MOVIES - Aug. 29, 1988

While the controversy may have died down in Los Angeles, Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” is still the center of flaps elsewhere in America and abroad. In Pittsburgh, where the film opened Friday night, a crowd estimated at between 3,500 and 4,000 marched peacefully to a suburban theater showing the controversial movie. But the protest, led by a Pittsburgh evangelical pastor, sparked no arrests and only a minor traffic tie-up. And in Britain, government film censors have rejected demands of some church leaders and decided to allow the film to be shown to persons over 18 without cuts. Cardinal Basil Hume, leader of 5.2 million Roman Catholics in England and Wales, has advised Christians of all churches not to see the film. But the Rev. Brian Duckworth, general secretary of the Methodist Church’s division of social responsibility, said the film was not blasphemous. Atty. Gen. Patrick Mayhew is still considering filing blasphemy charges to stop the movie from being shown in Britain.