Veteran Canadian actor CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER has called on the new POPE BENEDICT XVI to remove paedophiles from the Roman Catholic Church.

The SOUND OF MUSIC star, 77, researched religious child abusers in preparation for his role as CARDINAL BERNARD LAW, in the TV movie OUR FATHERS, based on the former Archbishop of Boston, who was demoted after several of his priests were linked to a child sex scandal.

The priests in question were later given new roles in the church by late POPE JOHN PAUL II.

Plummer fumes, "I don't know why the church didn't send them to jail.

"This scandal is not over. They cannot hide behind crimson robes."

'OUR FATHERS' IN TOWN Actor Christopher Plummer, who plays Cardinal Bernard Law in the Showtime movie ''Our Fathers" about the Catholic Church sexual abuse crisis, will be in Boston on Tuesday. Plummer will be joined by author David France for a screening of the film at Parris in the Faneuil Hall Marketplace. The film will be followed by a question-and-answer session with local abuse survivors and their advocates, including Olan Horne and Bernie McDaid from the Survivors of Joe Birmingham, William Gately from Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, and Jim Post from Voice of the Faithful. The film will air May 21 on Showtime.

AP news photo at Yahoo

BOSTON (AP) -- The clergy sex abuse scandal, which played out in painful detail in Boston's homes, newspapers and pews over the last three years, now moves to cable television in a dramatic adaptation airing next month on Showtime.

"Our Fathers" was produced by the cable network and stars Ted Danson in the lead role as Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who represented scores of victims of abusive priests.

Christopher Plummer portrays Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace after internal church documents released by court order revealed that he and other leaders had shuffled pedophile priests from parish to parish while keeping their crimes secret.

It's the first film adaptation of the scandal, although a play about Cardinal Law's deposition by victims' attorneys ran last year in New York and Boston. It premieres in Boston next Tuesday and in Los Angeles on May 10 before beginning its run on the network on May 21.

Bernie McDaid, a victim of the late Rev. Thomas Birmingham, is portrayed in the movie and also was a paid consultant to Showtime. He said the movie couldn't possibly do justice to the scope of the crisis, but he hopes it will help viewers to understand the victims' pain and lead them to demand more accountability from the church.

"It opens the door to the victims and their suffering," he said. "It makes it a little more real."

The scandal broke in January 2002 after a judge ordered church papers unsealed following a lawsuit by The Boston Globe. By the end of the year, Law had resigned and hundreds of people had come forward to say they were sexually abused as children by Boston-area clergy.

The Archdiocese of Boston has since paid out nearly $100 million in settlements with more than 600 victims.

The movie, based on a book by Newsweek reporter David France, takes some artistic liberties.

For example, it portrays Garabedian as the catalyst behind the revelations of church secrets, even though other lawyers and journalists were involved. In the film, he feeds the story to a fictional Globe reporter during a series of barroom meetings after he attached the incriminating church documents to his court filings in hopes that the press would see it.

In fact, Garabedian said, he attached the documents hoping the judge would allow him to see more. He said his input amounted to a 15-minute meeting with producers when they stopped by his office one day.

He called the movie "much more accurate at some times than at others," but said he thinks it gets the message across about "the utter disregard of the church and its leaders for its children."

Other figures portrayed in the film include the late Rev. John Geoghan, whose criminal trial opened the floodgates for hundreds of other allegations about abusive priests; and Patrick McSorley, a Geoghan victim and Garabedian client who later died of a drug overdose.

Garabedian said he was "honored" to be portrayed by Danson, but he hopes the movie doesn't cloud the victims' role in holding the church accountable.

"The victims are the true heroes," he said.

April 21, 2005

GOOD MORNING: Two of the principal players of "Our Fathers," award-winners Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy, pull no punches in their reactions to the story -- and both wonder about the future fate of the characters they play. Plummer plays Cardinal Bernard Law, demoted from his tenure as Archbishop of Boston and sent to the Vatican where Pope John Paul II set him to head St. Mary Maggiore Basilica. Dennehy plays Father Brian Spagnolia whose powerful condemnation of the church from his pulpit brought him removal from the church. Spagnolia is suing while the unsavory story unfolds nationwide ... Dennehy, reached in London where he was readying his legit bow at the Lyric in " Death Of A Salesman" says "I have very strong feelings in this area. I know personally of families to whom this happened. I know of one in which the guy committed suicide. I don't think the church realizes the repercussions on the families -- it's a crime that keeps on going. I don't know what the church didn't send them (the failing priests) to jail instead of to a new assignment. The Church is a dictatorship .This scandal is not over -- the Church has to figure out a way. It must be held accountable. They cannot hide behind their crimson robes."

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER WAS as vehement in his condemnation of the Church -- and Cardinal Bernard Law -- whom he portrays. "He should be in a labor camp. And it was incredible that they (the priests) were (exonerated)." Plummer reminds he's no stranger to playing villains, "I played Hitler and Richard III, and it was fascinating to play Cardinal Law. I like playing villains -- they always believe they are right." He also reminds that he played a cardinal on "The Thorn Birds" and Archbishop Hume in "Blessed." ... Law is awaiting his future status under Pope Benedict XVI -- who was present (as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) when Law was brought before JPII for judgment. ... Dan Curtis directs the Showtime no-holds barred film about the pedophilia scandal, the rape of hundreds of Catholic youth by priests serving under then-Archbishop Bernard Law. And Curtis tips his fedora to Showtime for going full throttle in this story without end. "Showtime backed us 100%. Bob Greenblatt loved this project. I want to show my appreciation to them and will appear at the Boston premiere," he says. "We had some of the real victims on the set." ... Plummer is a member of the Church of England. However, growing up in Montreal, he says he went to services in the Catholic Church "which was more showbiz -- it even had a full orchestra." Plummer had just returned home from L.A. and a quickie three-day re-shoot on "Must Love Dogs" in which he plays Diane Lane's father. He's also completed "The New World" in which he plays Capt. Newport who sails with Capt. John Smith (Colin Farrell) and bride Pocahontas to England. And he'll also costar in "Il Mare" with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Next, he stars in "Four Minutes," the story of the four minute mile-breaker Roger Bannister with Jamie Machlachlan running-starring for ESPN with Gerald Abrams and Bud Greenspan exec producing, Charles Beeson directs. Frank Marshall told me in June he was readying to bigscreen Neal Bascomb's "The Perfect Mile" based on the four-minute mile race of Bannister, John Landy, and Wes Santee.

NOW that we've got a new pope we've also got a new breeze wafting through Showtime. The flexible cable network that brings us "Fat Actress" and the humongous arse of Miss Kirstie Alley is poised to bring us "Our Fathers" and the homosexual sins of the Catholic Church.

Says Showtime's CEO Matthew Blank: "Because of events in Rome we had to pull this program's original air date. We were scheduled for April. This is the story of the sex scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church. Brian Dennehy plays the good guy priest. Ted Danson, the attorney for the abused survivors. Christopher Plummer's Cardinal Law, and even before the pope's death and all the angst stirred up by Cardinal Law's significant role in the Vatican proceedings, we knew we had to postpone this.

"As the former pope was growing weaker, we realized we had a problem. It was like, 'Really? No kidding.' We knew we had to make a decision fast. We'd already scheduled a bunch of events around the country and already booked advertising. Everything got pulled. Immediately the pope began slipping. Bob Greenblatt, our head of programming, and I realized we needed to be sensitive to the situation even though we stood by the work. The impact financially was minimal because we acted quickly, but we lost the advance p.r. that builds up an audience for the show."

The new target is mid-May. The new kickoff, May 3. Boston. With the survivors and their families. "This particular event is a biggie for us," says Matthew Blank.

Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly blasted the Vatican yesterday for picking Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the former archbishop of Boston, to celebrate a Mass of mourning for Pope John Paul II.

''I'm profoundly disappointed that Cardinal Law was given such a position of prominence this week," Reilly said. ''The church has sent the wrong message, particularly to victims and their families and to children. They've sent exactly the wrong message to people who hoped some things would change."

Law resigned in 2002 after media reports publicizing his failure to remove abusive priests provoked public outrage. In 2003, Reilly issued a report asserting that 48 priests and other employees of the archdiocese abused children during Law's tenure and that Law ''bears the ultimate responsibility for the tragic treatment of children that occurred."

Law is now the archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome and was the only American selected to say one of the nine mourning Masses. The heads of the three other Vatican patriarchal basilicas have also been selected to celebrate memorial Masses. Law celebrated the Mass on Monday.

Reilly said he is also outraged that Law will be among the 117 cardinals who select a new pope.

''This just shows the depth of the problem . . . from the top down," Reilly said. ''Literally, tens of thousands here in this country and throughout the world are people trying to hold their lives together after abuse. . . . It's been devastating what's happened to them, and this is the message they get from the church?"

Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com.

VATICAN CITY -- Six U.S.-based cardinals stayed away from a mourning Mass for Pope John Paul II celebrated by Cardinal Bernard Law, whose mishandling of the clergy sex-abuse scandal forced his resignation as archbishop of Boston.

Neither Washington Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick nor Baltimore Cardinal William Keeler attended the Mass, but aides denied that their absence was a snub and said no conclusion should be drawn.

The representatives noted that attendance at the Masses, held on each of nine days in the mourning period called Novemdiales, is not required and only a small number of the 115 cardinals who will elect the pope participate. More cardinals attended yesterday evening's Mass because it was followed by a visit to John Paul's tomb underneath St. Peter's Basilica.

Cardinal Law stepped down from his post in Boston in December 2002 after unsealed court records revealed he moved predator priests among church assignments without notifying parishioners.

Two victims from the United States traveled Monday to the Vatican to protest Cardinal Law's high-profile role in mourning the pope. The Mass was not disrupted.

Eleven members of the College of Cardinals are Americans, seven of whom have worked with Cardinal Law leading archdioceses in the United States. The three other American cardinals -- none of whom attended Monday's Mass -- have been based in the Vatican.

Cardinal McCarrick had other plans Monday and could not attend, said spokeswoman Susan Gibbs. He has other meetings and events leading up to the conclave and did not plan to attend any more Masses after last night, she said.

"Each Mass is a two-hour Mass, and this week, many of them have meetings and dinners as well," Miss Gibbs said.

Cardinal Keeler planned to participate in only one of the nine services, said spokesman Sean Caine. Philadelphia Cardinal Justin Rigali was the only U.S. cardinal with Cardinal Law on Monday.

New York Cardinal Edward Egan had other plans Monday, too, but also had not attended Sunday's Mass, spokesman Joe Zwilling said, adding that there was no hidden meaning. Cardinal Egan, speaking at a press conference last week, declined to comment on Cardinal Law.

Aides to Chicago Cardinal Francis George and Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, who did not attend Monday, did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida, who also was absent, could not be reached.

Revelations that Cardinal Law had protected priests accused of molesting children sparked a national crisis in the American church that has dragged on for more than three years. Soon after Cardinal Law's resignation, John Paul appointed him archpriest of Rome's St. Mary Major Basilica, a ceremonial but highly visible position.

Church leaders said Cardinal Law likely was chosen to lead the Mass in St. Peter's Basilica because he heads such an important church, not as a personal honor.

April 12, 2005 Boston Herald

Many news articles and photos were published about Cardinal Bernard Law celebrating a mass for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on April 11, 2005.

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April 12, 2005

VATICAN CITY — The scandal over sex abuse by American priests intruded on the mourning for Pope John Paul II here Monday as all but one U.S.-based cardinal avoided a Mass led by Boston's disgraced former archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Law.

Three of the seven cardinals — Edward M. Egan of New York, Francis George of Chicago and Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles — snubbed the Mass in St. Peter's Basilica out of concern over Law's notoriety, three American church sources said.

"There was a general feeling it was best not to be there," said a source familiar with one cardinal's thinking. He said there had been an understanding among at least some of the cardinals to stay away.

Another source said the absence of most U.S. cardinals sent a message of protest. "You'd have to be blind not to see that," he said. "The fact is, they voted with their feet." A third source said the no-shows were part of a "pattern."

All three sources spoke on condition of anonymity two days after the Vatican announced a gag order on the 115 cardinals who are to meet Monday to elect John Paul's successor. None of the American cardinals would comment.

Law's role in the requiem Mass infuriated sexual abuse victims and their advocates in the United States and prompted two of them to stage a brief protest Monday in St. Peter's Square.

Justin Rigali of Philadelphia was the only U.S. resident cardinal present at the Mass with Law. The other American-based cardinals — William Keeler of Baltimore, Adam Maida of Detroit and Theodore McCarrick of Washington — had scheduling conflicts or decided not to attend after being informed that their presence was not mandatory, their aides said.

Most cardinals from other countries also skipped the Mass on a rainy afternoon, but their motives were unknown.

The silent rebuke by some American cardinals was a new setback in the Vatican's effort to rehabilitate Law, once the most powerful U.S. cardinal and a favorite of John Paul for his steadfast defense of conservative church teachings.

Law was forced to resign as archbishop of Boston in 2002 after disclosures that pedophile priests had been transferred from parish to parish in his jurisdiction, only to abuse more children. Soon the crisis engulfed much of the U.S. church, including the Diocese of Orange and Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Last year, Law was transferred to the Vatican, and the pope gave him the honorary job as archpriest of one of Rome's four main basilicas, St. Mary Major. Citing rules published in 2000, Vatican officials said Law's designation to say Monday's Mass was an automatic consequence of his position.

With the cardinals sworn to silence over their deliberations on a future pope, the sex abuse issue moved into the spotlight.

Outside the basilica, Barbara Blaine and Barbara Dorris of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests turned up before the Mass to hand out leaflets protesting Law's role in the service. The group had pleaded with U.S. cardinals to try to reverse the decision, which Blaine said had "rubbed salt in the wounds" of abuse victims.

Some passersby offered support to Blaine, of Chicago, and Dorris, of St. Louis.

"If she wants to be here and voice her opinion and protect kids, I think it's a good thing to do," said Don Schmidt of Neenah, Wis. "I kind of thought the pope should have been a little harder on some of the cardinals for what happened in the U.S. I think he was a little easy on them."

But the protest was short-lived. As television crews and reporters descended on her, Blaine appeared startled. Moments later, police directed the two women and the gaggle of reporters out of the barricaded square.

Later, Blaine attended part of the Mass.

"It's such a beautiful setting and such a solemn moment where we were trying to show our respect to the Holy Father," she said afterward. "It was just sad to look up and see Cardinal Law as the leader of it."

The Mass was the fourth held by the cardinals in St. Peter's during the novendiali, nine days of official mourning for John Paul, who died April 2 and was buried Friday under a marble slab in a crypt beneath St. Peter's.

The crypt will be open to visitors starting Wednesday.

Law is the only American cardinal to say a novendiali Mass. The series of eulogies offers nine selected cardinals a platform to influence the election of a new pontiff by extolling qualities in the late pope that they would like to see in the next one.

By delivering one of the eulogies, Law was able to do what most other cardinals are not allowed to: air his views in public.

Speaking slowly in slightly accented Italian, Law recalled the pope in his homily as a profoundly holy man, a missionary who "traveled to the ends of the Earth, preaching Jesus Christ."

"In these incredible days, the Holy Father continues to teach us what it means to be a disciple, a faithful follower of Christ," he said. "He showed us [this] in the full vigor of his younger years, when his love for every human being lighted the fire of the spirit in so many people, [and] in his last year of increasing fragility, when in his weakness he found new strength in the Lord."

Law did not allude to the sex abuse scandal. His homily was structured around the saints for which the four Roman basilicas are named — Peter, Paul, Mary and John — and the meaning their lives held for the late pope.

Drawing applause in the packed church, Law ended the homily with a gesture of condolence to Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Polish archbishop who served as John Paul's closest aide and celebrated the Mass with Law.

Monday was the day of St. Stanislaw, a Catholic martyr buried in the cathedral in Krakow, Poland, where John Paul was archbishop before becoming pope.

Italians made up a large part of the crowd. Those interviewed said they were vaguely aware of the sex abuse scandal in the United States but had no idea of Law's role in it.

Others at the service, such as Mary Wyatt, a retired high school English teacher from Kingston, Canada, said she was unaware that the white-haired cleric at the altar was Law. After being told his identity, she offered a quick judgment: "It is not at all appropriate for him to be here."

She said the scandal had changed little: "The church is still blind to the sexual realities of a celibate priesthood. That is frightening in this day and age."

Jane and Jack Cooney, a couple from Rye, N.Y., said they had no idea that they were listening to Cardinal Law.

"Maybe it should be taken as a sign of forgiveness, that he's still one of the valued members of the College of Cardinals," said Jack Cooney, a lawyer. "Is that appropriate? Frankly, I don't know enough about his particular case."

The couple said they had just enrolled their two children, ages 8 and 11, in a course on Catholic doctrine and learned that this year, for the first time, the instruction would deal with the issue of sexual molestation.

"The church is clearly doing some things that are quite dramatic to appease the victims of abuse," Jane Cooney said. "But it's a two-pronged thing. You've got to deal with the issue, and what they're doing with my children is just that. On the other hand, forgiveness is a fundamental underpinning of the church, and maybe that's why Cardinal Law is here."
*
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Key events
Date
April 2: Pope Dies
April 3: Body lies in state
April 4-7: Public viewing
April 8: Funeral and burial; mourning period begins
April 9: Second Mass for John Paul; cardinals vote to maintain public silence regarding successor
April 10: Third Mass held
April 11: Fourth Mass held
Today - April 16: Daily Masses scheduled
April 18: Conclave to select a pope begins. The voting could take days or weeks.
Source: Times reporting
Los Angeles Times

Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Viacom Inc., owns the premium television networks SHOWTIME®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL™ and FLIX®, as well as the multiplex channels SHOWTIME® TOO™, SHOWTIME® SHOWCASE, SHOWTIME EXTREME®, SHOWTIME BEYOND®, SHOWTIME NEXT®, SHOWTIME WOMEN®, SHOWTIME FAMILYZONE® and TMC xtra. SNI also offers SHOWTIME HD®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL HD®, SHOWTIME ON DEMAND®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL ON DEMAND™ and FLIX ON DEMAND. SNI operates and manages the premium television network SUNDANCE CHANNEL®, which is a venture between NBC Universal, Robert Redford, and Showtime Networks Inc. All SNI feeds provide enhanced sound using Dolby Digital 5.1. SNI markets and distributes sports and entertainment events for exhibition to subscribers on a pay-per-view basis through SHOWTIME® PPV. Additionally, the advertiser-supported television network SHOWTIME is available in Turkey through a joint venture with UK-based Zone Vision.

Christopher Plummer as Cardinal Bernard F. Law in "Our Fathers."

April 11, 2005

Olan Horne and his family had just finished Easter dinner at his home in a suburb outside of Boston when his 82-year-old mother made a request: she wanted to watch the DVD sitting atop his television, titled "Our Fathers."

Neither was a disinterested viewer.

The movie, which will have its premiere on Showtime next month, represents the first attempt by Hollywood to use real names and events to dramatize the sexual abuse scandal in the Boston archdiocese. And among the stories it tells is that of Mr. Horne, now 45, who as a boy was repeatedly molested by a parish priest, the Rev. Joseph Birmingham, who has since died.

Mr. Horne had confided the abuse to his mother for the first time several years ago, but as she watched an advance copy of the two-hour movie, she began to boil as never before. This was particularly true as Cardinal Bernard F. Law (played by Christopher Plummer) was shown struggling during a withering legal deposition. Under questioning by a lawyer (Ted Danson) representing many victims, the cardinal acknowledged that he and his deputies had shuttled priests like Father Birmingham from one parish to another while suppressing accusations of abuse made against them.

"It lit her up like a Christmas tree," Mr. Horne said of his mother's reaction to the film. "She sat there and she started to ask me questions, questions she had never asked me before.

"She said, 'I still have trouble understanding how they could do what they did.' "

"Our Fathers" - which includes several close-ups of boys' faces wincing, in response to gropes always depicted outside the film frame - is intended by its creators to provoke outrage and disbelief in viewers of all faiths. But its impact is expected to be most acute in the Roman Catholic communities of metropolitan Boston. It is there, beginning in 2002, that a team of reporters from The Boston Globe - also characterized in the film - helped to pry loose a trove of sealed church documents that eventually brought to light accusations by hundreds of people against dozens of priests across Massachusetts. Soon, similar charges were being leveled against hundreds of other priests across the nation.

That the filmmakers and Showtime are mindful of the incendiary nature of "Our Fathers" was underscored on April 3, when the network announced it had postponed its first public screening - originally tomorrow at Faneuil Hall in Boston - in deference to the death of Pope John Paul II. (It has since been rescheduled for May 3.)

The pope himself is a character in the film, and he is portrayed in a manner that is more tempered than reverential. In one scene, for example, the actor who plays him (Jan Rubes) defies a top aide and spurns an offer by Cardinal Law to resign.

"Holy mother the church does not make sacrifices at the altar of public opinion," the pope is shown telling a weeping Cardinal Law. "Go home, Bernard. Work to solve the problem. And know you have my support and my prayers."

While Cardinal Law later resigned from the Boston archdiocese under pressure, he remained in good enough favor with Rome to be chosen last week to preside over one of the funeral Masses for the pope.

While the Boston screening - including a panel discussion with Mr. Horne and several other victims - was put off to distance it from the pope's funeral, Showtime intends to broadcast the film, as scheduled, beginning May 21.

In an interview last month, just before the pope's condition turned grave, Robert Greenblatt, president of Showtime, said, "The good news for us is we don't have advertisers, so we don't have to worry that certain companies are going to worry about being associated with this movie."

"The upside," added Mr. Greenblatt, whose premium channel has more than 13 million subscribers, "is that maybe we can shed some light."

Among the reasons that "Our Fathers" pulsates with such palpable anger is that many of those involved in the production were brought up as Catholics.

They include Mr. Greenblatt; Thomas Michael Donnelly, who wrote the script; Brian Dennehy, who plays the Rev. Dominic George Spagnolia, a priest who was sharply critical of Cardinal Law; and David Kennedy, an executive producer of the film. (The director, Dan Curtis, perhaps best known for the epic mini-series "War and Remembrance" and "The Winds of War," comes from a Jewish family.)

It was Mr. Curtis and Mr. Kennedy who brought the project to Showtime, after reading a cover article in Newsweek in February 2002 by David France, then a senior editor at the magazine. That article would later evolve into a 650-page epic, also titled "Our Fathers," that was published last year by Broadway Books and is the main source for the screenplay.

"I really understood the culture that was at work here," said Mr. Kennedy, 63, who described both his parents and grandparents as devout Catholics. Though he experienced no such abuse as a child, nor knew anyone who had, Mr. Kennedy said, "I understood how it could happen."

Mr. Kennedy, president of Mr. Curtis's production company, added, "I remember saying, 'Someone's going to make this movie, and they're going to do it wrong.' "

The result is a film that is sparing in its re-enactment of actual abuse but instead spends much of its time on the cover-up within the archdiocese, using as its model the treatment by "All the President's Men" of the Watergate burglary.

Among the first actors to sign on was Mr. Dennehy, whose elementary and secondary education was in Catholic schools on Long Island.

"I hope this has an effect," Mr. Dennehy said of the film. "I hope people watch it and get mad as hell all over again. And I hope the church gets in trouble again because the church needs to be reminded it made enormous mistakes."

What makes "Our Fathers" especially gripping is that it frequently seeks to hew closely to actual events.

In the film, for example, Mr. Horne, who helped found a group called the Survivors of Joseph Birmingham, is shown heaping a stream of profanities on Cardinal Law, whom he addresses as Bernie, in a private meeting at the cardinal's residence. That actually happened, Mr. Horne said.

Mr. Horne also said that, after going public with his accusations against Father Birmingham, he endured numerous public humiliations - including by a store clerk who slyly brandished a salami at him, just as is depicted in the film.

"Our Fathers" is not, however, intended as a documentary. One of its main characters, Mitchell Garabedian, who is played by Mr. Danson, is indeed the lawyer who deposed Cardinal Law and who later won a multimillion-dollar settlement from the archdiocese on behalf of nearly 100 plaintiffs. But one of his main clients in the film, Angelo DeFranco (Daniel Baldwin), is a composite character.

There are also several scenes - like those between Cardinal Law and his lawyer - where the dialogue is invented because neither Mr. France nor the filmmakers were privy to what was said. And though the churches and streets where the film was set last summer are intended to evoke Boston, they are, in fact, in Toronto.

No matter, Mr. Horne said. What he most relishes, he explained, is the possibility that the film will afford him an opportunity to have conversations with people - from acquaintances, to other family members - who have been reluctant to engage him about what he went through all those years ago.

"I have in-laws who've never discussed this with me," said Mr. Horne, who has been married more than two decades. "There's still a stigma."

The death of Pope John Paul II has prompted an adjustment in Showtime's promotional efforts for a forthcoming made-for-cable movie called "Our Fathers." The movie, a dramatization of the sexual abuse scandal in the Boston archdiocese featuring Ted Danson (as a lawyer for several victims) and Christopher Plummer (as Cardinal Bernard F. Law), is scheduled to have its premiere on the premium cable channel on May 21. While that date apparently still stands, Showtime decided over the weekend to postpone a screening it had planned in Boston, at Faneuil Hall, on April 12. The screening was to have been followed by a panel discussion that would have included several men who have come forward to say they were abused as boys by their priests. In a telephone interview yesterday, Robert Greenblatt, president of Showtime, said: "We just thought that in this transition time between now and the election of a new pope, it wasn't appropriate to do a screening of this movie, especially in Boston, which has a very big and thriving Catholic community." JACQUES STEINBERG

Chris Bauer (left) portrays Olan Horne (right) as an adult in Showtime's "Our Fathers." Horne was a childhood victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a Massachusetts priest.

They're not "Survivor" contestants or "Extreme Makeover" candidates. Instead, the four have seen dramatic incidents from their real lives re-enacted in TV movies.

Los Angeles - Kerry Max Cook, Olan Horne, Bernie McDaid and Madeleine Mukamabano are all participants in a different kind of reality television.

Cook's wrongful imprisonment on death row and his release more than 20 years later is one of six stories told in "The Exonerated," which will premiere this week on cable's Court TV ( 8 p.m. Thursday, repeated midnight Thursday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday).

McDaid's and Horne's childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a Massachusetts priest and their search for redress as adults are portrayed in "Our Fathers," which will debut on the premium cable channel Showtime in May on a date to be announced.

As for Mukamabano, a Rwandan journalist living in Paris, she is intimately acquainted with the subject matter of "Sometimes in April," an HBO drama about the 1994 Rwandan genocide that will air in March (date to come).

Cook, like the others, was in Los Angeles this month to talk to critics at the TV industry's two-week winter preview marathon, which concluded Sunday.

He came, he said, because he was glad Court TV and the show's producers "had the courage to shine a light in the darkest areas of society, put it in America's living rooms and let you decide."

Sitting onstage with the stars of the cable movie, including Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy and Aidan Quinn, the soft-spoken Cook looked as comfortable as any of the actors. He is no stranger to the spotlight, having told his story of injustice and redemption in forums around the country and in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.

But it's Quinn who tells that story in the film, just as he and many other actors - including Robin Williams, Peter Gallagher, Richard Dreyfuss, Gabriel Byrne, Andrew McCarthy and Rob Morrow - have told it onstage since "The Exonerated" opened off-Broadway two years ago. Cook has even appeared in the role himself.

Cook was just 20 when he was arrested in the rape and murder of a neighbor. He was 41 in 1999, when, after he had served more than two decades in the Texas death house, a DNA test led to his exoneration.

In prison, Cook was physically abused and permanently scarred. Before a non-profit organization called Centurion Ministries and, later, the Dallas Morning News took an interest in documenting his innocence, he had seriously considered suicide.

With its first-person stories based on testimony from victims of similar miscarriages of justice, "The Exonerated" makes a strong case against the death penalty. Cook acknowledges that most of the theater-goers who see the play may be inclined to agree before they go in, but he is confident the TV version will play to a broader spectrum - and hopeful that some minds will be changed.

"I've been on both sides of the fence," said Cook. "I come from a pretty conservative family. My father was a career soldier. My experience on Texas death row was pretty brutal, and I know that there are a lot of dangerous people who go to prison.

"(But) as long as we have prosecutors who continue to make mistakes, prosecutors (who) enjoy absolute immunity, innocent people are going to continue to be executed."

An awful secret shared As Catholic schoolboys growing up in the Boston area in the '60s and '70s, Horne and McDaid didn't know each other, but they shared a terrible secret.

In 1969, McDaid and a few others spoke out about being sexually abused by their parish priest. The priest was quietly reassigned to Horne's parish, where, as head of the local Catholic Youth Organization, he built a basement rec center and, according to Horne and others, began molesting dozens of other boys, including the 12-year-old Horne.

Father Joseph E. Birmingham died in 1989. He is memorialized, in a way, by a group McDaid helped to start, Survivors of Joe Birmingham.

"The Catholic Church said they went and got him help," said McDaid, adding that he was first abused by Birmingham when he was 11. "They never did."

As adults, he and Horne told their stories to journalist David France, whose book "Our Fathers" is the basis for the Showtime docudrama.

Though the two men have spoken out for years in survivors' groups and have continued to press the Boston Archdiocese for action, both say confronting the past still isn't easy.

"It was easier to live in a fog," admitted Horne. "But when you open Pandora's box, there's no closing it."

The film stars Christopher Plummer as Boston's former Cardinal Bernard Law and Ted Danson as Mitchell Garabedian, the lawyer who launched the assault that ultimately resulted in Law's 2002 resignation. Horne and McDaid are portrayed as adults by Chris Bauer ("The Wire") and Aidan Devine, respectively.

But it was watching his 12-year-old self, played in the drama by a child actor, that profoundly affected Horne, who has seen the film three times.

"I cried at one scene specifically, and it was the scene about myself," he said. "What was poignant about it was that I never quite saw it that way.

"I was crying about a poor boy named Olan. It's been a long time in my life since I've done that."

Tracking the genocide Unlike Horne, McDaid and Cook, Mukamabano has not lent her name to a character in a docudrama. The characters in "Sometimes in April" are composites - but they are composites based on facts which continue to haunt millions of Rwandans.

In 1994, Mukamabano was a broadcast journalist working in Paris. After the massacres by Rwanda's ethnic Hutu majority that killed an estimated 800,000 minority Tutsis, she returned to her native country with a TV crew to document the atrocity.

But she had a personal agenda as well: to locate a number of missing relatives.

Sadly, Mukamabano found the body of her brother in his car, where he had been burned to death.

"We never found the bodies of his children," she added.

From her Paris base and on trips back to Rwanda, Mukamabano has continued to do stories about the genocide. In 1999, she produced a long radio series on the Hutu killers and their motivations.

"I (spent) many hours with killers, who explained to me how they killed, why they killed," she said in her French-accented English. "I had an hour which was only about women who killed, including women who killed their own children because they were forced to do it, because they had intermarriages with Tutsi husbands."

Then, a few years ago, Mukamabano got a call from a friend, Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck ("Lumumba"). HBO wanted Peck to write and direct a film abut the genocide, he told her.

When Peck broached the subject, "she did not even let me explain," the filmmaker recalled. "Her response was clear and adamant: 'You must do it.' "

The film, said to be the first feature-length drama about the genocide shot on location in Rwanda, stars Idris Elba ("The Wire") and Debra Winger. It is set in two different periods, whose events are interwoven: the massacres of 10 years ago and the Truth and Reconciliation hearings of today.

If Mukamabano's experience is any indication, both truth and reconciliation may be elusive.

Of all the killers she has interviewed, "I didn't meet anybody who made an apology," she said. "Making an apology means that you accept it, that you have done it.

"All of them say, 'I never meant to kill anybody. If the administration, if the politicians hadn't asked me to do it, I wouldn't have done it.' "

E-mail Joanne Weintraub at jweintraub@journalsentinel.com

"Our Fathers," May (date TBD), Showtime. Based on a bestseller by Newsweek's David France, this original film is about the heroic individuals who admitted their abuse and the crusading lawyers that took on an all-powerful institution.

The result was a scandal that shook the foundations of Boston's Roman Catholic diocese and forced Cardinal Bernard Law to step down. In the role of Law is the iconic Christopher Plummer; co-stars include Ted Danson, Daniel Baldwin and Brian Dennehy.

Excerpt from a long article -
Q&A comments of Bob Greenblatt, president of entertainment, Showtime

Brady: OK, let’s move on to original movies.

Greenblatt: We’re just going to do a handful because original series is our agenda and will take the lions’ share of the production budget, and also marketing of course. These series are so expensive to make, and so are original movies, that we had to make a trade-off. A one-off movie is so hard to drive an audience into, and takes so much in terms of resources just getting [viewers] there, and then they’re gone. However, we think a few movies a year for the right things can be great for us.

There aren’t a lot of people making TV movies any more. The broadcast networks have gotten out of the business, except for CBS largely, but they’re going to do their Hallmark Hall of Fame Movies and Oprah Winfrey Presents and their typical kinds of movies. HBO is down to five or six a year, and they do them in a way where they spend so much money on them, they’re like features, which is not the business we’re in. Some cable networks still make them: TNT does them, USA will do a few, Sci Fi, Lifetime. There’s a market for them, you just have to blow them out and it’s not easy to find a TV movie that can get a lot of attention. There are so many ideas floating around, and many interesting stories that could be told, but we’re just trying to look for the ones that will be most attention getting.

Brady: Such as?

Greenblatt: Let’s talk about the first couple we’re doing. Reefer Madness is so unusual and a gamble, because it’s a musical, and I can’t remember the last time anyone made an original musical for television. There have been movies made of famous Broadway musicals for television, but this is something we’re making and it’s a full blown musical with huge numbers and choreography and 16 musical numbers. This is really subversive. It’s ostensibly about the dangers of smoking marijuana but it’s really satirical. It’s cool and unusual and has a great cast starting with Alan Cumming. That to me again is something nobody else would do, and if nobody else is doing it I’m interested in seeing if it’s right for us.

And we’ve got Our Fathers, our movie about the Catholic Church and pedophile priests with Brian Dennehy, Christopher Plummer, Ted Danson and Ellen Burstyn. It’s a really scary, sad story but one that should be told because it’s so unbelievable. It’s really dangerous territory, something a [broadcast] network wouldn’t touch because it’s about religion, sex and things that would freak Procter & Gamble out. It’s not exploitative at all about the acts of pedophilia. There are a couple of tough scenes—some flashbacks to when these kids were young and some indications of these predatory priests—but it’s not graphic or uncomfortable on any level. It’s really the story about the adult victims of these crimes so it focuses on a few of these grown men in their 30s or 40s, and the harrowing tale of how they come to terms with what happened to them and their having the guts to bring this out into the open and have to go against the Catholic Church. It’s set in Boston, the heart of where this all happened, and it’s a groundbreaking explosive movie.

Brady: How does it relate to—and depart from—the book it’s based on?

Greenblatt: For instance, there’s an incredibly heartbreaking scene when you see a 45 year old man retelling his story and he’s weeping because his life has been ruined and he lives in his car because he can’t have a relationship. That’s the power of the movie, as opposed to showing a priest going into the backroom of a church with a little boy. We hope people will be really moved and that it will get a lot of attention for the right reasons, namely the victims that we profile claiming their stories. It’s all based on fact and we’d originally changed all their names to protect them and when they heard about the movie they said, ‘no, we want you to use our names. It’s time this all came out in the open.’ I met with a few of them recently and we’re going to use those guys to talk about the movie and talk about these issues and not just to publicize the movie, although they want to publicize the movie, but because they’ve all become crusaders and want to change what’s going on and deal with all this. They’ve been hired by the Catholic Church, ironically, to arbitrate some of these cases because there are so many pending lawsuits, and they now find themselves being advocates for this issue and now they’re more like politicians and spokesmen. They’re working class guys from Boston and so unassuming and so guy next door. That part in and of itself makes this such an interesting story—they’re all true heroes. So we’re going to work with them to bring attention to their movie and attention to their cause, hopefully, and I hope the media picks up on that. If it brings viewers to the movie, great; but it would be even better if it brought some attention to this issue which, sadly, from their point of view, even though it’s been out in the open now for a couple of years, the Catholic Church is still in denial, Rome will not get involved, the American priests have to solve it themselves but they don’t know how to solve it with their expertise, so it’s a really important story to tell. Once something gets exposed in the news people tend to think, oh it’s out in the open so it’s fixed. This is not fixed.

Brady: The cast is certainly impressive.

Greenblatt: Yes, starting with Christopher Plummer who plays Cardinal Law. This is the guy who moved all those priests around and let them go back into different dioceses. He’s been brought to Rome and he’s been made the guy who now settles these cases. So now the guy who was covering up and perpetuating the problem, who says he didn’t know and underestimated what was going on, is now making judgements about who to settle with. And ironically some of these victims are now being brought into these cases, and they’re smart enough to know that they need to work with him to help him and other priests around to see the light of what should be done as opposed to constantly fighting with him. So it’s a really complex problem and this is only the tip of the iceberg. We based it on the book, yes, this really brilliant book that’s 650 pages and impeccably researched so it’s not like a ‘ripped from the headlines’ thing that somebody just dashed off. There’s much in the book we don’t go into because we had to tell a section of the book, but it has great integrity and that’s why Christopher Plummer wanted to do this project. He’s playing the most villainous guy. And he’s brilliant. This movie totally fits my criteria of what will nobody else do—and that’s worth doing at Showtime.

Excerpt:

One high-profile Showtime film - certainly in the HBO tradition - is "Our Fathers," an adaptation of David France's book about the Roman Catholic Church and the pedophilia scandal in Boston. Starring Ted Danson, Christopher Plummer and Brian Dennehy, it is to be shown in May.

July 12, 2004 People
Leaner Russell Crowe Plays Host

Creamy spuds, melt-in-your-mouth cheesecake ... not exactly the fare one serves while in lean, mean training mode. But since production is slated to wrap up at the end of the month for Russell Crowe's upcoming boxing movie Cinderella Man – for which the star dropped 40 lbs. – it's no wonder he said thanks to the crew by treating 36 of them (including director Ron Howard) and himself to a sumptuous meal at Morton's Steakhouse in Toronto. Having eaten there before (his favorite dish is reportedly Cajun rib-eye steak), the good-humored host knew his way around the menu and, with Master and Commander-like decisiveness, took to ordering all the side dishes that graced the table in the eatery's private boardroom, including mashed potatoes, Lyonnaise potatoes and sauteed mushrooms. And when Crowe heard that his A Beautiful Mind costar Christopher Plummer was eating in the dining room below, he ran downstairs to say hello and invite the veteran actor up to join the crew.

The sexual-abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church around the world began in Boston. But the first made-for-TV movie about the scandal will not be made in Boston. The city, the filmmakers say they were told, is closed for business because of the Democratic National Convention and the high tourist season.

"They haven't treated us very well," says Emmy winner Dan Curtis, the director of "Our Fathers," Showtime's adaptation of David France's book. The movie stars Ted Danson as Boston lawyer Mitchell Garabedian, who takes on the archdiocese; Christopher Plummer as Cardinal Bernard Law; and Brian Dennehy as Father D. George "Spags" Spagnolia, who tries to work from inside the church.

"Our Fathers" began filming in Toronto this week and wanted to film in Boston around the Fourth of July and then later in the month before the convention. But Curtis, whose credits include "War and Remembrance," said his plans to film in the Public Garden and the North End were dashed when word "came down from on high" that there would be no permits because of security issues. "I don't think Boston had anything to do with this. Orders came down from Washington."

A city spokesman said "Our Fathers" first date, July 2, would have been too disruptive. "They would be putting two of the heaviest traffic areas out of commission during the city's highest tourism week," said Seth Gitell. Said Curtis: "By the time they will allow us in Boston, we'll be done with the movie."

LOS ANGELES, May 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Emmy(R) and Golden Globe(R) Award- winning actor Ted Danson and Golden Globe(R) and Tony(R) Award-winning actor Brian Dennehy have been cast in OUR FATHERS, SHOWTIME's film version of David France's powerful best-seller about the Roman Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal, it was announced today by Robert Greenblatt, Showtime Networks' President of Entertainment. Danson will play Mitchell Garabedian, the bold and compassionate Boston lawyer who takes on the local Archdiocese as the attorney for some of the first victims of molestation to have the courage to speak out. Dennehy will play no-nonsense, straight-talking, Father Domenic "Spags" Spagnolia who finds himself on the defensive when he tries to work from within the Church. Danson and Dennehy join Tony(R) and Emmy(R) Award- winning stage and screen actor Christopher Plummer who will portray Boston's controversial Cardinal Bernard Law in the film. Production is slated to begin June 21 in Toronto and Boston.

"Who could ask for more in a movie than a triumvirate of the most acclaimed and revered actors of stage, screen and television brought together to bring life to these characters of extraordinary depth and resonance," said Greenblatt.

Ted Danson is best known for his Emmy(R) and Golden Globe(R) Award-winning role as Sam Malone in "Cheers," as well as his current role in the CBS series "Becker." He also starred in the SHOWTIME Original Miniseries, THANKS OF A GRATEFUL NATION, as well as the television movies "Gulliver's Travels," "When the Bough Breaks" and the ground-breaking "Something About Amelia," for which he won a Golden Globe(R) Award. Danson's other television credits include appearances on "Frasier," "Veronica's Closet" and "The Larry David Show." His numerous feature film credits include "Mumford," "Saving Private Ryan," "The Onion Field," "Three Men and a Baby," "Three Men and a Little Lady," "Cousins" and "Made in America."

In 1999, Dennehy won a Tony(R) Award and Drama Desk Award for his portrayal of Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman" on Broadway, as well as a Golden Globe(R) Award for his role in the SHOWTIME adaptation of the play. He repeated his Tony(R) victory again in 2003 for his performance in "Long Day's Journey Into Night." He has also appeared on stage in "Translations," "A Touch of the Poet," "The Iceman Cometh," "Galileo," "The Cherry Orchard," "Rat in the Skull" and "Says I, Says He." Dennehy's television credits also include the SHOWTIME Original Picture TENNESSEE WILLIAMS' THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS. STONE, the "Jack Reed" television films (for which he served as director, co-writer, executive producer and star), the miniseries "The Secret Life of Doris Duke" and "Netforce." Among his many other television credits, Dennehy received Emmy(R) nominations for his work in "Burden of Proof," "To Catch a Killer" and "A Killing in a Small Town." His work in feature films includes "Presumed Innocent," "Best Seller," "Twice in a Lifetime," "F/X," "Cocoon," "Silverado," "Gorky Park" and "First Blood."

Based on Newsweek editor David France's recently published 656-page book, Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal, the film will depict the interwoven cross-section of priests, victims, lawyers and newspaper reporters who have been caught up in this story since it first broke two years ago. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice recently released a preliminary study which revealed that 4% of the working priests in America between 1950 and 2000 have been accused of various forms of sexual abuse of minors. From the Vatican to the Archdiocese of Boston, the issue has shaken the Catholic Church to its core.

The film will be directed by Emmy(R) Award winner Dan Curtis ("The Winds of War," "War and Remembrance," "Dark Shadows"), from a screenplay by Thomas Michael Donnelly (SHOWTIME'S A SOLDIER'S SWEETHEART and BONANNO: A GODFATHER'S STORY). Curtis will also serve as executive producer along with David Kennedy, president of Dan Curtis Productions. France, who covered the scandal as a senior editor at Newsweek, has served as a consultant on the project and both he and Donnelly will also serve as co-executive producers. OUR FATHERS is a Dan Curtis Production. Joan Boorstein is the creative executive on behalf of Showtime Networks.

Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Viacom Inc., owns the premium television networks SHOWTIME(R), THE MOVIE CHANNEL(TM) and FLIX(R), as well as the multiplex channels SHOWTIME(R) TOO(TM), SHOWTIME(R) SHOWCASE, SHOWTIME EXTREME(R), SHOWTIME BEYOND(R), SHOWTIME NEXT(R),SHOWTIME WOMEN(R), SHOWTIME FAMILYZONE(R) and TMC Extra. SNI also offers SHOWTIME HDTV(R), SHOWTIME ON DEMAND(R) and THE MOVIE CHANNEL ON DEMAND(TM). SNI operates and manages the premium television network SUNDANCE CHANNEL(R), which is owned by SNI, Robert Redford and Universal Studios. All SNI feeds provide enhanced sound using Dolby Digital 5.1. SNI markets and distributes sports and entertainment events for exhibition to subscribers on a pay-per-view basis through SHOWTIME(R) PPV. Additionally, the advertiser- supported television network SHOWTIME EXTREME(R) is available in Spain through a joint venture with Media Park and the advertiser-supported television network SHOWTIME is available in Turkey through a joint venture with UK-based Zone Vision.

sho.com/pressonline

Source: Showtime Networks Inc.

Tony Award winners Brian Dennehy and Christopher Plummer are set to star a Showtime Networks' film adaptation of "Our Fathers," based on the David France book, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The drama that deals with the history of accusations of sexual abuse by priests that came to light in 2002, plaguing the Catholic Church. Dan Curtis is set to direct the film, with a screenplay penned by Thomas Michael Donnelly, slated to begin filming in June.

"The film will depict the interwoven cross-section of priests, victims, lawyers and newspaper reporters who have been caught up in this story since it first broke two years ago," states a Showtime release.

The trade paper said that Dennehy will play Boston priest Father Domenic Spagnolia, a well-known straight shooter who criticizes the archdiocese then finds himself wrapped up in turmoil when an ex-lover outs him. Plummer was previously announced as the controversial Boston Cardinal Law who was at the center of the scandal.

Dennehy won a 2003 Tony Award for his performance in Long Day's Journey Into Night. His other Broadway appearances include Translations and another Tony-winning turn in Death of a Salesman. He also recently played the title role in Trumbo Off-Broadway.

Plummer, known for his role as Captain Von Trapp in the film version of The Sound of Music, appeared on Broadway this season in King Lear. His other Broadway credits include J.B., Othello, No Man's Land, Cyrano and Barrymore — winning Tony Awards for his performances in the latter two.

For more information on Showtimes and its presentations, visit www.SHO.com.

Brian Dennehy has been tapped to star opposite Christopher Plummer in "Our Fathers," Showtime's adaptation of David France's book about the sexual abuse scandal within the U.S. Roman Catholic Church. Dennehy will play Father Domenic "Spags" Spagnolia, a popular, straight-talking, salty-tongued Boston priest who speaks out against the archdiocese when the scandal breaks. However, he soon finds himself on the defensive when he is outed by a former gay lover and a story emerges that he sexually assaulted a young boy. Dan Curtis is set to direct the film from a screenplay by Thomas Michael Donnelly. Filming is slated to begin next month. Dennehy, who recently co-starred in Showtime's "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone," will next be seen in Spike Lee's "She Hate Me." He is repped by ICM and Susan Smith and Associates. (Nellie Andreeva)

The sex scandal that rocked the Catholic Church is being dramatized for TV, with Christopher Plummer as Cardinal Bernard Law (above). AP photo

Christopher Plummer, 76, will portray controversial Cardinal Bernard Law in Our Fathers, Showtime's film version of the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal in Boston. The story is based on the book Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal by Newsweek editor David France, who will serve as a consultant and co-executive editor.

Plummer, now playing King Lear on Broadway, will begin filming the movie in June for an air date in early 2005.

"He's got such great command and authority," says Robert Greenblatt, Showtime's entertainment president. "And I know that's what the real Cardinal Law had and has."

Law, who was not accused of sexual abuse but came under fire for covering up scandals involving priests working for him, resigned from the Boston archdiocese in 2002 and is now retired.

The film will not be sexually graphic, Greenblatt says. "You will see in a couple of flashbacks the indication of abuse. It's more what these victims talk about. It's graphic psychologically."

Veteran actor Christopher Plummer is set to star in 'Our Fathers,' Showtime's adaptation of David France's book about the sexual abuse scandal in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church. Plummer is seen showing off his star on the Walk of Fame in Toronto in this November 12, 1998, file photo. Photo by Peter Jones REUTERS (Peter Jones/Reuters)

April 14, 2004

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Veteran actor Christopher Plummer is set to star in "Our Fathers," Showtime's adaptation of David France's book about the sexual abuse scandal in the U.S. Roman Catholic Church.

Plummer will play Boston's controversial Cardinal Bernard Law, who, with his repeated failure to remove abusive priests from ministry, found himself in the center of the crisis, leading to his resignation in December 2002.

Plummer's turns as real people have included "The Insider," in which he played CBS newsman Mike Wallace, and the HBO TV movie "Winchell," where he played President Franklin Roosevelt.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

HOLLYWOOD -- Christopher Plummer will star as Boston's controversial Cardinal Law in the Showtime original pic "Our Fathers," based on the David France book examining the pedophilia scandal that shook the Roman Catholic Church. Showtime greenlit the pic earlier this year with Dan Curtis ("The Winds of War") on board to direct from a script by Thomas Michael Donnelly ("A Soldier's Sweetheart") (Daily Variety, Feb. 27).

Curtis and David Kennedy are exec producers. Showtime's Joan Boorstein is the creative exec on the project.

"Our Fathers" follows the decades-long battle child abuse victims have waged against the priests accused of the crimes. Production is slated to begin in June.

"Plummer will bring authority, humanity and an appropriately chilling detachment to the portrayal of a real-life character whose indelible involvement in this tragedy will never be forgotten," said Showtime entertainment prexy Robert Greenblatt.

Plummer, who portrays King Lear on Broadway, last partnered with the pay cabler on the original movie "Possessed." Thesp's credits include the features "The Insider," "A Beautiful Mind" and "Nicholas Nickleby."

Date in print: Wed., Apr. 14, 2004, Gotham

LOS ANGELES, April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Showtime Networks' President of Entertainment Robert Greenblatt announced today that Tony® and Emmy® Award-winning stage and screen actor Christopher Plummer has agreed to portray Boston's controversial Cardinal Law in "Our Fathers," Showtime's film version of David France's explosive bestselling account of the sexual abuse scandal inside the Roman Catholic Church. Plummer, currently playing King Lear on Broadway to overwhelming critical acclaim, is one of the finest actors of his generation having portrayed roles as varied as "The Sound of Music's" beloved Captain Von Trapp to the most complex of Shakespearian characters.

"Christopher Plummer was our first and only choice to take on the complex role of this high-ranking Catholic Church official who became the flashpoint in Boston for a scandal that has rocked Catholicism in America and throughout the entire world," said Greenblatt. "He will bring authority, humanity, and an appropriately chilling detachment to the portrayal of a real-life character whose indelible involvement in this tragedy will never be forgotten."

The New York Times said of his triumphant performance as Lear, "This is the performance of a lifetime. There are so many extraordinary moments in Mr. Plummer's Lear that to enumerate them would fill more columns than a newspaper allows." Easily segueing between extraordinary film, television and stage productions, Plummer has recently appeared in several noteworthy motion pictures ranging from "The Insider" (memorably portraying Mike Wallace) to "A Beautiful Mind." He is the recipient of two Tony Awards® and two Emmy® Awards, and many other accolades.

Based on Newsweek editor David France's recently-published 656-page book, "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal," the film will depict the interwoven cross-section of priests, victims, lawyers and newspaper reporters who have been caught up in this story since it first broke two years ago. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice recently released a preliminary study which revealed that 4% of the working priests in America between 1950 and 2000 have been accused of various forms of sexual abuse of minors. From the Vatican to the Archdiocese of Boston, this issue has shaken the Catholic Church to its core. The trial of a prominent Boston- area priest, Father John J. Geoghan, unlocked the floodgates to the scandal. Last August, while serving a prison sentence for his crimes, he was brutally murdered by a fellow inmate. And the story continues to unfold.

The film will be directed by Emmy® Award winner Dan Curtis ("The Winds of War," "War and Remembrance," "Dark Shadows"). Thomas Michael Donnelly (SHOWTIME'S "A Soldier's Sweetheart" and "Bonanno: A Godfather's Story") will write the screenplay. Curtis will also serve as executive producer along with David Kennedy, President of Dan Curtis Productions. France, who covered the scandal as a senior editor at Newsweek, will serve as a consultant on the project and both he and Donnelly will also serve as co-executive producers. "Our Fathers" is a Dan Curtis production. Joan Boorstein is the creative executive on behalf of Showtime Networks. Casting is currently underway for the rest of the characters and production is slated to begin in June.

Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Viacom Inc., owns the premium television networks SHOWTIME®, THE MOVIE CHANNEL(TM) and FLIX®, as well as the multiplex channels SHOWTIME® TOO(TM), SHOWTIME® SHOWCASE, SHOWTIME EXTREME®, SHOWTIME BEYOND®, SHOWTIME NEXT®,SHOWTIME WOMEN®, SHOWTIME FAMILYZONE® and TMC Extra. SNI also offers SHOWTIME HDTV®, SHOWTIME ON DEMAND® and THE MOVIE CHANNEL ON DEMAND(TM). SNI operates and manages the premium television network SUNDANCE CHANNEL®, which is owned by SNI, Robert Redford and Universal Studios. All SNI feeds provide enhanced sound using Dolby Digital 5.1. SNI markets and distributes sports and entertainment events for exhibition to subscribers on a pay-per-view basis through SHOWTIME® PPV. Additionally, the advertiser-supported television network SHOWTIME EXTREME® is available in Spain through a joint venture with Media Park and the advertiser-supported television network SHOWTIME is available in Turkey through a joint venture with UK-based Zone Vision.

When the Catholic Church's history of covering up the sex crimes of its clerics was ripped open by the Boston Globe in January 2002, for the rest of the year there was no escape from the daily headlines detailing the sins of the Church.

But something was missing from all the coverage, says David France, who covered the scandal as a senior editor at Newsweek magazine: The subject of homosexuality was not dealt with head-on.

Statistics now show that 80 percent of priestly sexual assault victims were teen boys, France notes during a recent interview at a Downtown Boston bookstore. "Which is an indicator, kind of a bald indicator, that gay men were doing the perpetration. The church ran a network of treatment facilities, so-called treatment facilities for so-called pedophilia. And this was not pedophilia. And those treatment directors tell me that this seems to be mostly gay men doing this. And logic tells me that it's gay men," he concluded. "Or they'd be going for teenage girls."

That's a loaded statement considering the lengths to which groups like Dignity, an organization of gay Catholics, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA) and other groups have gone to fight accusations from church leaders and observers that gay priests were responsible for the Church's sexual abuse crisis.

But France, who is gay, says that taking homosexuality out of the equation does a disservice to gay people by marginalizing them in the discussion. Secondly, he adds, "We have an opportunity to learn from it because homosexuality doesn't produce that kind of activity - criminal, non-consensual sexual assaults. Statistically we don't do that, we know we don't do that. Every measure of criminal assaults on kids shows that gay men are lower than heterosexual men."

Then why did 12 percent of the Class of 1960 at St. John's Seminary in Boston - which included Fr. Bernie Lane, the late Fr. Joseph Birmingham and the notorious former Boston street priest Paul Shanley - draw credible allegations of sexual abuse against minors? France had to know.

"Catholics don't sit around and teach one another in seminary that you get to help the indigent, christen the babies and screw the teenage boys. It's not part of a secret cult," he asserts. "Something happened to these guys and I wanted to figure it out. ... I felt like it needed a really in-depth exploration."

That's what led the New Yorker, who began his career writing for the now-defunct gay newspapers Gay Community News and the New York Native, to pen the sprawling narrative "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal."

With "Our Fathers," France chronicles the insidious culture of sexual repression that seemingly sowed the seeds for the pervasive sexual abuse of minors by priests in the Catholic Church. From birth control to married priests to the changing sexual mores of the sixties - including the rise of the gay liberation movement - the Catholic Church stifled all productive discussion of human sexuality. Ignorant to the reasons for the upsurge in sexually inappropriate priests in the 1960s, American bishops encouraged their charges to pray more.

The available psychological studies of homosexuality, with their focus on self-accepting gay men and women, were of little use either, France contends in "Our Fathers." "There had never been an effort to study the consequences of a life lived in the closet," he writes. "What did it do to a man's mind to turn it against itself in lockstep authority with every last institution in the civil and ecclesiastical worlds?"

Against that backdrop, he unfolds in intense detail the inner lives of abusive priests, their negligent superiors, victim-survivors and their families, and the many clerics and laypeople who tried to save the Church from itself. With his meticulous reporting, France injects a previously unseen humanity into the headlines. Ultimately, there are far more victims than villains in "Our Fathers."

Not surprisingly, the majority of France's narrative is set in and around Boston, the epicenter of the scandal. While much of the story will be familiar to locals, "Our Fathers" reveals some new twists. Most surprising is the relationship that blossoms between three Birmingham victims - Olan Horne, Bernie McDaid and Gary Bergeron - and Cardinal Bernard Law, the embattled archbishop of Boston. They call him Bernie; he affectionately refers to them as "the boys."

Despite the trauma the working class men, who met when Horne formed a survivor's support group in May of 2002, suffered at Birmingham's hands and their subsequent loss of faith in the Church, the three became Law's ballast as the dimensions of the scandal widened in Boston. Through persistent prodding and encouragement, Horne, McDaid and Bergeron deepened Law's understanding of the depth of the Church's mishandling of sexually abusive priests. In the end, however, the Cardinal proves unable to appropriately own up to the Church's misdeeds.

"I think they start lowering him out of the towers of his castle," France says of the Birmingham survivors' relationship with Law. "And that to me was touching and tragic, because they get him almost down to the ground. And you know, he appears at the door and he can't do it. He can't do it. He goes racing back upstairs.

"And I felt sorry for him for that," France admits. "He had somehow been ruined. Something in him was really missing or distorted or destroyed that wouldn't allow him to do something so simply human as to listen and to hear and to understand."

"Our Fathers" is packed with such tragedies. But France says he himself learned a few lessons courtesy of Horne, McDaid and Bergeron, who will figure prominently in a film version of the book that is now in production for the Showtime network.

"They taught me a lesson I had never learned before, a lesson about faith," says France. "Those guys led me to understand, forced me to understand, why there's a special wickedness to this sexual abuse by a priest and the tools that are used for that. That's why I listened to [the priests'] voices really closely," he explains. "In my recreations of those scenes of abuse I wanted to know what words were said. It's all about the words; I don't really describe the specifics of the abuse so much as what's being said and how that's being received by these kids and it's twisting, it's twisting their faith and twisting them away from their faith. And I understood that tragedy.

"But then I also understood faith in a lower-case way from them, and their faith in themselves and the kind of indomitable human spirit that they represented," he adds. "And that's why I think it's a positive book and I tried to tell a positive story because it was about how you can regain that, you can regain faith. Maybe I wrote an anti-religious story because they moved away from the church and they found that strength in themselves and their own sort of capacity as humans. I guess I was surprised by that lesson."

Showtime has greenlit the original movie "Our Fathers" based on the David France book examining the pedophilia scandal that has shaken the Roman Catholic Church. France covered the subject as an investigative editor at Newsweek. His book, "Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal," recounts 50 years of events.

"These were people who went through tremendously challenging childhoods and went on to become not just survivors but heroes in the Catholic Church crisis," said France, who will serve as a consultant on the film. "Tom Donnelly's screenplay really got that. He heard the sadness in their voices, but also the strength and the faith."

Dan Curtis ("The Winds of War") is on board to exec produce and direct the telepic from a script by Thomas Michael Donnelly ("A Soldier's Sweetheart"). David Kennedy will also exec produce. Joan Boorstein will oversee the production for Showtime.

Casting has not been set, but production is slated to begin in April.

"We have no intention of making this movie exploitative," Showtime entertainment topper Robert Greenblatt said, noting the names of the victims will be changed in the two-hour film. "But when I read France's book, I was compelled to make this movie because the majority of the public has no idea how widespread or complex this issue is or how faithful Catholics were deceived in such epic proportions."

Meanwhile, Pedro Almodovar's feature "Bad Education," set to open the Cannes Film Festival, also deals with pedophilia among Catholic priests. Sony Pictures Classics will release the film in the fall.

Showtime gave the go-ahead to the "Our Fathers" on the heels of a national report about the cumulative toll of sexual abuse inflicted on children by priests during the past 50 years. Survey, conducted by the Office of Child and Youth Protection of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was released Thursday.

Date in print: Fri., Feb. 27, 2004, Los Angeles