Some interesting factoids regarding the darker history of the papacy. I'd heard a bit about "Saint Joan," it was interesting to learn the history that might have inspired the legend. (It's also amusing to pull up some of the websites still purporting Pope John Paul II to be the anti-christ...and who will no doubt put forth new suspects with equal confidence in short order)

I hesitate to give away too much information about my screenplay-in-progress, tenetively titled Canine Cum Laude (sampling of significant dialogue: "There's nothing in the school charter that says a dog can't matriculate."), but today's events suggest a natural sequel (after I relocate the first film to, say, Notre Dame). Tentative title: Ponifex Caninus ("Nothing in the canon law says a dog can't be the Holy Father"). It would make The Pope Must Die(t) look like The Agony and the Ecstacy. Of course, it would be a francise-killer (where do you take the beloved dog--beagle, of course--once he's the infallible instrument of God?), so I'll have to figure out what the second act of the trilogy would be (astronaut? au pair?). Perhaps the dog becomes a crusty old dean himself, hypocritically keeping another dog out of the university, until befriending a street-smart bitch who reminds him of his roots. Man, once I actually put pen to paper, I think I'll have a mega-smash. Jerry Bruckheimer, watch out!