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Film

In the News

Briefs and news of note.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 17, 2006

'Da Vinci' faces protests

Anger over The Da Vinci Code, premiering today at the Cannes Film Festival in France, escalated Tuesday as Christian groups from South Korea, Thailand, Greece and India planned boycotts, a hunger strike and attempts to block or shorten screenings.

The plot of the movie, adapted by Ron Howard from Dan Brown's worldwide bestseller, makes the case that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children with her.

In India, the government put a temporary hold on the movie's release because of complaints.

In South Korea, a court ruled that a Christian group's request for an injunction to block screenings lacked merit. The Christian Council of Korea, an umbrella group of 63 Protestant denominations, said it respected the ruling but would lead a boycott of the movie.

In India, the national censor board had cleared the film for release Friday. But Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said he put a temporary hold on the movie after receiving more than 200 complaints.

In Athens, Greece, some 200 religious protesters, waving crucifixes and Greek flags, demonstrated against the film.

Philippine censors approved an adult rating for the movie but stopped short of rating it "X" because "it does not constitute a clear, express or direct attack on the Catholic Church or religion" and does not libel or defame any person.

Members of the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation expressed unhappiness with the film's heavy, a monk-assassin, being an albino, as described in the book. Michael McGowan, an albino who heads the organization, said The Da Vinci Code will be the 68th movie since 1960 to feature an evil albino.

Gun charges dropped

Weapons charges were dropped Tuesday against Young Jeezy because of insufficient evidence regarding his involvement in a March shootout in Miami Beach.

Prosecutor Audrey Frank told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge David Young at a brief hearing the state would not pursue two counts of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit against the 28-year-old rapper, whose real name is Jay Jenkins.

His Miami attorney, Donald Bierman, said Jenkins was "simply at the wrong place at the wrong time" when a fight broke out between two groups of men outside the Mansion nightclub in South Beach. The shooting started when a passer-by who was videotaping the fight refused to hand over his camera. No one was injured.

- Associated Press

[Last modified May 17, 2006, 06:30:03]