THE Passion

I do not plan on ever seeing this movie. I don't get it and I don't want to. My own religious background is somewhat checkered. I don't practice much of anything, but I feel something greater. As for the movie, I think David Edelstein's review is right on:

You're thinking there must be something to The Passion of the Christ besides watching a man tortured to death, right? Actually, no: This is a two-hour-and-six-minute snuff movie—The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre—that thinks it's an act of faith.

BREAKING NEWS FROM JEANETTE WALLS @ MSNBC'S "The Scoop"

Dear Readers:

This newsletter usually makes fun of people like Britney Spears and Russell Crowe. But “news” this month about an intern and a presidential candidate’s affair -- which started on the Drudge Report and resulted in international headlines before it was reported that apparently there was neither an intern nor an affair -- have compelled your Scooper to turn her snarkiness in the direction of my porkpie-hatted colleague Matt Drudge. Only people who follow the Drudge Report will get this. So, to those of you who don’t read Drudge, my apologies. To those who do, however, brace yourself for a

WORLD EXCLUSIVE REPORT!!!!!

Breaking NEWS!!!! Shocking Story!!!!

(If used, you must credit The Scoop – which is desperate for credit on a story no matter how inane or flimsy it is.)

The Scoop Newsletter has learned that several news organizations have looked into rumors that Cyber Sleuth Matt Drudge has had gay relationships!!!!

The Drudgies are furiously annoyed by the shocking rumors, which if true, could rock the Drudge Report at its very foundation and rattle his gay-bashing fan base!!!

The rumors may or may not be true. The Scoop is merely reporting the existence of the allegations – and the undeniable fact that reporters have looked into them.

Other news organizations have thus far held back from reporting this story because they are cowards and wimps and because for some bizarre reason they don’t believe in reporting unverified details about a person’s private life.

The Scoop Newsletter also holds to these high standards – but this is not a story about someone’s private life. It’s a story about a media cover-up!!!!

Drudge defenders dismiss the story, saying there is no way that a gay man would dress as unstylishly as Matt Drudge does. But in the 2001 book, “Blinded by the Right,” openly gay former conservative David Brock wrote that Drudge once brought him roses and took him to a strip of gay bars on Santa Monica Boulevard “which Drudge navigated like a pro.” Brock also wrote that Drudge sent him an e-mail, commenting on a rumor that they were “f--- buddies” – and adding, “I should only be so lucky.”

And in “Dish,” a book that appeared in 2000 and which written by none other than your humble Scooper, I reported that before Drudge became famous, he hung with an openly gay crowd and dated several people in the crowd. In retaliation, Drudge posted my personal e-mail address and my office and home phone numbers on his Web site.

When called by various reporters for comment, Drudge denied that he was gay. Sort of. “My youth, to me, is a blur,” Drudge told the New York Daily News in response to the allegations made in “Dish.”

And, when called by the New York Post’s Page Six, Drudge proved his smoldering heterosexuality with this swaggering assertion: “How can I be [gay] when I'm dating a woman with boobs and rollers?"

Well, that should put it all to rest.

Drudge, for the record, says that he is opposed to outing gay people. In fact, the whole topic of outing makes Matt Drudge sort of squirmy and prompts the man who brought us the Monica Lewinsky scandal as well as the more recent intern faux-scandal to declare that he doesn’t like sex stories at all.

“I don't do a lot of sex stuff,” Drudge told Radar magazine in 2003 when an interviewer asked what he thought of stories that out gay people. “I tend to stay away from all that, because I don't know where it will end. I was even uncomfortable with the story about Bill Bennett's gambling, because he's a private citizen going to a casino. I'm trying to maintain a site that is going for action and intrigue, but if I just start printing who's gay, who's straight, or who did a mound of coke last night, it all goes downhill very quickly.”

Developing……

Pioneering new frontiers in action and intrigue, I remain, as always,


Your Faithful Scooper,
Jeannette Walls