[Updated January 2, 2023] Joseph Ratzinger, who as Benedict XVI was the first pope to quit in over 600 years, died today, December 31, age
Category: Commentary

Seasons Greetings! Lock and Load?
The War on Christmas 2021 Merry Christmas to everybody!! Will Santa Bring Bullets? The photo is a seasonal message from an American family that seems

The Endless Cultural Life of the Mafia, via My Substack
Life with the MafiaIn Popular Culture, the Mob Refuses to Sleep With the FishesJoe SharkeyNovember 22, 2021 “Just when I thought I was out, they

Those mixed REVIEWS FOR ‘ABOVE SUSPICION’
By JOE SHARKEY The Romans purportedly had a phrase, “De gustibus non est disputandum,” which means, roughly, there is no disputing matters of taste. Actually,

Finally, A U.S. Release Date for the Movie
Collider.com and Lionsgate both announced today that “Above Suspicion” will be released in U.S. theaters and on DVD next month. Here’s the exclusive on Collider:

‘Above Suspicion’ Podcast
I talk about the tragic twists and turns of ‘Above Suspicion’ for an hour today on Pete Lieb’s excellent podcast “Prove Me Wrong.” Pete, who

Now we’re killing the nuns
Catholic nuns are already vanishing from the scene, and now the Coronavirus is killing some of the old ones remaining. From the website Global Sisters

Early ‘Above Suspicion’ Reviews
Both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter assigned British reviewers to the online release of Above Suspicion in the UK. The reviews are now starting to

The ‘Above Suspicion’ Distribution Clusterf***
Jeffrey Wells’s influential “Hollywood Elsewhere” column has done the movie world the favor of running down the story of the years’-long fiasco of distribution of

‘Above Suspicion’ Review in UK GUardian
There’s a review of Above Suspicion, the movie, in The Guardian, which is the only UK newspaper I take seriously. The Guardian has a strong

Priest Sexual Abuse Claims Tripled Last Year, and an Update on My In-Progress Book About the Catholic Church, “Wreckage”
Given the limited attention span of our national media and its strong disinclination to offend religion, you might think that the scandal of Catholic priests