Inspiration Faith & Prayer Health & Wellness Entertainment Love & Family
Newsletters Special Offers

Idol Chatter

Last week, we blogged about Britney Spears’ spiritual journey, capped by her proclamation that her baby is her religion. Turns out that Britney’s announcement did more than make headlines– it also cost her the close friendship of Madonna, an ardent student of Kabbalah who introduced Britney to the faith. The Material Girl–who is on a…

As the spring television seasons wound to a close in May, I finally took the advice of many friends and joined Netflix, the super-fast DVD service that gets film and television favorites to your door in the blink of an eye. While at first overwhelmed with the possibilities, I narrowed my priorities to a top-three…

The price of saying seven words you can’t say on television just went up: Thanks to legislation pushed by the Christian Coalition and signed into law by President Bush today, fines for broadcasting what the Federal Communications Commission deems indecent content will rise tenfold, from $32,500 per infraction to $325,000. (All seven will now cost…

A friend who knows my affinity for all things Buffy and Buffy-related recently alerted me to a giant subway advertisement for a new TV series with my name written all over it: “Hex.” “Hex” premiered last Thursday at 10 on BBC America (though happily, the channel is re-airing the two-hour premier daily, if you want…

Like Earth in the End Times, Christian rock’s days are numbered, but the industry has to undergo a few transitional stages. The current stage might be called “The Revolving Door.” Take Flyleaf, for example. The hard-rock foursome is often described as a stripped-down Evanescence, the Christian goth-rock group that roared into mainstream success with their…

She was the Simon Cowell of “America’s Next Top Model“–the judge who everyone hated but whose acerbic, insensitive responses were a central reason for high ratings. Then on “The Surreal Life,” she clashed with “The Apprentice’s” Omarosa, to the glee of the celebrity-meltdown-watching audience. Now, Janice Dickinson has her own modeling agency, and a reality…

To evangelicals bent on conquering Hollywood, it was this month’s sign of the apocalypse. Last week, the Motion Picture Association of America—invented by Hollywood executives in the 1930s at the behest of Christians to monitor morals in the movies—warned parents that kids might need guidance when viewing “Facing the Giants,” a football movie made by…

Mix “Grey’s Anatomy” with “Rescue Me” and you get TNT’s lastest summer drama, “Saved.” There is the requisite flawed hero who can only save others but can never save himself. There are also the obligatory dysfunctional family relationships and the usual romance with a co-worker. But in spite of the familiar terrority, “Saved” is still…

Entertainment Weekly magazine has announced its list of the 25 most controversial movies of all time, and at the top is Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” chosen for “igniting a culture-war firestorm unrivaled in Hollywood history.” Other films with religious themes that made the list include “The Da Vinci Code” and “The Last…

In my recent Beliefnet interview with Ralph Winter, he said that if Hollywood could make a sequel to “The Passion of the Christ,” they would. Well, Winter was right as usual: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Screen Gems studio is producing a movie that recreates Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into heaven 40 days later. Looking…
archives most recent
search this blog
More from Beliefnet and our partners