The rumor mill has been running overtime lately about Marie Osmond and her daughter Jessica - after the British tabloid, The Sun, reported that Jessica is a lesbian.

Marie got on the radio Tuesday - an interview with L.A. station KOST-FM - and confirmed the rumors about Jessica, and said (according to The Advocate) they were no big deal:

"You know, on those types of things I'm very supportive. When it comes to marriage, I think that civil rights need to be for all. ... When you start mixing religion into that and beliefs, you know, I do believe in the Bible. My daughter understands my beliefs. And, you know, God said to be married and be productive with your children and, you know, replenish the earth or whatever. She understands those things. My daughter is sharp. And we have a great relationship and I think she would tell you that."

Marie's open-mindedness seems to be a bit at odds with the views of her brother, Donny, who issued a statement opposing gay marriage last December.

Labels: LDS, Osmond

Dave Rosenthal, who writes the book blog "Read Street" in The Baltimore Sun, has opened up the floor to readers about Deseret Book's decision to take Stephenie Meyer's Twilight book series off the shelves.

The reactions have been mixed. One of Rosenthal's readers condemned Twilight as "dangerous" because it "encourages young women to accept abusive behavior, condone a lifestyle that includes killing, and her message to leave your husband because you're 'bored' is outrageous."

On the other hand, a reader who identified himself/herself as a devout Christian pointed out that "it's FICTION! It's not good or bad for you! People are drawn to the books because of the devotion the 'characters' have for each other."

It's worth pointing out that Deseret Book (or Desert Book, as Rosenthal identifies the LDS Church-owned bookstore chain) has no retail outlets in Baltimore. In fact the closest store to Baltimore is in suburban Denver.

To return the favor, I hereby ask readers of the Culture Vulture blog to nominate their favorite restaurant for Maryland crab cakes.

Labels: LDS, Twilight

Explain this one to the LDS Church leadership: An ad for Popov brand vodka managed to get itself on the front page of Monday's Deseret News.

In a photo accompanying Amy Joi O'Donoghue's story about biologists repopulating grouse to Antelope Island, a photo shows Utah state wildlife biologist Jolene Hatch releasing two of the birds from a cardboard box. The box, at one point in its life, carried the aforementioned brand of vodka.

Score one for pervasive marketing.

Labels: alcohol, Deseret News, LDS

So now - nearly three years and untold number of copies since its initial release - Deseret Book finally noticed that Stephenie Meyer's vampire series Twilight might raise moral objections among the bookstore chain's devoted LDS audience.

Isn't that a bit like saying an apple is a bad apple only after you've squeezed out all the juice?

As the Tribune's Ben Fulton reported today, Deseret Book (which is owned by the business arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is pulling Twilight and its three sequels off the chain's shelves. The books will still be available through special order for pick-up or mail delivery.

"Like any retailer, our purpose is to offer products that are embraced and expected by our customers. When we find products that are met with mixed review, we typically move them to special order status," read a statement by Deseret Book spokeswoman Leigh Dethman.

The books have been popular with many LDS readers, because Meyer (pictured) - who is a Mormon herself - keeps the sexual tension between human Bella and vampire Edward strictly chaste before marriage.

Labels: LDS, Twilight

Politics and sports usually shouldn't mix. In fact, sports is sometimes the one place where people with clashing political views can find common ground - whether you're a liberal or a conservative, we can all agree the Yankees suck.

(Feel free to replace "Yankees" with whatever group of overpaid thyroid cases you despise - Red Sox, Mets, Spurs, Manchester United, etc.)

However, a blogger for the L.A. Lakers fan site Lake Show Life has injected politics into the first round of the NBA playoffs, calling the upcoming series between the top-seeded Lakers and the 8th-seed Utah Jazz "The Prop. 8 Series.":

Not too long ago, it was Utah matched up against Los Angeles in another battle - California Proposition 8. Prop. 8, passed in last year’s general election, restricted marriage to heterosexual couples and eliminated homosexual couples' right to marry.

What the hell does this have to do with the Lakers-Jazz opening round NBA Playoffs series? Everything. In my opinion, the state of Utah was responsible for the passing of Prop. 8.

The blogger, who goes by "kareemadbuladam," notes that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (you know, the Mormons) and its members campaigned hard for Prop. 8 - and that 45 percent of the out-of-state donations to support Prop. 8 came from Utah.

The post goes on, accusing Salt Lake City of being "more close-minded than just about any other major city in the U.S.," and decrying late team owner Larry H. Miller's banning of "Brokeback Mountain" from his Megaplex theaters and what he perceives as discrimination in the Jazz organization's treatment of former player John Amaechi (before he came out of the closet).

"I am already a Lakers fan," continues kareemadbuladam, "but because of the bigotry of a lot of Utah I will be rooting twice as hard for my Lake Show to sweep, humiliate and obliterate the unjazzy Jazz."

Labels: Larry H. Miller, LDS, politics, Utah Jazz

Fans of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" got a quick - and hilariously exaggerated - lesson in Mormon history on Tuesday night.

Introducing the 55th installment of his 434-part series "Better Know a District" (in which Colbert attempts to interview every every member of Congress), Colbert launched into the history of New York's 25th District with this fun fact:

"The district contains the town of Palmyra, where in 1827, Joseph Smith discovered the source for The Book of Mormon, the Golden Plates. The Golden Plates also won him a free tour of Jesus' chocolate factory."

Here's the video:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Better Know a District - New York's 25th - Dan Maffei
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

Colbert fans may recall that Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz appeared in the "Better Know a District" segment in January - where Colbert bested the former BYU placekicker in a leg-wrestling bout.

Labels: Jason Chaffetz, LDS, politics, television

I have to feel for the kids at The Daily Universe, the student paper at Brigham Young University.

As The Salt Lake Tribune reported, Monday's edition of The Daily Universe featured what editorial manager Rich Evans called "the worst possible mistake" - a photo of leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, with a caption that referred to the group as "the Quorum of the Twelve Apostates."

(Glossary for the non-religious: An apostate is someone who speaks against the doctrines of a church - and, in LDS circles, is about the nastiest thing you can call a good upstanding Mormon.)

The Universe staff tried to retrieve the 18,500 copies printed, and reprinted a corrected version. They also issued an apology to church leaders, and explained that the error was due to the paper's spell-checking software substituting "apostate" for a misspelled version of "apostle. (Lesson to young journalists: Spell-check doesn't fix everything.)

Lest the Tribune be accused of, as scripture says, noting the mote in its neighbor's eye while ignoring the log in its own, I'll note that such blundering happens at every paper. A week ago, a Tribune story about a speech by LDS Church President Thomas Monson carried a headline that called him Gordon Monson - who happens to be one of the Trib's sports columnists.

I will leave it to theologians to debate which is worse: To be called an apostate or to be called a sportswriter.

Labels: Brigham Young University, journalism, LDS, sports

Oh, mercy. Now some bright bulb in the Utah Legislature - Rep. Craig Frank, R-American Fork, to be specific - wants to tax caffeine.

As someone who ditched caffeine several years ago for health reasons, I don't really have a dog in this fight. But as someone who used to nurse a six-pack-a-day Diet Coke habit, I reserve the right to declare this a monumentally stupid and discriminatory idea.

The problem - besides the hypocrisy of all "vice" taxes, like tobacco and alcohol, that the state becomes addicted to the revenue while officials publicly decry the product - is that it is yet another example of the predominantly Mormon membership of the legislature is forcing its religious views on the rest of us.

And the fact that the Legislature refuses to raise the cigarette tax, while cutting the budget for anti-smoking education, just highlights the hypocrisy at work.

Labels: LDS, politics, Utah Legislature

HBO's polygamists-are-people-too drama "Big Love" is going into a Mormon temple on Sunday - and the real-life Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doesn't like it one bit.

An LDS Church statement issued Monday reads in part: "Now comes another series, 'Big Love,' and despite earlier assurances from HBO, it once again blurs the distinctions between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the show's fictional non-Mormon characters and their practices. Such things say much more about the insensitivities of writers, producers and TV executives than they say about Latter-day Saints."

The episode shows an LDS endowment ceremony, which is performed in the temple and witnessed only by church members with a temple recommend and in good standing - which would not, presumably, include the polygamist family that is at the series' center.

"We go into the endowment room and the celestial room, and we present what happens in those ceremonies," series co-creator Mark V. Olsen said in an interview with TV Guide. "That's never been shown on television before."

E-mails are circulating among Mormon groups, urging the faithful to cancel their HBO subscriptions and their AOL service in protest. (Why AOL? It, like HBO, is owned by TimeWarner.)

In any event, Olsen and HBO could be gracious and cut a check to the LDS Church - for giving the show all this free publicity.

Labels: Big Love, LDS, television

Things are getting a mite testy over at the Deseret News.

Nine reporters and an intern at Salt Lake's other newspaper mounted a "byline strike" - in other words, removed their names from the stories they filed - in Tuesday's paper, in protest over the demotion of two editors and a change in policy that is turning the D-News into a Mormon-centric publication.

The reporters will not be punished for their insolence, the D-News' managing editor Rick Hall told the Tribune's Paul Beebe. "If they want to express themselves that way, they certainly can," Hall said.

Hall and the D-News' editor, Joe Cannon, reassigned two editors - deputy managing editor Chuck Gates (who will now be a "special writer," whatever that means) and business editor Julianne Basinger, who will join the copy desk - who criticized Cannon's drive to turn the LDS Church-owned paper into a niche publication aimed at Mormons.

(Obligatory disclaimer: The Deseret News and The Salt Lake Tribune share advertising, printing and circulation operations.)

For people outside the news business, a "byline strike" may seem like a toothless protest - and, admittedly, it is. Within journalism circles, it's a major diss. In the end, the only thing a journalist has to claim credibility is his or her good name. Withholding that good name is the ultimate vote of no-confidence in your superiors.

Labels: Deseret News, journalism, LDS

Tom Hanks has apologized for calling Mormons who contributed money to California's Prop. 8 campaign "un-American."

In a statement issued through his publicist, Hanks apologized for a comment he made last week at the premiere of the polygamy-themed HBO drama "Big Love" (which Hanks' company produces). Here's his statement in part:

"I believe Proposition 8 is counter to the promise of our Constitution; it is codified discrimination.

"But everyone has a right to vote their conscience; nothing could be more American. To say members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who contributed to Proposition 8 are 'un-American' creates more division when the time calls for respectful disagreement. No one should use 'un- American' lightly or in haste. I did. I should not have."

Labels: Big Love, LDS, politics

Boy, when an all-American guy like Tom Hanks calls you un-American, you know you're in trouble.

Hanks used that word in connection with the way members of the LDS Church threw their money behind California's Prop. 8, the ban on same-sex marriage, according to this Fox News report.

The occasion was Wednesday night's premiere party for "Big Love," the HBO drama (which Hanks' company produces) about a polygamous family in Utah.

"The truth is this takes place in Utah, the truth is these people are some bizarre offshoot of the Mormon Church, and the truth is a lot of Mormons gave a lot of money to the church to make Prop. 8 happen,” Hanks said. "There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American and I am one of them. I do not like to see any discrimination codified on any piece of paper, any of the 50 states in America, but here's what happens now."

Hanks holds out hope that Prop. 8 will be overturned. "Let's have faith in not only the American, but Californian constitutional process,” he said.

Labels: Big Love, LDS, politics

Don't count out Utah private clubs - and their annoying and antiquated rules of membership fees and wink-wink sponsorships - just yet.

Despite efforts by Gov. Jon Huntsman and the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control to reform the rules, Republicans in the Utah Senate want to keep the idiotic laws exactly as they are.

"Unless we find something better that protects our children and protects us from drunken drivers, we want no change in private club memberships," Senate President-elect Michael Waddoups told the Tribune's Dawn House. "Someday we may find a better solution, but it hasn't even been suggested at this point."

The problem is Utah's liquor laws don't protect children and motorists. They just irritate those who drink and remind them they are an oppressed minority in this predominantly Mormon state.

Sometimes, the laws cooked up by Utah's control-freak legislators do more harm than good.

Take, for example, this year's legislation to ban flavored malt beverages - a k a "alcopops" - from Utah's supermarkets. The idea was to keep underage customers from sneaking a six-pack of Mike's Hard Lemonade past an unsuspecting grocery clerk (something that could not happen, since the scanners at checkout flag alcohol purchases, no matter how well disguised the product).

Did the law keep these "cheerleader beers" out of young drinkers' hands? No. Here's what happened: Instead of having an older brother or frat brother go to Albertson's to buy 3.2 drinks, that older person now goes into a state liquor store and buys "alcopops" with a 5 percent alcoholic content - thus ensuring the drinker gets drunk faster.

Here's the early clue that "protecting children" wasn't really the drive for the "alcopops" ban: When the law went into effect in October, supermarkets had to destroy their remaining inventory - while the state liquor stores were allowed to sell off what they had in stock.

When the Utah Legislature starts talking about "protecting children," they really mean they're protecting the state's monopoly on liquor sales.

Labels: alcohol, alcohol laws, LDS, politics

A Utah businessman's plan to run a full-page ad Sunday in Salt Lake City's two major newspapers - The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News - criticizing the LDS Church's stance on California's Prop. 8 was stopped when the papers pulled the ad, according to the blog Gay Rights Watch.

Bruce Palenske's full-page ad (which you can see here in a pdf file) criticized the LDS Church's role in funding the Prop. 8 campaign, and included a form for people wishing to complain to the IRS about the church violating its tax-exempt status.

"We have a signed contract, and the newspapers had already accepted payment for the ad when it was pulled literally 5 minutes before the production deadline," Palenske told Gay Rights Watch. "This is clearly political. ... I can’t help but think that the LDS came in and put the brakes on this."

Labels: journalism, LDS, politics

If gays and lesbians can't fight the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with protests, then maybe they can use withering irony.

Editors of QSaltLake, an alt-weekly for Utah's LGBT community, chose the paper's "Person of the Year": LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson - the man who with a single letter mobilized a church-wide campaign to support California's Prop. 8, stamping out the civil rights of gays and lesbians to marry legally.

Here's the rationale:

"As strange as it may seem, we at QSaltLake believe that Monson and the Mormon Church are somewhat responsible for this resurgence in U.S. gay rights activism now known as 'Stonewall 2.0.' ... Because of one ill-advised letter, we may one day look back on Proposition 8 as not only an unfortunate chapter in U.S. history, but a chapter that also allied gay people and Mormons in the ongoing fight for social justice."

Anyone want to lay down odds on Monson showing up to receive his award? Anyone?

(Hat tip to Holly Mullen, at City Weekly.)

Labels: LDS, politics

Bad news, bluenoses - the rest of the country is starting to figure out that Utah isn't as monolithic as advertised.

From The Birmingham (Ala.) News comes this news flash that not all Utahns are Mormons.

This, according to the article, is good news to New Orleans bars and restaurants, expecting an influx of Utahns for the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2 - when the Utah Utes face the Crimson Tide of Alabama.

To quote from the article:

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Mormons made up 62 percent of the state's population in 2004, a figure that is shrinking. In Salt Lake City, where the university is located, it is less than 50 percent.

Private drinking clubs dot Salt Lake City, and there are plenty of non-Mormons to frequent them. Figure some of the same people will enjoy New Orleans' bars.

A note to Alabama residents: Many of these "private drinking clubs" also have indoor plumbing, and most have planks covering the dirt floors. Y'all come visit sometime.

Labels: alcohol, LDS

A word from composer Stephen Schwartz ("Wicked," "Godspell") to all you Mormons out there: Homophobia is bad, bad, bad - but he's not going to punish your student singing groups over it.

Schwartz (pictured) told The Salt Lake Tribune's Peggy Fletcher Stack, via e-mail, that he has no plans to withhold the license of his songs from Utah or LDS-related singing groups.

An ex-Mormon blogger recently launched a drive to get composers to deny their songs to LDS-related groups - because of the Mormon Church's support of California's Prop. 8, the ban on same-sex marriage.

"I have not withdrawn the use of my songs by the BYU Young Ambassadors and do not intend to do so," Schwartz wrote. "They are a student singing group."

Schwartz urged all "fair-minded Mormons to reconsider their position and come to support the right of homosexuals to marry the person they love. … I continue to believe that the most important tenet of any religion is 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' "

Labels: LDS, politics

Thursday night's episode of "The Office," titled "Moroccan Christmas," took a strange turn when Meredith (Kate Flannery) got drunk at the Dunder Mifflin Christmas party - and Michael (Steve Carell) decided to turn it into an intervention:

MICHAEL (reading off a list): Meredith, have you ever used alcohol to alter your mood or deliberately change your state of mind?

MEREDITH: Sure.

MICHAEL: Do you sometimes have a drink to celebrate a special occasion or mark a holiday?

MEREDITH: Obviously.

MICHAEL: Have you ever, under the influence of alcohol, questioned the teachings of the Mormon Church?

OSCAR: Where did you get this?

MICHAEL: I got it on a web site. That's not important.

It starts at the 8:45 mark. Enjoy!

Labels: alcohol, LDS, television

This is too good to pass up, courtesy of Will Ferrell's FunnyOrDie.com:




Your eyes aren't fooling you - this boasts an all-star cast: Jack Black as Jesus, Lake Bell, Sarah Chalke ("Scrubs"), Margaret Cho, Neil Patrick Harris, Allison Janney, Rashida Jones, Jenifer Lewis, Kathy Najimy, John C. Reilly, Andy Richter, Craig Robinson ("The Office") and Maya Rudolph. The number is song by Mark Shaiman ("Hairspray").

Labels: LDS, politics

The world's most famous Mormon, Donny Osmond, has weighed in on his opinion of gay marriage.

Unsurprisingly, he's against it.

In answer to a fan's question on his website, Donny.com, Osmond quotes the LDS Church's 1995 statement "The Family - A Proclamation To The World," which says, "marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children."

He then trots out the "some of my best friends are gay" line, adding that "I do support our Church leaders who say that we can accept those with gay tendencies in our church as long as they do not act upon their temptations."

Of course, the issue of Mormons and gay marriage has been all the talk since California voters passed Proposition 8, a ban on same-sex marriage, after a bruising campaign that was in large part bankrolled by Mormons following the wishes of the LDS Church leadership. As a result, gay activists have picketed LDS temples nationwide and urged a boycott of Mormon-owned businesses and the entire state of Utah.

Labels: LDS, Osmond

It's only three days until Repeal Day - so everyone prepare to hoist a drink in celebration.

Repeal Day marks the 75th anniversary of the day the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified - ending Prohibition and again allowing the sale of alcohol.

Here's the punchline: The 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment, the one that put the repeal over the top, was tee-totalling Utah.

The place of the Prohibition movement in Utah's history is a fascinating one. Thanks to Prohibition, the state government now holds an iron-fisted monopoly over liquor sales in Utah. But, in the drive to repeal Prohibition, the anti-alcohol leadership of the LDS Church proved itself not always in control of the will of Utah voters.

Read all about it in this story in today's ink-and-paper Tribune.


(Photo: Utah Liquor Company store window, 1914, by Harry Shipler, courtesy of the Utah State Historical Society)

Labels: alcohol, alcohol laws, LDS

More people in Hollywood are speaking up about a suggested boycott of the Sundance Film Festival, because it lives in the same state as the headquarters of the LDS Church - which heavily supported the gay-marriage ban in California, Proposition 8.

At a benefit screening in New York for the new biography "Milk," co-star James Franco said he doesn't think much of the proposed boycott. "Sundance has no connection to the Mormon Church that I know of," Franco said, according to New York Daily News gossip columnists Rush & Molloy.

"Milk's" director Gus Van Sant doesn't endorse the boycott either, commenting, "So everything in Utah is just, like, off-limits?"

Josh Brolin, who also appears in the movie (as the San Francisco city supervisor who murdered Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician elected to a major city office), found the silver lining in the Prop. 8 vote: "It's got people fired up. So I'm almost glad about that."

(Photo: Kambouris/WireImage)

Labels: LDS, politics

My date for cocktails with Dan Savage is off.

I made the invite in the Culture Vulture column in the dead-tree Tribune on Tuesday, asking the famed sex-advice columnist and Seattle alt-weekly editor to visit Utah. My purpose: To show him that his call for a blanket boycott of all things Utah - in response to the LDS Church's hardcore support of the hateful Prop. 8, banning same-sex marriage in California - would do significant collateral damage to non-Mormon and gay-friendly Utahns.

On Monday, before my column hit the streets, Savage posted his RSVP on Slog, the blog for his alt-weekly The Stranger:

Best to the wife, Sean, and I get it, I get it: you're not all bigots and haters, and people marched against Prop 8 in Salt Lake City this weekend. But I'm not ready to make nice—on purpose or by accident—with the bigots and haters from Magic Underpants Inc. who donated money and time to Prop 8. ... You may have a beef with me and others "[singling] out Utah for [our] wrath over Prop. 8's passage," but we have a much bigger beef with the religious bigots that run Utah.

Dan, the invitation remains open. History is on your side, not on the side of the "bigots and haters" - and if a boycott facilitates the change you both seek, then the best of luck to you.

A lot of conservative Mormons in Utah would be overjoyed to know gays and lesbians are avoiding the state - and if those leftist Hollywood types don't come to the Sundance Film Festival, all the better. A boycott won't hurt the people you're targeting, and will do damage to many of your friends and supporters.

This isn't about whether sympathetic Utahns are more persecuted than California gays and lesbians. It's not a victimhood contest. That's the sort of us-vs.-them bickering that the anti-gay forces are counting on to keep their side on top.

There's also the argument that non-Mormons in Utah are enablers to the state's LDS-dominated power structure, and if non-Mormons don't like it they should move. Non-Mormons will tell you that this is their home, too - and if gays and lesbians wanted to help, they would move here in droves and join the fight.

(Imagine if a million gays and lesbians moved to Utah in the next two years - strategically placed in suburbs like West Jordan and Sandy, shifting the balance of power in the Utah Legislature just in time for the once-a-decade redistricting debate. Oh, the commotion!)

Fighting hate with more hate isn't working. Sometimes turning the other cheek isn't just the Christian thing to do, but it's the surest way to drive the other side bonkers.

Labels: LDS, politics

Oh dear, here it comes: "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone - who have long poked their satirical sticks into the LDS Church's bear cage (such as the classic episode that depicted Joseph Smith's founding of the church) - are reportedly working on the Broadway-bound "Mormon Musical." (Could a title be more self-explanatory?)

According to the New York Post's PopWrap blog, Parker and Stone have developed a script with "Avenue Q" co-writer Mark Lopez and are shopping it around to producers - with Broadway actor Cheyenne Jackson (now starring in the stage adaptation of "Xanadu") may star in it.

No word on who's writing the music. Interestingly, the guy who composed the songs for "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut," Marc Shaiman, was one of the major voices urging a boycott of a Sacramento regional theater because its artistic director - a Mormon - gave money to support California's ban on same-sex marriages.

If Parker and Stone are writing a play about Mormons, let us hope they write Utah state legislator Chris Buttars into the story - if only so we can hear that immortal "South Park" catchphrase, "Buttars, what is wrong with you?" employed to its best effect.

Labels: LDS

Like a dog that won't let go of a bone, AmericaBlog's John Aravosis' campaign to boycott the Sundance Film Festival - as part of a larger boycott against all things Utah, after LDS Church members supported the anti-gay ballot measure Prop. 8 - shows no signs of slowing.

"Your Sundance registration money is quite literally helping to subsidize a donation to Yes on 8," Aravosis wrote in a post Saturday, following the tenuous links from Cinemark CEO Alan Stock's $9,999 donation to the Yes on 8 campaign to Sundance - via the festival's use of Park City's four-screen Holiday Village Cinemas, which are owned by Cinemark.

Never mind that Aravosis has his Sundance information rather skewed - he declares "the Holiday theaters are THE central location for anything and everything Sundance," which isn't the case at all.

The Holiday Village is the only permanent movie theater Sundance uses in Park City - the others are concert or lecture venues or, in the case of the Park City Racquet Club, a converted basketball court.

But the Holiday Village screening rooms are tiny - only about 150 seats each - compared to the cavernous 1,270-seat Eccles Theatre (where the major premieres are) or the 600-seat Racquet Club (where the U.S. Dramatic competition films screen) or the 468-seat Library Center Theatre.

The Holiday Village is home to more than 150 screenings during the festival's 10-day run, and cancelling those now (less than two months before the festival) would leave many filmmakers without a chance to show their films. The Holiday Village is also one of only two venues for press screenings, and without it critics would be scrambling to get into regular screenings - a further strain on a ticketing system that deals with enough sold-out screenings as it is.

Arguing that Sundance - an institution that has reached out to gay and lesbian filmmakers, workshopping such movies as "Boys Don't Cry" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" - is being anti-gay because it can't stop on a dime and give in to Aravosis' demands is foolish.

Here's a more positive idea to show your anger at Cinemark for its CEO's donation: A group is urging moviegoers to avoid seeing "Milk," Gus Van Sant's excellent biography of gay politician Harvey Milk, at any Cinemark theater. "Don't let Harvey Milk's legacy finance your oppression!," the protest's web site says.

Eugene Hernandez, editor of IndieWire, takes a thoughtful look at the intersection of independent film and the same-sex marriage issue - which has been all the talk in Hollywood this last week, both with the Sundance controversy and the news that the director of the L.A. Independent Film Festival (who is Mormon) gave a donation to the Yes on 8 campaign.

Labels: LDS, politics, Sundance

Part of the aftermath of a failed political campaign is that natural allies turn on each other.

We're seeing it in the Republican Party after John McCain's defeat, and among gay-friendly liberals after the passage of California's ban on same-sex marriage.

The latest fight involves feuding alternative weeklies: Salt Lake City Weekly, The Stranger in Seattle, and New York's The Village Voice.

It started when Dan Savage (pictured), the esteemed editor of The Stranger and writer of a nationally syndicated sex-advice column, chimed in to support a blanket boycott of Utah (because the LDS Church and its members supported California's Prop. 8 and bankrolled much of the campaign). Savage said he and his boyfriend had been contemplating a Utah ski vacation, but now they will go to Colorado instead.

Of course, a blanket boycott won't hit its intended target (there are a lot of Mormons who don't live in Utah) and will cause collateral damage (think of the 3,000 Utahns who protested around Temple Square last weekend, or the gay-friendly Sundance Film Festival). But Savage is angry, and somebody has to pay.

John Saltas, the president of Salt Lake City Weekly, made such an argument in his weekly column. "A Utah boycott hurts the very people Savage claims to speak for," Saltas wrote, while also noting that Colorado is home to Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family and several other evangelical groups that also supported Prop. 8.

Saltas went even further, though, and terminated Savage's sex-advice column, "Savage Love," which had been running on the City Weekly's web site. "Since Savage hates Utah so much, there’s no point in us playing in his sandbox by sending him a regular check," Saltas wrote.

This announcement raised the ire of The Village Voice writer Roy Edroso, who condemned Saltas' action on the paper's "Runnin' Scared" blog: "Runnin' Scared and the Voice are astonished that the paper would defenestrate Savage on the basis of his views - especially when those views are entirely predictable from the tenor of his previous work. (Did they actually expect Savage to be gentle about a major gay-rights issue?) We can't think of another alt-weekly that would do such a thing and, till this happened, never expected it of the Weekly."

Can't we all just get along? I invite Savage to come to Utah (he can fly on an airline with a strong anti-discrimination policy, and we can find him a nice gay-friendly B&B, whose owners won't give a penny to tithing) - and I'll buy the drinks while Savage and Saltas debate the issue and find common ground.

I'm betting that is Savage came to Salt Lake City, the crowd of gays and lesbians that would greet his arrival would leave him staggered and impressed.

Labels: City Weekly, LDS, politics

The furor over California's Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage, marches on.

And just when you thought the Sundance Film Festival was out of the line of fire (by gay and lesbian activists going after all things Utah, because of the Mormon church's strong support of Prop. 8), now Sundance is the one being asked to boycott one of its own venues.

Activist John Aravosis posted this notice on his AmericaBlog that the CEO of Cinemark Theatres, Alan W. Stock, gave $9,999 to the Yes on 8 campaign. Cinemark Theatres operates 4,700 theaters worldwide, and operates more screens in Utah than any other company - including the 24-plex at Jordan Landing and the two Century 16s.

Aravosis is urging a blanket boycott of all Cinemark theaters. (This leaves militant gays and lesbians in Utah in a bind - some were already boycotting Larry H. Miller's Megaplex Theaters over the "Brokeback Mountain" cancellation in 2006.)

Stock - as I wrote Monday on my Movie Cricket blog - was raised in Roy, Utah, served on an LDS mission, and managed theaters in Ogden and Layton before being hired by Cinemark in 1986. On Election Day, he was back in Utah, overseeing the opening of a new 14-plex in Orem's University Mall.

Here's where Sundance factors in the mix: Cinemark also runs the 4-screen Holiday Village Cinemas in Park City, the only full-time movie theaters used during the film festival. (The other venues are either concert halls or converted spaces.) The Holiday Village theaters are the go-to theaters for the U.S. documentary competition, and the main venue for press screenings.

Movie City News' David Poland, writing on his Hot Blog, puts it directly: "Sundance will actually have to answer what is now a real question... will they financially support a theater in their group of theaters that is led by a Prop 8 financer?"

Poland vows to avoid press screenings at the Holiday Village ("nothing plays the HV exclusively," he writes), but for some members of the press - those with more-restrictive press credentials - that may not be a workable option.

Poland is urging Sundance to try to find an alternative venue, but there's no viable option with the festival only two months away. The Redstone Cinemas might have the screens, but running the shuttle buses out to Kimball Junction would cripple an already precarious transportation situation.

Labels: LDS, politics, Sundance

Scott Eckern exercised his constitutional right of free speech and, following the advice of his church - the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - donated $1,000 to the campaign supporting California's Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage in the state.

Supporters of same-sex marriage exercised their constitutional rights and publicized Eckern's donation - and the fact that Eckern is artistic director of the California Musical Theatre, the state's largest nonprofit musical theater company.

These supporters of gay rights encouraged their artist friends who are gay and lesbian to boycott CMT. One artist who took up the boycott call is fairly famous in musical-theater circles: Mark Shaiman, who composed the songs for the musical version of "Hairspray."

Today, according to this report, Eckern resigned his job at California Musical Theatre, "after prayerful consideration to protect the organization and to help the healing in the local theatre-going and creative community," he said in a statement.

I feel sorry that a guy lost his job. I also feel sorry that 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who have married legally in California this year were told by voters that their marriages don't count. There are no winners in this mess, only victims.

Labels: LDS, politics

The Hate State.

That's what a fair number of bloggers and supporters of same-sex marriage are calling Utah, following the lead of AmericaBlog's John Aravosis - who is urging a boycott of all things Utah and all things Mormon, after the support of the LDS Church and its members helped pass California's Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriages in the Golden State.

"Utah is the new Coors," declared Dan Savage, editor of the Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger (and author of the sex-advice column "Savage Love"). "Since all Mormons-in-good-standing must tithe 10% of their earnings to their church, some part of any dollar you spend in a Mormon-owned business - and they're almost all Mormon-owned businesses in Utah - flows toward an anti-gay church that wages anti-gay political campaigns. Ski Colorado, Washington state, and British Columbia. Don't ski Utah."

Others have called for the Sundance Film Festival to vacate Utah (in part because the festival headquarters are at the Park City Marriott, and an owner of several Marriotts in southern California was a big Prop. 8 donor). Still others urge a boycott of Mormon artists - a list that includes Donny and Marie Osmond's current show in Las Vegas, Gladys Knight's concerts, and David Archuleta's forthcoming new album.



Funny, "hate" isn't what we saw spilling into the streets of Salt Lake City on Friday night, when 3,000 people picketed around Temple Square in opposition to Prop. 8 and the LDS Church's support of it.

We saw love. We saw commitment. We saw the beginnings of a movement. And we saw that Utah isn't as monolithic as people outside the state think.

Boycotting Sundance, as Daily Kos and David Poland's Hot Blog both argue, accomplishes nothing. Park City is a blue dot in a red state, Robert Redford's no Mormon, and Sundance has fostered gay and lesbian cinema - with titles such as "Go Fish," "Southern Comfort" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" - like no other entity.

(The idea of a Sundance boycott does give hack indie filmmakers a built-in excuse, though. Instead of saying a movie was rejected, a director can say, "Ahh, I pulled the movie before selection because I'm boycotting Utah.")

And a shotgun-blast boycott at everything Utah doesn't make sense either, because look at the people you'd hit in the blast. If you want a target, use this handy database and go after the businesses of those who directly donated to Prop. 8 supporters (something the Prop. 8 folks threatened to do to the amendment's opponents before the election) - such as this guy, the artistic director of a Sacramento-area theater who's now finding that people who work in musical theater (some of whom, believe it or not, are gay) don't want to work with him anymore.

Most importantly, don't fight hate with hate. Fight it with love - the kind of love we saw outside Temple Square this weekend.

UPDATE: Here's the word from the Sundance Institute, which has received some e-mails calling for a boycott or for Sundance to move the festival from Park City:

“The Sundance Institute has a long history, and in fact was founded, on the idea of championing diversity and freedom of expression," said Brooks Addicott, Sundance's associate director for media relations. "It would be a grave disappointment to us if the Sundance Film Festival were to be singled out for a boycott. For 25 years, the Festival has brought together a diverse range of independent voices, and we remain committed to creating dialogue around critical issues of our time."


(Photo: Leslie Sorensen-Means)

Labels: David Archuleta, LDS, politics, Sundance

If you thought Election Day would settle everything, you thought wrong.

In the battle for gays and lesbians to be accorded the same rights to marriage as everyone else, the fight is still going on - and will be hitting the streets of Salt Lake City tonight.

Those who believe in gay rights are organizing a protest at 6 p.m. at the corner of North Temple and State Street - right in front of the Church Office Building, world headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Leaders of the LDS Church encouraged Mormons to support California's Prop. 8, a ballot measure that would amend the state's constitution to ban gay marriages - which have been legal in the Golden State for the last 4 1/2 months thanks to a state Supreme Court decision.

The ballot measure narrowly passed with California voters - after a bitter and divisive campaign that brought an estimated $22 million in donations from Mormons on the pro-Prop. 8 side.

About 3,000 protesters marched to the gates of the Mormon temple in L.A. on Thursday, as gay-rights groups have channeled their wrath on the LDS Church's role in the Prop. 8 campaign (even though other churches also supported the ban).

An online petition now circulating is demanding the IRS investigate whether to revoke the LDS Church's tax-exempt status. Backers of the petition quote the section of the IRS code that states: "In general, no organization, including a church, may qualify for IRC section 501(c)(3) status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation (commonly known as lobbying)."

(Speaking of taxes, singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge wrote a post on The Daily Beast, arguing that she and other gay Californians shouldn't have to pay state income tax if they don't have full rights. "That would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books," Etheridge wrote.)

Meanwhile, opponents of Prop. 8 are also mounting a legal challenge, arguing that California's initiative process was abused - because only small, technical amendments can be passed through initiative, not substantial changes to people's human rights.

An LDS Church spokesperson issued a statement in response to the L.A. protest: "The Church acknowledges that such an emotionally charged issue concerning the most personal and cherished aspects of life - family and marriage - stirs fervent and deep feelings. No one on either side of the question should be vilified, harassed or subject to erroneous information."

That last sentence might draw a hollow laugh from Prop. 8 opponents - who have a detailed list of "erroneous information" (or, as they are sometimes called, lies) trumpeted by supporters of the ban.

This battle is far from over, and it's not limited to California.

(Photo: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

Labels: LDS, politics

While things went pretty much as expected in Utah on election night - Republicans still run pretty much everything they ran the day before (except for a Salt Lake County Council seat and a Utah House seat held by Speaker Greg Curtis) - the state's citizens did have some influence over votes elsewhere in the country:



- The Udall boys are going to the U.S. Senate - and Utah's own Robert Redford gave each of them a boost.

The Sundance Kid held a fund-raiser in September for Tom Udall, the Democrat running for the Senate in New Mexico. Redford also campaigned heavily for Tom's cousin Mark, the Democrat running in Colorado - even making a campaign stop in Aurora, Colo., last weekend.

Tom Udall is the son of Stewart Udall, who was Interior Secretary for JFK and LBJ. Mark Udall is the son of Mo Udall, longtime Arizona congressman and one-time presidential candidate.

- California's same-sex marriage ban, Prop. 8, was approved with about 54 percent of the vote - after a bitter and emotional campaign that saw members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (many of them in Utah) give a lot of money and time to ensure its passage.

The LDS Church's involvement in the campaign itself became a campaign issue, notably when a group called The Courage Campaign aired this ad depicting two LDS missionaries ransacking a lesbian couple's home and tearing up their marriage certificate. Church officials issued this statement in response:

"The Church has joined a broad-based coalition in defense of traditional marriage. While we feel this is important to all of society, we have always emphasized that respect be given to those who feel differently on this issue. It is unfortunate that some who oppose this proposition have not given the Church this same courtesy."

In other words, the LDS Church jumped into the ring with its boxing gloves on, then got its feelings hurt that somebody else would throw a punch. And considering the vitriol coming from the pro-Prop. 8 side, the criticism of the LDS Church was comparatively tame.

- And, finally, Utah can no longer claim to be reddest of the red states. Though Utah gave 63 percent of its vote to John McCain, both Oklahoma (66 percent) and Wyoming (65 percent) posted higher numbers for the Republican. (Conversely, Hawaii - the state of president-elect Barack Obama's birth - is the bluest state, with 72 percent of the vote for the Democrat. The District of Columbia gave Obama 91 percent of its vote.)

(Photo: Dennis Schroeder/Rocky Mountain News)

Labels: Barack Obama, LDS, politics, Robert Redford

Consider what it's like to be Steve Young.

He's one of the most popular celebrities in northern California, thanks to his success as quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers. He's also probably the most recognizable Mormon in California - and possibly the most recognizable Mormon anywhere who's not an Osmond.

Now consider when those worlds - his California popularity and his Mormon faith - collide. That's what's happened with the battle over Proposition 8, in which California voters will decide whether to amend the state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage (which is currently legal there).

Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints support Prop. 8, and have encouraged church members to donate money and time to pass it. And Steve Young is not just any member of the Mormon Church, but the direct descendant of the church's legendary president and prophet Brigham Young.

Over the weekend, word got out that a "No on 8" sign was posted in Young's front lawn at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. Young's wife Barbara sent an e-mail to Equality California, a gay-rights group, which read in part, "We believe all families matter, and we do not believe in discrimination, therefore, our family will vote against Prop. 8."

Mrs. Young further clarified her position and her husband's: "I am very passionate about this issue and Steve is completely supportive of me and my work for equality. We both love our Church and are grateful that our Church encourages us to vote our conscience. Steve prefers not to get involved politically on any issue no matter what the cause and therefore makes no endorsement."

This caused enough of an uproar that Young issued a statement to KSL Sunday night:

"Barb and I love each other very much. It is that love of each other and the Savior that helps us come to the decisions we do. For Barb, who has a remarkable and enviable compassion for others, those political activities are far more public than mine. Those who know me, know I chose long ago not to be publicly active in the political process. I do have strong opinions. I do vote and will vote on Tuesday, but those matters are private."

In many ways, Young is caught in the same bind as many Californians and many Mormons - trapped between religious dogma and human compassion. And if anyone thinks Mormons (or Utahns) are monolithic in their support of Prop. 8, this Sunday night vigil in Salt Lake City staged by those opposed to Prop. 8 should change your mind.

Labels: LDS, politics

The battle over California's Proposition 8, which would insert a ban on same-sex marriage into that state's constitution, is getting fierce as election day approaches - and Utah money is at the heart of it.

According to this article in the Tribune's sister paper, The Mercury News in San Jose, about 12 percent of the $27.9 million donated to Yes on Proposition 8 are from outside of California. Of that 12 percent, 45 percent of the donations come from Utah - three times what people in any other state (besides California) have given.

That's roughly $1.5 million of Utahns' money going to California. Presumably much of that money comes from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who have been urged by church leaders to get involved in the ballot issue.

Opponents of the ban, No on Prop. 8, are catching up to the supporters, having raised $26.7 million. About 21 percent of that figure comes from outside California, though the Mercury News article doesn't detail what states are giving more. You have to figure Utah's percentage is moderately high, just from WordPerfect founder Bruce Bastian's reported $1 million donation.

The fund-raising tactics of the anti-gay forces took a sleazy turn last week, when several businesses that had donated to No on Prop. 8 received letters demanding those businesses donate to the Yes side - or have the businesses' names publicized as "a clear indication that you are in opposition to traditional marriage."

The businesses weren't just threatened with being "outed." No, first they were being shaken down for contributions - using the threat of publicity as, let's call it what it is, extortion. There's high-minded morality for you.

UPDATE: One more item of note on Prop. 8 and the LDS connection: This entry on the left-leaning Huffington Post by Joe Vogel - remember him as one of the Utah Valley student-government officers who invited Michael Moore to Orem? - in which he laments members of his church being "on the wrong side of history again."

Labels: LDS, politics

Bill Maher's feature-length rant against religion, "Religulous," opens nationwide on Friday - and the comedian includes some choice words on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The segment begins with Maher and his film crew getting booted from LDS church property by "Mormon Fuzz" - big guys in Mr. Mac suits who look like they might have been on BYU's defensive line earlier in life.

It ends four minutes later with images mocking LDS tenets - the funniest is when he discusses the belief that American Indians are a lost tribe of Israel, which is accompanied by a clip of Mel Brooks wearing an Indian headdress in "Blazing Saddles."

Here are more details of Maher's comments on Mormons - along with my review of the movie.

(Photo: Screengrab from the "Religulous" trailer.)

Labels: LDS

If the debate about same-sex marriage is ultimately about commitment, here's a sure sign of commitment: Orem's Bruce Bastian, the openly gay ex-Mormon co-founder of WordPerfect, is donating $1 million to the "No on Prop 8" fund - which is fighting a California ballot measure that would amend that state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

According to an article by the Tribune's Rosemary Winters, Bastian was prompted to make the donation when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement in June, calling on members to "do all you can" to pass Prop. 8. Bastian said:

The LDS Church has no business [sticking] their big nose in something that's a legal matter, not a religious matter. Constitutions are meant to protect minorities, not to take rights away from people.

Winters' article notes that the campaign supporting Prop. 8 has received donations from 37 Utah residents, totaling $120,550. Also, according to a pro-Prop. 8 spokesperson, many of the 25,000 volunteers are LDS.

(By the way, actor and open heterosexual Brad Pitt is donating $100,000 to the No on Prop. 8 campaign.)

LDS church members were also active eight years ago in getting a no-gay-marriage ballot measure, called the Knight Amendment, passed in California. This time around, the drive isn't as successful: According to a Los Angeles Times poll in late August, 54 percent of likely voters oppose Prop. 8, while 40 percent support it.

What's changed? Life.

Eight years ago, same-sex marriages were more of an abstract concept than a concrete fact. Now, with couples getting married in Massachusetts and (since the state Supreme Court's ruling) California, gay marriages are happening to people in the neighborhood or celebrities you've heard of (like Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, pictured). Every time two men or two women share vows of commitment, it kills the myth that somehow everyone else's marriage will be weakened.

(Photo: Danny Moloshok, AP)

Labels: LDS, politics

The prevailing thought in Utah is that the byzantine "private club" laws, which require drinkers to jump through many hoops (such as signing up for a "membership") to get a drink in a bar, would never be changed unless the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said it was OK.

A statement issued Monday by LDS leaders could signal that the church is not opposed to such a change, according to people interviewed by the Deseret News' Lisa Riley Roche.

Here's the key part of the statement that Gov. Jon Huntsman's office called "encouraging" and Sam Granato, head of the state's liquor commission, called "a healthy step":

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes that Utahns, including those who work in the hospitality industry, can come together as citizens, regardless of religion or politics, to support laws and regulations that allow individual freedom of choice while preserving Utah’s proven positive health and safety record on limiting the tragic consequences of overconsumption of alcohol.

"This is huge. This is what everyone was waiting for," said Lisa Marcy McGarry, representing the Utah Hospitality Association. "A large majority of our Legislature is going to listen to the words of advice given by the LDS Church."

Don't start pouring yet, though. Any bill still has to go through the Utah Legislature - for whom "byzantine" is standard operating procedure - early next year.

Labels: alcohol laws, LDS

Reporters always love the "hand in the cookie jar" story, when some politician gets caught using public money for personal advantage - like charging the taxpayers for a trip to some tropical location (or, in a recent case, getting a per diem for nights spent in your own house).

From Australia comes a reversal on the formula: The politician comes from a tropical location, and charges his government for a trip to Utah.

The Courier-Mail (the paper in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) reports that a member of the Australian parliament, David Gibson, claimed a $305 daily travel allowance for a weeklong visit to Utah last June.

While in Utah, Gibson (who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) saw a rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, visited the LDS Family History Library, dined with a church friend and met both with church officials and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.

Gibson, who also attended a political seminar in Washington, D.C., justified the trip to Utah as a study tour - because he visited a sustainable building and irrigation engineering program at Utah State University in Logan. (Gibson is the climate change spokesman for the Liberal National Party, the opposition party in Australia's parliament.)

Labels: LDS, politics

My cubicle neighbor, Tribune TV critic Vince Horiuchi, always fears the arrival of a new reality show, because there may be a Utahn on the show that he'll have to write about every week.

Brace yourself, Vince - here comes another one.

Gawker.com is following the new season of "MTV's The Real World," now being filmed in Brooklyn, N.Y. - and, sure enough, there's a guy named Chet Bannon, a Mormon from Salt Lake City (with a fiancee at home here), whose virginity is, apparently, a topic of much discussion.

Here's how the New York Press describes an encounter with Bannon, at a club where the band Semi Precious Weapons was performing:

MTV had the kids well trained. "I’m sorry I can’t divulge that," the cast members would tell me when I pressed them for any details on life in the Pier 41 house. But Chet Bannon, the Mormon who the producers are trying to have de-flowered, was too nice not to talk. By far the most suave of the yahoos, he was wearing an H&M scarf, Elvis Costello glasses and had his short blonde hair spiked. Best of all, he admitted that they were indeed the cast of 'The Real World.'

"I love glam rock," Chet told me as he sipped a Shirley Temple, "you just don’t see anything like it in Salt Lake." As if on cue, Justin Tranter, the mascara-wearing, teased, peroxide-haired frontman of the Weapons, put a medallion around Chet’s neck, whispered something in his ear, then strutted off.

Good luck with that one, Vince.

(Hat tip to Bill Frost, on the City Weekly blog.)

Labels: LDS, Reality show

Actress Katherine Heigl was raised as a Mormon, and now she says she eventually wants to return to the faith.

In an interview with Britain's Daily Mail, the 29-year-old star of "Grey's Anatomy," "Knocked Up" and "27 Dresses" - whose family converted to the LDS faith when she was 7 years old - admits she's not "a strong, practicing Mormon":

"I'm not as disciplined about it as I once was, but I hope to find my way back as I get older and a little less selfish. I'm ashamed to say that I've just got very lazy about it. I satisfy my vices instead of fighting them. If I start going back to church, I'd have to stop the smoking and drinking, and I wouldn't be able to curse any more."

How prevalent are Heigl's vices? Most every interview she gives - like this Entertainment Weekly profile written when "Knocked Up" was released - prominently mentions her cigarette habit.

Heigl, who married musician Joshua Kelly last December at Deer Valley (near her Utah ranch), will get to play a role tied to her LDS faith soon. She's producing and starring in "Escape," an adaptation of Carolyn Jessop's memoir of life as a wife and mother in Warren Jeffs' FLDS sect.

Labels: LDS

The political columnist Michael Kinsley once said that "a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth." The definition also applies, apparently, to reality-show judges.

Mia Michaels, judge and choreographer on Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance," had to do some serious backpedaling last week after she gave this explanation for the prevalence of Utahns on her and other dance competitions: "Because they have no social life. ... It's the Mormon thing: No sex, drugs, drinking. So dancing becomes a great outlet."

(Four Utah dancers were among the top 20 finalists of "So You Think You Can Dance," and Pleasant Grove's Chelsie Hightower is still in the top eight.)

Michaels also talked about the culture shock of visiting Salt Lake City. "I remember going there once and you can't have a glass of wine after rehearsals because nothing is open," Michaels said. "And then in the morning, you say, "OK, I need coffee." And they say, 'Um, no, it's Sunday.' I was like, 'What?' "

On Friday, Michaels issued a statement praising the talent and work ethic of Utah dancers, adding "I totally apologize if what I said came out wrong, because putting down their way of life is not what I meant, at all. I think it's so admirable, what they do. I respect their way of life. I should take their advice. My sister and her husband are going to build a home and retire in Deer Valley, Utah. It's gorgeous there."

Labels: LDS, Reality show

In today's dead-tree Culture Vulture column, I spotlight a hilarious blog, "Seriously, So Blessed."

Tiffany/Amber/Megan/Nicole, a k a TAMN, is your typical blissfully happy newly-married Mormon woman, and she blogs about the things she loves: Scented candles, Stephenie Meyer books, girls night out, giving talks in church, and her hubby Jordan/Jason/Wes/Taylor (or JJWT).

Of course, it's a parody - a wickedly dead-on spoof of the suddenly trendy married-Mormon blog phenomenon. And, like the best parodies, there's as much truth in it as in the real thing. Seriously.

Labels: LDS

You have to wonder who's playing who in this scenario.

Step 1: Las Vegas entrepreneur Chad Hardy creates calendar showing beefcake photos of men purporting to be Mormon missionaries.

Step 2: Leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (you know, the Mormons) get in high dudgeon, and call Hardy - a non-attending church member - for a disciplinary hearing.

Step 3: Hardy goes public before the disciplinary hearing, guaranteeing plenty of news coverage.

Step 4: Church leaders excommunicate Hardy.

Hardy gets what he wants: Reams of publicity for his calendar, and status as a rebel fighting for the First Amendment. And the church gets what it wants: A clear signal to its membership that you can't mess with one of its beloved symbols - the innocent white-shirted missionary - and not suffer the consequences.

Did anybody think it was going to go down any differently?

(Photo: AP)

Labels: LDS

As surely as night follows day, you can be assured that anything that involves the words "Mormon missionary" and "naked" will soon be followed by the words "disciplinary hearing."

Which is why Chad Hardy, a 31-year-old entrepreneur in Las Vegas (and a lifelong member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - you know, the Mormons), shouldn't be surprised that his "Men on a Mission" calendar - featuring shirtless Mormon missionaries - as earned him a letter summoning him to a meeting Sunday with LDS elders in Nevada.

According to this AP story, Hardy could face probation, disfellowship or even excommunication from the church over this incident.

Either way, Hardy guarantees himself a ton of publicity - and more sales for his calendar. Well played, sir.

Labels: LDS