Word: mca
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...most of the voices raised against the film belong to people who have not yet seen it. Italian Director Franco Zeffirelli called the movie "damaging to the image of Christ. He cannot be made the object of low fantasies." Fundamentalist Leader Jerry Falwell called for a boycott against MCA, Universal's parent company; all MCA products, which include Grosset & Dunlap publishers, Spencer Gifts and Motown Records; and any theater that shows the film. Said Falwell: "Neither the label 'fiction' nor the First Amendment gives Universal the right to libel, slander and ridicule the most central figure in world history...
...head off further furor or perhaps even cash in on it, Universal decided last week to move the opening up from Sept. 23 to Aug. 12. Says Tom Pollock, chairman of MCA's motion picture group: "The best thing that can be done for The Last Temptation of Christ at this time is to make it available to the American people and allow them to draw their own conclusions, based on fact not fallacy." But Tim Penland, a born-again marketing expert once hired by Universal to placate conservative critics and now a critic himself, believes the six-week jump...
Although Universal did hold screenings for religious leaders last month, most conservatives refused to come. Instead they staged protests at the Universal lot and published an admonishing ad in the Hollywood Reporter. In a letter to MCA Chairman Lew Wasserman, Bill Bright of the Campus Crusade for Christ offered to raise money to reimburse Universal for all copies of the film, which would "promptly be destroyed." Universal responded with lofty, full-page newspaper ads in four cities, quoting Thomas Jefferson and announcing that the constitutional rights to free expression and freedom of religion were not for sale...
...fiction and making Scorsese available for interviews stressing his religious sincerity. Yet the protest has taken on a life of its own. Virtually every televangelist, including Pat Robertson, has mentioned the film during appeals for money. A nonsectarian group called Concerned Women for America has asked all MCA stockholders to sell the company's stock on Sept. 15. And Mother Angelica, a nun who runs the nation's largest Catholic cable network, is calling on protesters to drive with their lights on on Aug. 22. Both dates were picked at random when the opening was still set for September...
Some of the protests have taken on ugly anti-Semitic overtones. Three weeks ago, the Rev. R.L. Hymers Jr., a Christian extremist in the Los Angeles area, staged a demonstration near the Beverly Hills home of MCA Chairman Wasserman, who is Jewish. An actor portraying Wasserman stepped repeatedly on the bloody back of an actor dressed as Jesus and carrying a heavy cross. An airplane meanwhile flew overhead trailing a banner that read, WASSERMAN FANS JEW-HATRED W/TEMPTATION, and a crowd chanted, "Bankrolled by Jewish money...