It's with a grudging acceptance that we as a culture embrace movie stars' abilities to demand just about whatever they want. They want $1 million for a one-day shoot. They decide not to be famous in the most public way possible. They make apologies for bad behavior a running joke/arguable art form. Whatever man, it's just another day in Hollyweird, right?
Well, earlier this week, Russell Crowe made an unexpected request to someone who curries even more favor than an A-lister. He reached out to the Pope, asking him to see Crowe's upcoming epic Noah.
So today is the day I learned Pope Francis has a Twitter account. Well, actually he has two: one tweets in English, the other in Italian. Both verified. Among his followers, Pope Francis claims Ron Pearlman, Amy Schumer, Diablo Cody, and Noah's director Darren Aronofsky.
At first, it might seem kind of absurd that Crowe is reaching out to the Pope at all, much less via Twitter. But hey, how many times have you tweeted at an adored celeb in hopes of even the briefest reply? Plus, this particular request isn't totally crazy. After all, Noah is inspired by the bible story of one family man's quest to survive an apocalyptic flood by building an ark like the world has never seen before. You can see why Crowe might suspect the film would pique the interest of His Holiness Pope Francis, right?
However, 7 minutes came and went without Pope Francis's reply, so Crowe tried a new tact: retweets.
Page Six points out Crowe isn't the only Hollywood figure trying to win the pope as an audience member. Producers of the Oscar-nominated Philomena has also invited the head of the Catholic Church to see their movie, but they got a flat out rejection. A Vatican spokesperson stated, "The Holy Father does not see films, and will not be seeing this one." It probably didn't help their cause that the biopic about a single mother forcibly separated from her child at the hands of Catholic nuns didn't exactly paint the institution in the best light. But will Pope Francis will give Noah a chance? I mean, it's not like Crowe's asking him to sit through Winter's Tale. Still, it seems doubtful.
Check out Noah's latest international trailer below:
Noah will open in the US on March 28th.
