Hollywood has always been known as the strong-hold of Democrats, liberals, gay rights activists and other nuisance makers of that ilk. Apart from Mel Gibson of course, who seems completely unaware of any such predilections. The Academy Awards are infamous for having become a forum where screen icons diss Republicans, while the Award nominees and winners themselves are often propaganda for a Democrat American Consciousness.

Which is why ‘Juno’ is such a surprise. It is a fundamentally Catholic movie, using funny, irreverent, girl’s common room wit to sheath the more important message. It is the latest in a new breed of ‘smart’ Catholic movies, willing to give up genteel coyness in order to connect. ‘Knocked Up’, is another movie I have managed to see in this exciting (read disturbing) new tradition.

Hollywood Democrats better sit up and take notice. Sweet little Ms Page has just blown half the fortress wall apart. Will the Academy do the unthinkable? One can only wait and see…

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Just an update.

Came across the following Newsweek article: “Teen Pregnancy, Hollywood Style” by Sarah Kliff (July 23rd 2008)

Many teen moms and the adults who deal with them are glad to see a conversation about teen pregnancy out in the open. But they say that big parts of the story are being glossed over: how that baby bump came to be in the first place, and just how hard it’ll be for a teen to raise a child. In “Juno,” the word condom is used twice; the Jamie Lynn interviews skirt the issue altogether. Even “The Secret Life” (a show originally pitched with the title “The Sex Life of the American Teenager”) only makes a few passing references to condoms, mostly students asking the guidance counselor about the ones kept in his office. In none of these shows are the girls asked whether they used contraception, nor is there mention of STD testing, which would seem a logical step after unprotected sex. “It’s the missing three C’s: there’s little commitment, no mention of contraception and rarely do we see negative consequences,” says Jane Brown, a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina who runs the Teen Media Project. “What’s missing in the media’s sexual script is what happens before and after. Why are these kids getting pregnant and what happens afterward?”

I couldn’t agree more.