Idol Chatter

A thorough and wide-ranging presentation of information regarding how to get to heaven is on your TV screen tonight. It’s not led by Billy Graham or Rick Warren or the pope’s representatives. Nope, it’s Barbara Walters. That’s right, the newswoman and interviewer of the stars has become the High Priestess of the Question of Eternity,…

Biblical exegesis meets the Billboard Hot 100 in the January/February issue of Blender magazine. Kelly Clarkson–Blender’s Woman of the Year, winner of the first “American Idol,” and singer of the ubiquitous and insidiously infectious “Since U Been Gone”–considers herself a Christian, but is no “holy roller,” notes Blender. Having a couple of drinks at an…

As Time magazine’s “Persons of the Year” edition was hitting newsstands Sunday night, Bono, one of this year’s honorees (along with Bill and Melinda Gates) was on stage in Charlotte, North Carolina, wearing a headband reading “COEXIST” spelled out with the Muslim crescent, Jewish Star of David, Christian cross, and other religious symbols, according to…

In the spirit of other dark comedies about dysfunctional families–movies such as “Home for the Holidays” or “The Royal Tenenbaums”–the latest Christmas flick, “The Family Stone,” is, on the surface anyway, a formulaic story about a young couple, Emmett and Meredith (played by Dermot Mulroney and Sarah Jessica Parker), who travel to New England to…

I remember going to see Raiders of the Lost Ark in the theater as a kid. As Indiana Jones makes his way through a tunnel of giant tarantulas, outruns a boulder, endures a snake pit, and smartly avoids having his face melt into goo, I was not alone in my white-knuckled, eye-covered screams of “eeww”…

Does Christmas seem to get more complicated every year. Online? In-store? Happy holidays? Merry Christmas? Mid-shopping, take time out to review the culture’s excesses with the expert on the topic, John Waters, the auteur of such films as “Hairspray” and other underground film comedies. “I love how it makes people mental,” Waters tells San Diego…

Randal, who was hired by Donald Trump on last night’s finale of the fourth season of NBC’s <a href="The Apprentice, acted like a sore winner, upsetting viewers who have been in his corner all season long. The highly-educated, kind-hearted, tall and lanky gentleman had achieved something that has eluded contests since the show’s inception: nearly…

“The Producers,” the movie based on the Broadway musical based on the classic Mel Brooks movie, opens today in some cities, and that adds yet one more to my quickly accumulating list of must-see new films. The Broadway show was my favorite of recent years, and the original film ain’t bad either. But when it…

Did someone say Christmas albums? One of my many failed ventures is the Annual Roundup of Tolerable Christmas Music, which ran on Beliefnet precisely one annum. For one thing, I found out there’s not enough tolerable Christmas music released each year to round up. (The other thing? I’m lazy.) Let me take this opportunity to…

The New York Times catches up with Hanukkah hipsters in its Style section today. The reporter attends a bash in a trendy Manhattan nightclub thrown by Jewcy, a group that promotes Jewish cultural awareness among young Jews, and cites it as evidence that Judaism is experiencing “a Jewish hipster moment,” kicked off by Adam Sandler’s…

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