Comedian Ricky Gervais debates the merits of God vs. Santa with Anglican church leader Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in this BBC audiocast (click HERE to listen).
"I think his biggest mistake was giving me free will," says Gervais. "I think a lot of theologians would agree with you there," replies the Archbishop.
Round one to God.
Sometimes life is so predictable. As we prophesied in our story two days ago, our always good-for-a-giggle pal over at the Catholic League, Bill Donohue, has got all worked up about the prospect of popwreck Britney Spears playing Madonna (the mother of Jesus of Nazareth rather than David of Malawi) in a modern day nativity film called Sweet Baby Jesus.
"She is seriously miscast," fumed Donohue to New York's Daily News gossip rag. "She would be better suited to play the lead role in a flick called 'Monica' [as in Lewinsky]. If she did, the Catholic League would be delighted to send her a box of cigars!"
How very (Un)Christian of him!
US Weekly are reporting that popwreck Britney Spears has been offered the role of a not-exactly-virgin Mary in an updated celluloid version of the nativity story. The film, entitled Sweet Baby Jesus, is about a pregnant teen from Bethlehem, Maryland, who is unsure of her baby's paternity and gives birth on Christmas Eve, sparking rumors of a second coming.
"I had to convince my partners because they were like, 'Oh, no. Britney?'" said the film's French producer Philippe Rebboah. "I thought it was brilliant. It's a bit ironic that she would play the Virgin Mary, no?"
One person who can be counted on to get excited about Britney playing a modern day Madonna is our good friend Bill Donohue over at the Catholic League. The pop-tragic star is certainly no Meryl Streep, with famed film critic Rodger Ebert saying quite bluntly that she "couldn't act" while reviewing her 2002 teen epic Crossroads.
It's unlikely that any film starring Spears would even get the insurance it would need to move into production right now. The troubled singer was 12-hours late to her own music video shoot two weeks ago, and has thrown a high-profile sicky today, as reported by TMZ. The celeb-stalking blog says that according to Kevin Federline's attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan, the singer used an "unspecified medical condition or illness" as an excuse for flaking on a court ordered deposition, which was part of her ongoing custody battle with her ex.
This casting joke seems like a desperate ploy for publicity on Rebboah's part. The filmmaker has just two past credits listed on IMDB, the most significant being as an associate producer on the indie picture The Guitar, which is set to premiere at Sundance in January 2008 and stars Boston Legal's elevator sex addict, Saffron Burrows. Rebboah claims Lily Tomlin and Melanie Griffith are both considering roles in his new film, and says Spears “likes the idea." Yeah, right, y'all.
