Pope Francis Inadvertently Drawn Into 'Noah' Hype Sarah Thomas - The Sydney Morning Herald
go to original March 19, 2014

Academy Award winner Russell Crowe stars as Noah, a man chosen by God for a great task before an apocalyptic flood destroys the world. (NoahMovie.com.au)

Los Angeles Times Update: Russell Crowe and a few of the filmmakers behind the upcoming movie epic made it to Vatican City on Thursday for Pope Francis' weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square. It wasn't a private meeting with the pope, and apparently a screening of the film wasn't going to happen.

With 1.2 billion followers in real life, Pope Francis is miles ahead of the Twitter quota of stars such as Katy Perry (with 51.5 million followers) and Justin Bieber (a mere 50.3 million).

That massive reach has, intentionally or not, commandeered the head of the Catholic Church into the surge of publicity surrounding Noah, the $160 million biblical epic releasing next week.

Paramount Pictures has dismissed reports that the Pope cancelled a meeting with the film's producer and star, Russell Crowe. The studio claims that no meeting was ever scheduled.

Last month, Russell Crowe appealed to the Pope ahead of Noah's Italian premiere.

Paramount has said it approached the Pope to suggest a meeting and have Crowe attend the weekly papal audience in St Peter's Square as a photo opportunity, but the Vatican nixed the idea because it could create chaos.

Most recently, the Vatican ignored requests for Pope Francis to watch Philomena, a film about the church's role in separating children from unwed mothers.

A Vatican spokesman said: "The Holy Father does not see films, and will not be seeing this one. It is also important to avoid using the pope as part of a marketing strategy."

Read the rest at The Sydney Morning Herald

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