Catholic in Film School

*Note to the newer readers:

The “Rumor Has it…” thread is a newer portion of the blog I publish every month or so about rumors and news in the Catholic entertainment world. There aren’t too many rumors this time around, but ooooh there’s plenty of news…

Celebrities

…Singer/Actress Jennifer Lopez and her husband singer Marc Antony baptized their twins Max and Emme a few weeks ago….big congratulations to them…the foursome is also rumored to be coming to a small screen near you(?) in a reality TV series on TLC…

…”Bella” star ALi Landry did a nice audio interview with Radiant Lit about the film…Ali was also spotted out and about with her super cute babygirl Estela Ines, 5 months, at the Baby Listener Event in Hollywood….she is married to “Bella” director Alejandro Monteverde…

…Australian actress Cate Blanchett and her husband just welcomed Baby #3 on April 13th. Cate is not exactly the Catholic community’s favorite actress (she starred in “Elizabeth”), but she’s making this post because Baby #3’s name is none other than Ignatius “Iggy” Martin…which I thought was incredibly funny because 1) I go to a Jesuit college and 2) we have a 50’s diner on campus named “Iggy’s”…go figure….

…Legendary French actress turned Catholic and animal rights advocate Brigit Bardot is on trial for her “racist remarks” against Islam….but if I’m not mistaken, Islam is not a race, so how can she be racist? Come on people….

…It looks like Mel Gibson is still having some legal troubles…but three of his films made Yahoo’s Top 10 Historically Inaccurate Movie List…and no, Yahoo did not have the audacity to include “The Passion of the Christ” on that list….

…And speaking of legal troubles (and news that is so strange I must mention it)….Rapper Foxy Brown was released from jail a few days ago and stopped by St. Paul the Apostle (Catholic) Church for a prayer session followed by a trip to the church’s gift store…I can’t blame her because if I had just gotten out of jail I would want to do my two favorite things: go to mass and do some shopping…let’s just hope her repentance (that was well documented by the paps) was in fact contrite…

Catholic Film/TV News

…”Bella” comes out on DVD May 6th…it opened nationally in Canada April 11th…which I’m sure was nice for the Metanoia team since the film won People’s Choice at the Toronto Film Festival back in 2006…

…Ave Maria Town is getting a new $2 million dollar theatre which sounds like it’s primarily for play productions, but all you need is a screen and a projector and voila!…it could turn into a central venue for Catholic filmmakers…I wonder if anyone has thought of that…hmmm….we’ll just have to wait and see…

…The good folks over at Arcadia Films are coming out with a new doc called “Magdalene”…click over to their site and check out the trailer…it looks AWESOME…and if you want to see some of their products, they are the company behind EWTN’s new show The Eucharist….they also produced the show “Parable” that is no longer being shown on EWTN…

…Paulist Productions’ newest web series Tyler’s Ride launched yesterday on April 22nd…a clip of the series was screened at the Catholic filmmaker’s showcase I attended during RE Congress a few months ago…I haven’t watched either of the two released episodes yet but once I have a minute to sit down and look at them I’ll write another post about the series again…

…Paulist Productions also has two other documentaries out The Big Question and Who the Hell is Satan?…”The Big Question” has been successfully working the festival circuit and is now available for private screenings….

…The Human Experience is still traveling around the country with the next few stops being in New York, Texas, North Dakota, and Tennessee…click over to the “Reviews” page for my thoughts on the film and the “Vlog” page for some audio of a Q&A session with the filmmakers…

…Also, check out Gerry Straub’s blog…another Catholic filmmaker whose movie “The Fragrant Spirit of Life” was also highlighted during the Congress showcase…it was only a five minute clip but everyone in the room was hysterically crying…

Catholic Media News

…Big congratulations to the crew of The Hands and Feet Show who just recently recorded and celebrated their 100th episode…I *awkwardly* called in to offer my congratulations and I was hoping it wouldn’t make it into the show…but it did….

…It looks like the SQPN Catholic New Media Conference is alive and kicking…it will be hosted immediately after the Eucharistic Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on June 22nd…I’m going to try to attend but I’m spending thousands of dollars to go to WYD this summer and I’m taking a trip to Cabo, Mexico with some friends after the semester’s over…and let’s not forget my little Spring Break trip back in March….if I ask my mother to buy one more plane ticket she might throw me out of the house…so we’ll see :)…

…The episode of the Catholic Moments Podcast in which I was interviewed has still not been released…BUT BUT BUT….I have acquired the video from that interview with me with the local LA news about the pope’s visit I was talking about a few entries ago…once I transfer it into my Mac I’ll post it…

Pax Christi, Rebecca.