Kevin Smith's religious comedy has Catholics all hot and bothered. Round one, fight!

You can't make a movie with religious overtones in this country without someone getting all upset and causing a big stink. It happened with Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ, and now it's happening with Kevin Smith's Dogma.

The movie, which portrays Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as two angels who have been cast out of Heaven and out to start a holy war, has been denounced by the Catholic League, a religious watchdog group. The League is pleading to parent company Disney in an advertisement in the New York Times to drop Miramax, which owns the film.

Round One: "Appeal to Disney: Dumping Dogma took guts, now dump Miramax."

Round Two: The ad was in response to something Ben Affleck said of the movie, namely that the film is "definitely meant to push buttons."

Round Three: "The Catholic League has a few buttons of its own to push, and it will not hold back," Catholic League CEO and president William Donahue said in response.

Round Four: Daniel Petrocelli, attorney for the Weinstein Brothers of Miramax, said this in a letter in response to Donahue:

"Statements like these may be interpreted to announce or imply an intention by the league to go beyond the bounds of legitimate and peaceful dissent or protest, and to stimulate, motivate or incite danger or violence. Please be advised that ... we intend to hold the League fully accountable for any wrongdoing, injury or damage it causes."

Round Five: "What I meant by my statement was that we were going to whip up a media storm about this. (This) is a fascistic attempt to muzzle our free speech and it will backfire," Donahue said back in Variety.

Round Six: "We fully expect the league to respect not merely the same rights of our clients, but more importantly, the right of the public and the filmmakers to be free of any attempt to chill or interfere with their freedom of choice and expression," read a letter from Miramax's lawyer in response to the response.

Fight!

The Weinsteins are still looking for distribution for Dogma.