NEW YORK
New York Post
By Kyle Smith
December 7, 2013
I’ve never been flogged in the public square, but now I have a rough idea what it’s like.
On Thursday, Harvey Weinstein, the US distributor of the Judi Dench-Steve Coogan film “Philomena,” placed a full-page, color attack ad in The New York Times that screamed my name in blood-red letters.
“The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and USA Today ALL PRAISE ‘PHILOMENA’ WITH A 92 % CERTIFIED FRESH SCORE ON Rotten Tomatoes,” read the ad. “BUT THE NEW YORK POST’S KYLE SMITH HAS A DIFFERENT OPINION. ‘ANOTHER HATEFUL ATTACK ON CATHOLICS.’ ”
The ad (now brightening the wall over my desk) went on to quote my Nov. 21 pan of the movie, then printed excerpts of a rebuttal by Philomena Lee, the Irish woman portrayed by Dench in the movie.
“Philomena” is about Lee’s quest, in the company of a former BBC journalist played by Coogan, to learn what happened to her son after she gave him up for adoption at a convent in 1952 Ireland. The movie makes this particular Irish Catholic institution look about as pleasant as Abu Ghraib.
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