PROUD MARY
Wherever Jean-Luc Godard’s controversial “Hail Mary” plays, protesters are on hand decrying the “sacrilegious” film (which offers an irreverent, updated treatment of the Immaculate Conception). What’s a theater owner to do?
Our favorite rejoinder came from Boston theater manager George Mansour, who related to the Washington Post that one phone caller, apparently assuming Mansour was Jewish, complained, “How would you feel if I desecrated the Torah?”
For the record:
12:00 a.m. June 15, 1986 MISCONCEPTION
Los Angeles Times Sunday June 15, 1986 Home Edition Calendar Page 103 Calendar Desk 3 inches; 103 words Type of Material: Correction
HOLY EXEGESIS!: Both Dana Jones of Costa Mesa and Anthony Weisensee of Rancho Mirage wrote to correct our misuse of the term Immaculate Conception in the Outtakes item June 8 about the controversial Jean-Luc Godard film, “Hail Mary.” Immaculate Conception , as understood by the Roman Catholic Church, is the doctrine that Mary, who was conceived naturally, was from the moment of conception free of the stain of original sin. It’s often confused with the Virgin Birth, the doctrine that Jesus was born to Mary without violating her virginity. “If your supercilious writers are going to play at being iconoclasts,” wrote Weisensee, “the very least we can ask of them is that they know what they are talking about.” Amen.
Mansour replied: “Since I’m a Christian Lebanese homosexual, I don’t care what you do to the Torah!”
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
