JPII: a Gibson dupe?



Earlier this winter, the Pope saw a copy of The Passion of the Christ, and reportedly said "it is as it was"

evil hack Peggy Noonan made a big to-do about the quote, but now it turns out the pontiff may not have made this comment at all.



I've been convinced that the alleged controversy over TPOTC was wholly manufactured by Gibson and the film's backers, from the initial screenings only for religious groups and conservative columnists (Noonan included), to the "possibly stolen" (read: leaked by the producers) early screenplay draft (read: probably never even close to what got shot) which drew criticism for being possibly anti-Semitic. The only advance buzz on it I have any respect for is that coming out of Aint it Cool News's annual Butt-Numb-A-Thon, as those viewers are interested in seeing good movies, regardless of religious stripe.



So, if the Vatican denial turns out to be true, we have an interesting situation where Gibson & co. are lying to get butts in the seats for their religious movie. How Christian, Mel.