to create a normal life. The far-reaching plotline, inherent in this cinematic genre, wins credibility with its simple love story. Instead of another whirlwind adventure with the invulnerable adrenaline addict, Ethan Hunt is now an instructor who wants a life and a family. He is now the reluctant agent. That makes his reentry into the field more dramatic and the chases, threats and close calls matter just a little bit more because of it. 

Unlike many action movies that eventually incite you to cry ‘enough with the explosions,’ Abrams seems to have a genuine knack for storytelling and its innate rhythm which makes this film the most pleasurable of the series. With that said, get ready to shake your head in disbelief - especially when Meyers wears jeans into the Vatican. That would just never happen.

Ultimately, the real mission impossible is making a third movie in a franchise original, alive and worth seeing. Somehow J.J. Abrams, Tom Cruise and a stellar cast pull it off big time. They also offer us a fair warning: if you ever get kidnapped by bad guys, don’t let them shoot anything up your nose. This is very, very bad.

“Am I a sex symbol?” young Irish actor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers asked in the March edition of Australian OK! Magazine.  “You don’t live with me so you don’t know!”

The dark-haired, blue-eyed actor with the pointed chin and trademark pout has certainly set women’s hearts aflame everywhere, whatever he says! But he is not just relying on his good looks to get ahead. His performances, especially in his two latest movies, “Match Point” and “Elvis” have impressed critics and audiences alike.

28 years old, Meyers was born on July 27, 1977, in Dublin with a heart condition and baptized quickly because his family thought that he might not survive.  After months in hospital, he struggled through only to face a tough childhood.

His mother left when he was only 3, leaving his father to raise Jonathan and his three younger brothers, Jamie, Alan and Paul.  He didn’t do well at school and was expelled at the age of 16.  From then on he hung around pool halls where, surprisingly, he was discovered by Hubbard Casting.  Meyers began his career with a Knorr soup commercial but soon obtained roles in films, including “Michael Collins” in which he played a tough young assassin, “The Killer Tongue“, “Finbar” and “Samson and Delilah”.

His big break came at the age of 19 when he played the fictional glam rocker, Brian Slade in “The Velvet Goldmine.” In Washington D.C. Sidewalk’s review, Meyers was described as “… radiating intensity and attitude more than emotion,” and “perfect as an ultimately vacant icon.” A talented musician as well as actor, Meyers also sang some of the songs in the film.

Recently he took on the huge role of playing American pop idol, Elvis, for which he won a Golden Globe and excellent reviews.

In Woody Allen’s film, “Match Point” Jonathan plays a young Irishman impressed by his wealthy girlfriend’s life in London’s Belgravia.  His bete noire arrives when he falls for the beautiful American girl, Nola (Scarlett Johansson) who is going out with his girlfriend’s brother.  His attraction to her could ruin everything for this character, Chris Wilton, who doesn’t want to give up his expensive lifestyle. He is described by Meyers in an interview by Graham Fuller as Machiavellian. (The Hotsy Totsy Jonathan Meyers)

In the same interview, Meyers also admits to being Machiavellian and being able to turn on his charm ‘like tap water’.  However, although he once said that he only took up acting because ‘it kept him off the streets and out of jail’ now he approaches his career with passion.

Surprisingly the Byronic-looking young actor has said that he doesn’t understand women, and he was caught in a fight with his girlfriend, Reena Hammer, last December.  However, when his co-star, Scarlett Johansson, was ‘left battered and bruised after a love scene shot in freezing cold rainwater with co-star Jonathan Rhys-Meyers for Woody Allen’s new movie “Match Point”, in which the pair play passionate lovers Rhys-Meyers sent Johansson flowers after the outdoor scene got a little out of hand.

Clearly this charming Irish actor has a big future ahead of him, both in acting and in romance!

Noel Coward called the beautiful actress Vivien Leigh Shakespeare’s ‘lass unparalleled’.  She shone as the gutsy Scarlett in “Gone with the Wind“; wrenched hearts in “Waterloo Bridge” and was the perfect choice for the tormented Blanche in Tennessee William’s “A Streetcar named Desire“.  Magnetic and talented, Vivien Leigh had a brilliant career and a great love affair with the handsome young English actor Laurence Olivier.  Unfortunately, her life was afflicted with severe manic depression for which there was no cure.  If Vivien had not had to endure this, her career may have been even more illustrious and her marriage to Laurence Olivier may have lasted.

Born in India on November 5, 1913, exotic looking young Vivien came from an Irish, French and Roman Catholic heritage.  Like Scarlett in “Gone with the Wind”, the most famous character she played, Vivien was convent educated.  She went to school in England after her parents returned from India in 1920.

Skilled at drama, Vivien was accepted into the prestigious Academy of Dramatic Art, but her studies were cut short when she married Herbert Leigh Holman, a barrister, at the tender age of eighteen.  Herbert was much older at thirty-one.  They had a daughter, Suzanne, but Vivien was ambitious and showed more interest in acting than motherhood.

Her film career began with a minor role in “Things are Looking Up”.  After Vivien decided to adopt Leigh as her professional surname she made three more minor films, but remained relatively unnoticed, to her chagrin.  Pretty and vivacious, Vivien was determined to get ahead. 

Her luck changed when Alexander Korda, the great producer, spotted her, casting her as a lady-in-waiting in “Fire Over England“, about the English queen, Elizabeth 1.  This was not only the turning-point in her film career:  Vivien played next to the dashing and charismatic Laurence Olivier.  Passionate and good-looking, the young couple, both married to others, could not hide their attraction to each other.  It was love at first sight for Vivien, at least, as soon as she saw the tall and darkly handsome Olivier.                     

Gone with the Wind became a bestseller in 1939. As soon as it became known that David O’Selznick would direct the film, famous actresses, such as Norma Shearer and Bette Davis clamored for the part of Scarlett.  Scarlett, a beautiful young Southern belle, lost everything in the Civil War but managed to begin again.  The book had everything: unrequited love, war, suffering and an unforgettable heroine in Scarlett, and hero in Rhett Butler.  When Vivien Leigh first read this great drama she was determined to play Scarlett.

David O’Selznick began filming “Gone With The Wind” without his Scarlett.  Although actress after actress tested for the part all were deemed unsuitable.  Vivien was in Hollywood at the time with Laurence, who was acting in “Wuthering Heights” with William Wyler.  Wyler, impressed with Vivien’s talent, introduced her to his agent, the brother of David O’Selznick.  Myron knew that Vivien could be the Scarlett his brother needed.

He took her to the set as the first scene ‘The Burning of Atlanta’ was being filmed.  Scarlett and Rhett have to guide an old wagon through an Atlanta cruelly set on fire by Sherman’s army in this scene.  The problem was that there was no Scarlett.  The back lot really was set alight, and the scene was set, except for Scarlett.  As green-eyed, raven-haired Vivien stepped onto the set lit up by the brilliant glow of the flames, Myron told his brother:  “David, I want you to meet Scarlett O’Hara.”

Myron was right.  No other actress could have played Scarlett better than Vivien, who made this selfish but courageous and lively character come to life.  Deservedly, she won the Oscar for best actress.

This is her best-known and undoubtedly best-loved role but Vivien also made other memorable films. These included “Waterloo Bridge”, in which she played a young girl forced to turn to prostitution to make a living during The Second World War, and “That Hamilton Woman“, in which she played Emma to Laurence Olivier’s Nelson.

Vivien unfortunately started to suffer severely because her manic episodes increased.  During the filming of “Elephant Walk”, set in Sri Lanka, she drank and began an affair with the Australian Peter Finch.  Eventually she had to be taken back to England and another actress, Elizabeth Taylor, took over.  Manic depression was not understood in those days and Vivien was sent to a psychiatric hospital where she had to endure hydrotherapy and terrifying electric shock treatment.  Her miscarriage at the age of forty-two only made her more depressed.

Laurence Olivier continued to achieve brilliant success on the stage and in films.  He was knighted in 1947, but Vivien’s career continued to head downhill.  This upset her greatly.

When Vivien discovered that Laurence had begun to see another actress, Joan Plowright, Vivien became even more unhappy and bought a place in Sussex where she could spend some time alone.  Laurence married Joan Plowright three months after their divorce in 1960.

Vivien married again - to Jack Merivale, a fellow actor whom she had met long before in the stage production of “Romeo and Juliet”.  In spite of her sadness about Larry, the love of her life, and her continuing manic depression she managed to achieve some success in the sixties, winning a Tony and a second Oscar.   Vivien Leigh died in 1967 of TB.

Friends With Money is a romantic comedy directed by Nicole Holofcener. The story revolves around the lives of 4 female friends (1 single, 3 married). There is no plot to the movie; instead it focuses on how each friend reacts to their problems.The first woman in the quartet is Olivia (Jennifer Aniston). She is a single woman down in the dumps. She works as a maid, likes to smoke weed, and lets people walk over her (while on a blind date, she allows the guy to chat up another woman, then agrees to go out with him again). It doesn’t help that Olivia’s friends think all her problems would be over if she “got married.” The irony is that their own marriages all have problems.