The Playgoer: Bill Donohue felt left out!

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Sunday, April 02, 2006

Bill Donohue felt left out!

Dyspeptic rambler Bill Donohue is at it again. You may remember Donohue, the head of the "Catholic League," from such memorable censorship spats from the past as "Corpus Christi" and the Brooklyn Museum "Virgin Mary" painting. Donohue is nuts, but a smart enough tele-activist to know he cannot afford to miss out on any religion & culture spat. Surprising it took him four weeks!

In a release last week, reliving his glory days from "Corpus Christi" days, he basically complains: How come Jews can censor a play and not Catholics? No kidding, check it out. Or not. He's insane.

He is right insofar as there has been a double standard between "Corrie" and "Corpus Christi"--but I hardly think it's because Catholics don't matter. Besides, I never understood Donohue's claim that "Corpus Christi" offended Catholics uniquely over other Christians. (C'mon give McNally a break, I'm sure he's quite capable of offending every sect, thank you very much.)

Of course the most entertaining thing about listening to Donohue is following his sodomy-obsession. He recently got himself some ink as a guest on "Scarborough Country" (2nd tier cable news shout-fest), where, asked about cultural values in Hollywood, he answered that most movie actors would "sodomize their own mother in a movie...and they would do it with a smile on their face." Needless to say the question invited no such imagery.

In his "Corrie" statement he seems happy to repeat the lie he has repeatedly told about "Corpus Christi" stilll describing it as "the play that depicted Jesus having sex with his disciples." This is the libel--when first leaked to the NY papers--that first got McNally's play cancelled by Manhattan Theatre Club. Even though the script (as is clear to anyone who reads it) depicts its protagonist doing no such thing--and MTC knew that! Presumably Donohue must know himself, even if he never saw the play, since the charge has been demonstrably proven false in the eight year since the play was finally allowed to be performed and read. Some people just love "the big lie"--or just love talking about sodomy--too much to let it go.

Here's the other odd statement in his press release:

The man who made the decision to kill the play [Rachel Corrie] after he polled local Jews is Jim Nicola of the New York Theater Workshop. He is the same person who slammed his theater for withdrawing its support of "Corpus Christi" the play that depicted Jesus having sex with his disciples.

Am I misreading this or does he not even know what organization he was protesting eight years ago?


I'm glad to see from their website that the Catholic League seems to be some real organization, and not just doing business out of Donohue's apartment. And I hope they do more service for American Catholics than just digging up this freak to put on the air every time the media cries blasphemy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Donohue makes a good point unintentionally: the difference between MTC and NYTW is much smaller than the latter would like to think. And of course on the censorship issue, MTC is far to the left of NYTW.