Idol Chatter

Most fans of “The Colbert Report” know by now that its hilariously truthy host Stephen Colbert moonlights as a good Catholic family man. Last night his Catholic leanings were put to the test by his guest, William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, who made quite an impression. My curiosity was piqued when Colbert announced…

When the fragrance company Coty asked Russell Simmons, the hip hop zillionaire and yoga junkie, to create an alluring perfume for women, God was the furthest thing from their minds. This week’s New York magazine reports that Coty expected something sultry and sexy, along the lines of Simmons’ ex-wife Kimora Lee’s fragrances. Imagine their surprise…

In the age of user-generated videos distributed to your computer via youtube.com, stupidvideos.com, and ifilm.com, employers might want to consider adding “forgiveness” to their list of hiring pre-requisites. Melanie Martinez is the perfect example of what the future will look like if they don’t. Martinez, the former host of the PBS Sprouts network’s “Good Night”…

In an article for The New York Times, Clive Thompson reports that video games–at least some of them–are turning their attention away from mangling bodies for pure sadistic pleasure and oggling impossibly endowed women for that other kind of pleasure. Called “serious games,” these newfangled video games allow players to try their hands at solving…

“The Messengers,” a new eight-part series on The Learning Channel featuring 10 of the nation’s up-and coming inspirational speakers, left me somewhat less than inspired. In the premiere episode, the contestants are left to live for 24 hours on L.A.’s skid row, after which they are given a few minutes to expound upon the night’s…

What Irish monks did for the ancient classical texts, a dedicated group of evangelical missionaries may be doing for the world’s disappearing languages. Since 1939, the Global Recordings Network has been spreading the gospel to remote parts of Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and to migrant farm workers in California, people they call “tailenders” because they…

ABC Family’s original movie, “Fallen” which aired last night (Sunday) and promised all sorts of exciting enchantments–prophecies, redemption, destinies revealed, and the lore of fallen angels–fell far short of my hopes for movie magic. In fact, rather than a movie, “Fallen”– starring Paul Wesley as Aaron Corbett, a boy who wakes up on his 18th…

In the last few days, I have found more articles debating what in the world has happened to director M. Night Shymalan’s career than I have found positive reviews about his latest movie, “Lady in the Water.” Not exactly good news if you are Shyamalan. And while I tried to keep an open mind, “Lady…

You may not have heard of him yet, but for the past year or so, filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici has hosted a television show in Canada–where he is huge–as “The Naked Archeologist,” in which he is neither naked (thankfully) nor an archeologist (interestingly). The show’s wanton title comes from its premise–to “strip down” Biblical archeology for…

The Christian power-house publisher Zondervan, together with Media Group, has plans to release a star-studded audio-version of the New Testament with Samuel L. Jackson playing the voice of God, and Forest Whitaker as Moses–to name just a few Hollywood luminaries showing up on their voice-roster. Also included are: Angela Bassett, Blair Underwood, and Oscar-winning actors…

More from Beliefnet and our partners