BOP Daily News
December 8, 2003
The spirit of BOP News lives on in
This is So Last Week,
our pop culture week-in-review,
presented in a pleasing quiz form.
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Hollywood’s latest trend seems to be sword-and-sandal epics. In addition to the upcoming Troy, Oliver Stone’s and Baz Luhrmann’s Alexander the Great bio-pics (the latter now rumored to be a no-go), a third Alexander the Great film from one of the producers of the first three Superman films, and now a film focusing on the life of Cyrus the Great is in the works, reportedly being financed in part by the Sultan of Brunei. Cyrus founded an empire in Persia, where he became famous for freeing all slaves, tolerating all religions, allowing exiled Jews in Babylon to return to Jerusalem, and ordering his governors to treat the people as they would their own children. Sean Connery is said to be the leading contender for the role of Cyrus, which would make Cyrus the first ruler of ancient Persia to speak with a Scottish burr.
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More potential problems looming on the horizon for Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ. Officials at the Vatican have asked to review the movie so that they can make an informed judgment on the project. The Vatican requested that the film be shown during a recent conference on theology and the cinema after learning that the Reverend Billy Graham gave thumb’s up to the film. Gibson, who belongs to a Catholic sect that does not recognize the Pope’s authority, declined the request from the Holy See to provide a copy of the movie for the conference, but did assure Vatican officials that they would have a chance to preview the final cut before it was released into theatres. Wouldn’t you know it; the Catholic Church finally decides to actually see a film before rendering an opinion on it, and it has to be a project from a filmmaker who by all appearances has gone completely starkers.
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Reports have surfaced that the upcoming sequel to Bridget Jones’ Diary will feature a lesbian fling between Renée Zellweger and Jacinda Barrett, perhaps best known as a member of the Real World London cast. Zellweger and Barrett have been spotted smooching up a storm on the set of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, giving rise to rumors that Bridget might be batting for the home team in the sequel. On behalf of men everywhere, BOP would like to encourage filmmakers to explore hot girl-on-girl action at every opportunity, including making up excuses for such scenes as needed.
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"This is an occasion for genuinely tiny knickers."
Box Office Prophets offers quality, reliable news about the entertainment industry. BOP is also entertaining. To that end, please be advised that some content in this column is intended to be humorous and should not be considered factual.
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