They don't care how big tom hanks is. Vatican to Hanks: Get Lost
The Vatican has told Tom Hanks it doesn't want him in church. It's not his religion they have a problem with - it's the movie he's making.
The producers of Hanks' new movie, Angels and Demons, had asked permission to shoot inside two of Rome's historic churches, Santa Maria del Popolo and Santa Maria della Vittoria. Fuhgeddaboudit, said the diocese of Rome.
Angels and Demons is a prequel to the 2006 movie The Da Vinci Code, based on the blockbuster novel of the same name by Dan Brown, which espoused the controversial (at least to orthodox Christians) theory that Jesus had married Mary Magdalene and had children.
Monsignor Marco Fibbi, a diocesan spokesman, told Reuters that the diocese had denied the filmmakers access to the churches because of the movie's subject matter. "It's a film that treats religious issues in a way that contrasts with common religious sentiment," Fibbi said. "Normally we read the script but this time it was not necessary. The name Dan Brown was enough."
Bulletin from the Class War Front
You say you just lost your job, your house is in foreclosure, you hocked your TV to buy half a tank of gas and you're going to have to hit up your father-in-law for a loan to buy a pound of hamburger?
Well, cheer up - some people are doing just fine in this economy. Very fine indeed.
According to an Associated Press analysis released this week, the median pay for American CEOs rose by 3.5% in 2007, to an impressive $8.4 million, despite the tanking economy and sagging stock prices. Heading the parade was John Thain, head of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., who pocketed $83 million in salary and bonuses.
"The 10 best-paid CEOs made a combined half a billion dollars last year, although half of them were leading companies whose profits shrank dramatically," The AP reported.
General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner got a raise of 64% to $15.7 million, even though GM lost $39 billion and its stock price fell about 19%. And Jeffrey Mezger, CEO of the building company KB Home, got $24.4 million, including a $6 million cash bonus, although his company lost almost $930 million last year.
"Compensation has become a shell game," said Richard Ferlauto, an executive with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Feel the Source Waves
We like the sound of our collective, loud and often sarcastic voice, which is why the Source has teamed up with 92.7FM for a weekly radio show entitled "Source Waves" that will air on the station every Monday from 7-8pm. The inaugural broadcast featured the Source's own Mike Bookey and 92.7 DJ extraordinaire Jay Carlson shooting the breeze about the Sound section of the very issue you're holding in your hot little hands. The show also gave them the opportunity to play some tracks off the new My Morning Jacket record, Evil Urges, and a good chunk of the new Weezer album.
Bookey and Carlson will continue the weekly gig, bringing other Source staffers into the fold of this media synergy. You can even check out the Sound section of the paper each week for a preview of the show. For the 6/23 edition of "Source Waves" our loyal listenership (that's you, dear reader) can expect to hear some commentary from Source editor Eric Flowers about his interview with Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood, as well as some new and fascinating music from Bend and beyond.
Until the next "Source Waves," we'll be sitting under our desks and practicing our radio voices ("hello all you folks out there in radio land"). But no matter how much we polish our radio personalities, our voices tend to sound better on paper.
