Idol Chatter

September marks the premiere issue of Good, a magazine founded and funded by Ben Goldhirsh (son of media-multi-millionaire Bernie Goldhirsh). Good is for the “growing number of people tied together not by age, career, background, or circumstance, but by a shared interest,” writes Goldhirsh in a letter to potential readers on the magazine’s website. “This…

Which book did you like better–Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America,” or Dara Horn’s “In the Image”? Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Everything Is Illuminated” or Saul Bellow’s “Ravelstein”? This showdown of sorts among contemporary–and in Bellow’s case, deceased–Jewish writers is taking place as part of the 2006 Jbooks.com People’s Choice Award, a prize for the book…

Website-creator turned author Janice Taylor brings her food-obsessed, playful, confessional ourladyofweightloss.com to the printed page, with a new book titled the same: “Our Lady of Weight Loss: Miraculous and Motivational Musings From the Patron Saint of Permanent Fat Removal” (Viking Studio). As someone who grew up in a house filled with saintly paraphernalia and an…

Sure, we’re happy to see Matthew Perry return to television, especially alongside those enjoyable “West Wing” folks like Bradley Whitford and Timothy Busfield. But the biggest reason many of us will be tuning in tonight to the premiere of “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”–NBC’s new behind-the-scenes look at a fictional late-night sketch show–will be…

It may be #10 on the Top Ten list of things Jews and Christians shalt not do, but not coveting thy neighbor’s house, other related property, and just generally not coveting things that are not yours still made the tablet. And yet a new MySpace-like online community has sprung up with the sole purpose (or…

Past Billy Graham television specials have focused on issues such as divorce or on cities in ruin, such as hurricane-ravaged New Orleans. But the latest evangelistic crusade, broadcast from Baltimore, asks the question, “Do you know where your children are?” Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, continues to take the helm of the behemoth evangelical…

With the TV season back in gear, how about a tribute to American’s favorite television Christian?

Baylor University’s Institute on Studies of Religion is pitching their new report, “American Piety in the 21st Century,” as a testament to how diverse and complex religious feelings in our country really are. The report does show that many religiously unaffiliated people pray, and that “The Passion,” produced by a conservative Catholic and championed by…

No character on television represents my own spiritual journey better than Gregory House, protagonist of FOX’s “House.” Flawed yet searching, abrasive in his search for answers, Dr. House has gone through a series of challenges, culminating with last season’s near-death experience. And now that the cranky doctor is still alive and back for a third…

…Or so the comedian-turned-liberal political commentator claims during the initial moments of the documentary “Al Franken: God Spoke,” opening in limited released tomorrow. Hilariously dressed in a Santa Claus-like beard and holding a Ten Commandment-esque tablet–presumably Al Franken’s mode of representing God–the film opens with Franken’s voice booming amid the clouds: “God Spoke! God spoke…

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