MOVIES - Aug. 17, 1988

The American Civil Liberties Union is getting into the dwindling furor over Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ,” which set box office records for Universal Pictures last weekend. Howard Simon, executive director of the Michigan ACLU, said Monday he wants Universal to screen the film in Detroit so that area moviegoers have an opportunity to judge it on its merits. Universal said Tuesday the film will open in several other American cities on Friday but Detroit may or may not be one of them. . . . In other “Temptation” news, leaders of the Catholic church in Italy are pressuring the Venice Film Festival not to screen the controversial film. According to a statement from the office of the Cardinal of Venice, released Tuesday, the film gives a portrayal of Jesus that is “offensive and distorted.” . . . And in Great Britain, religious protesters have asked that country’s attorney general to use a centuries-old law to ban “Last Temptation” on grounds of blasphemy (legally defined as “any contemptuous reviling, scurrilous or ludicrous matter relating to God, Jesus Christ, the Bible or the formularies of the Church of England”). Attorney General Sir Patrick Mayhew’s office said Tuesday that the matter is under consideration.