Before you read this article, and feel that I snuck in to spy on the proceedings, it should be stated that I honestly am a writer for the NYU publication, The Plague, as I stated when I signed in. I went as a matter of curiosity, without seeking or receiving permission, real or implied, from News Askew, View Askew Productions (including any person connected therein, legally or in any other way), Kevin Smith, Miramax Films (or its subsidiaries), the Weinstein Brothers or their lawyers, or Disney. I went of my own will and desire, and, as such, humbly request that any hate mail, responses, criticisms, or compliments, by sent directly to me — Guam824@aol.com — and that I be referred to as an independent source (or by my name, Sean Richardson) and not a “spy” or anything else. Whether or not this is published in The Plague, we shall see. (I doubt it, but I can hope.)

[Also note that anything in quotes after this is a quote from Catholic League president William Donohue unless otherwise indicated.]

Now that that’s out of the way…The Catholic League is at it again. I’m sure that’s what many people will say. After their recent conflict with The Simpsons (“We showed them, insult anybody, Baptists, Protestants, Presbyterians, just not Catholics!”), they’ve moved on to bigger things.

Is their conflict really with (Kevin Smith’s) Dogma? Partially. After “requesting to see the script and the film countless times,” Donohue settled for reading the third draft off the Internet. [He acknowledged after the conference to one reporter that the final shooting script was Draft Five, and that he read Draft Three, and they had already cut the “particularly blasphemous segment” regarding Hosties’ Cereal.] When I arrived, slightly late, he was acknowledging that this protest would likely provide a slight bump in the film’s grosses, and also said that thier “plans” for Opening Day were still being decided.

When Askew-friend John Pierson, in attendance, pointed out that Kevin was a lifelong devout Catholic, Donohue dismissed that with two quotes from Kevin (I know they’re available elsewhere on News Askew); one regarding Sunday mass being difficult to sit through sometimes, the other regarding his crisis of fate leading to this script, to which Donohue replied, “I’ll introduce him to some good priests to help him through, but don’t write a movie like this!” (Apparently, the film does not affirm faith.)

His specific complaints were as follows:

(1) Joseph and Mary having sex.
(2) Jesus’ descendant (!) working in an abortion clinic (!!!)
(3) The “Howard Stern” type dirty humor throughout, that “the country is growing tired of.” [If given another chance, I would like to ask Donohue how he feels about dialog like that making the film, and therefore the faith contained within, more accessible to today’s youth, a generation or two removed from him as we are.]

But, it seemed, he had bigger fish to fry, making the primary target of his talks not Kevin Smith, or Dogma, but Miramax films and the Weinsteins specifically. [He still has not acknowledged that the Weinsteins, not Miramax, own Dogma.] His (by his own admission) large scale plans call for Disney to altogether drop Miramax and return to being “family friendly”. Being extremely cordial to Mr. Pierson, he acknowledged that “those guys (the Weinsteins) are no dummies …. they’ve released many extremely good films, but they feel the need to continually attack the Catholic faith … I feel that they will do quite well on their own, especially if they lay off the Catholic-bashing.” He feels, though, that while Disney is in a period of weakness (profits are, apparently, down), now is the time to “exploit” that and get Disney to completely drop the Weinsteins and their “agenda”.

The League’s goal (and, misguided though this may be, I do think they have pure motives) is singular, he says. They don’t care about politics (he endorses nobody, but will commend a politician who denounces Dogma as blasphemy, even Hillary Clinton, as the reporter asked); they’re “not out to be liked”, or “assimilate” (as “many Catholics are nowadays”), just to stop the “growing” prejudice he feels exists for and towards Catholics, not as individuals, but as a faith and a church.

After the conference, I myself asked two questions.

Q1) Do you feel the Weinsteins’ fear of violence is justified, not neccessarily sanctioned by the League, but from more zealous members?

A1) No, because there is not one incident of violence in the history of the League.

Q2) If that’s true, then why not issue in a statement, even in conjunction with the “re-doubling your efforts” one, that such tactics will not be accepted or condoned?

A2) (thrown, visibly slightly annoyed) Well, I would think that’s gratutious, but it is … it’s a good thought.

Me) Thank you.

[it should be noted, I had no tape recorder; those are not direct quotes, however they do convey both the intention of the statements and, wherever possible, the verbatim account.]

Thus ended my face-to-face meeting with him (by his own admission, more than he has had with Kevin).

Other things of note from the conference:

— The press packet included the Weinsteins’ attorneys’ full letter. I know this was originally intended to be private, however, since they are now making it public, I’ll transcribe that for you as well, ASAP.

— A similar letter did stop protests of Corpus Christi after two days. However, in the interim between then and now, the League researched and found that the legality of their “blame” is questionable. (Thanks to John Pierson for that tidbit.)

— Donohue specifically thanked Ben Affleck for his quote regarding the film being designed to push buttons.

— He also brought up a quote from Roger Ebert, “Nobody in attendance was offended,” responding: “Why should they be? They went to see the movie, they’re not the ones we expect to be offended.” (Ignoring that Ebert pointed out his own lifelong Catholicism in the article.)

— Though one reporter was quick to label Kevin as “an ex-Catholic posing as a Catholic”, Donohue dismissed that by saying, “I don’t care if he’s a Buddhist!” adding it was the film itself whose blasphemy was important, moreso than the maker’s.

In the coming weeks, we’ll see if he releases a statement in indirect response to my question (which, sadly, most reporters didn’t see, though Pierson commented to me afterwards about it), but I assure you all that if there is another press conference like this one, I’ll do everything in my power to attend and report on it as unbiased as possible as both a Christian and a Kevin Smith fan, as well as bringing any of my own points (like the Language = accessibility one) into the discussion.

From the field,
Sean Richardson

-Sean is not a member of the Associated Press, View Askew Productions, or News Askew, but attended the conference as the lone reporter representing any publication from New York University.