The congregation is pretty much divided equally over the artistic worth of The Nativity Story, although the critics appear to be less judgmental over it than they were over Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.Actually neither side gets worked up one way or the other about it. A.O. Scott in the New York Times writes with little apparent enthusiasm: "Rather than trying to reinterpret or modernize a well-known, cherished story, the filmmakers have rendered it with a quiet, unassuming professionalism." Gene Seymour in Newsday seems to indicate that the producers of the film fashioned it to avoid the controversy that descended on Passion. "The intent seems to be to release a movie about the Nativity that can be shown in living rooms and church schools for at least the next decade. If that's really all that was wanted or needed from The Nativity Story, the result could have been a lot worse. But keep in mind: The events it depicts inspired Handel's 'Messiah.'" To many critics, it's like thousands of Christmas plays staged all over the world. Bob Longino in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes: "There's no Passion-style violence, thankfully, but plenty of greeting-card sincerity and moral fortitude." Similarly, Rick Groen writes in the Toronto Globe and Mail: "Don't expect a Caravaggio, but if your taste turns to Hallmark, this is a good bet." Still, other critics find the film about as boring as some Sunday school lectures. Lou Lumenick in the New York Post calls it "a deadly dull, by-the-numbers rendition of the Nativity story. Even some of the many nuns at the screening I attended were shifting uncomfortably in their wimples." And Claudia Puig concludes in USA Today: "It's not exactly the dullest story ever told, but it's certainly not the greatest."

While critics could not get worked up over The Nativity Story, some are certainly passionate about the horror movie Turistas. For example, Manohla Dargis writes in the New York Times: "If stupidity were a crime, the nitwits in the cheap horror flick Turistas would be doing time in Attica." Chris Kaltenbach in the Baltimore Sun calls it "this study in knuckleheaded mayhem and exploitative, brain-dead filmmaking." Kyle Smith in the New York Post concludes his review by remarking, "Turistas has mastered the international language: stupidity." But Bob Longino in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggests that the film is not really meant to make sense. "Give Turistas the edgy, unnerving, graphically violent South American vacation movie full of sex-hungry young adults and horror, credit for knowing full well not only what kind of entertainment it is, but for delivering the goods," he writes. And Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer says that "it gallops along with a suspenseful, dead-on sense of dread."

The question being pondered by many box-office analysts is: will the penguins, as the Beatles once claimed about themselves, become more popular than Jesus. The answer to that question will come when ticket receipts are counted for the animated penguin movie, Happy Feet, and the debuting religious-themed movie, The Nativity Story. Most analysts are betting on the penguins, forecasting that Happy Feet will take in $17 million-20 million. They figure that Nativity will collect $13-16 million. And they're forecasting a take of $15-17 million for the James Bond flick, Casino Royale. New Line Cinema, which is releasing Nativity, may have some difficulty coming up with an estimate on Sunday, since no one can be sure how many churchgoers will emerge from services and head for the multiplex. (Indeed, in many communities, multiplex operators set aside at least one screening room for Sunday church services.)

AOL plans to give away movies for one day only, on Saturday, December 2. The online service, which normally charges $10-25 per film, said it will provide 30 films online, including National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Each user will be permitted to download one film, beginning at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

Exhibitor Relations President Paul Dergarabedian is leaving the company after 14 years to launch a rival firm, Media By Numbers, that will also track and analyze box-office results, he said Thursday. The new company also plans to analyze sales via home video and digital downloading.

A former FCC commissioner and the commission's former general counsel have filed an amicus brief supporting the television networks who are fighting the FCC's crackdown on indecency. Noting that they were both involved in the FCC's decision in the "seven dirty words" case, Henry Geller and Glen Robinson said in their court filing, "We urge the court to take this occasion to hold that the Commission's expansive and aggressive new campaign of enforcement goes beyond the limitations assumed by the Supreme Court when it affirmed the FCC's indecency doctrine in 1978." Additional friend-of-the-court briefs were filed by the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the east and west units of the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, and the American Civil Liberties Union, among others.

The veteran ABC news magazine Primetime will return to the network's regular lineup next week for a five-episode "themed" series, bannered "rimetime: Basic Instinct." The series will feature hidden-camera footage of such situations as how people deal with a prejudiced cab driver or people talking loudly on their cell phones in restaurants. "Primetime" has used some of the footage in the past. Reporting on the five-episode run, today's (Friday) Hollywood Reporter observed that it was not clear whether "Primetime" will continue in the time period after it ends. The trade paper quoted Jeffrey Bader, executive VP of ABC Entertainment as saying that "Primetime" will definitely be given a regular time slot in the summer.

While Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone may fret over the company's recent inability to put together a deal to buy MySpace, the company's former President and COO, Mel Karmazin, said Thursday that he wishes he could have bought CNN from Time Warner. Speaking to a Reuters media conference in New York, Karmazin, who is now CEO of Sirius Radio, said that he had hoped Time Warner chief Dick Parson would try to add Cablevision's systems to Time-Warner cable and would sell Viacom CNN to raise the cash for the acquisition. Karmazin said that he regarded a combined CBS/CNN operation as an ideal synergy. Not only would it be able to combine news staffs in bureaus all over the world -- "that's just the cost side," he remarked -- the combined operations would have allowed "putting the reporters in other parts of the world where you don't have news bureaus."

NBC has challenged the license of a Spanish-language TV station in Los Angeles, claiming that the Mexican broadcasting company that leases it is corrupt and lacks "character qualifications." The U.S. Network claims that the Mexican company, TV Azteca, the country's second-largest broadcaster, used strong-arm tactics to shut down the production of a television show NBC's sister network Telemundo was taping in Mexico City, forcing it to move the production to Miami. In an interview with today's (Friday) Los Angeles Times, Luis J. Echarte, chairman of Azteca America, said, "We view this as a very simple ploy to damage our reputation. They came to Mexico and they violated our laws, and then they went back up to the States, and now this." Broadcasting and Telecasting, in reporting on the FCC filing, commented that it "could be a way to force other U.S. agencies ... to put pressure on Mexican authorities to level the playing field for U.S.-owned companies to produce programming in Mexico" The license of the station, KAZA-TV, Channel 54, owned by Pappas Telecasting, was due to come up for renewal today.

Despite federal law barring discrimination in employment based on race, 69 percent of all casting notices this past summer specifically asked for white actors, according to a study by the UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, and reported in today's (Friday) Los Angeles Daily News. "Casting directors take into account race and sex in a way that would be blatantly illegal in any other industry," Study author Russell Robinson observed. The study also found that ethnic minorities were not cast in about 80 percent of first-, second- and third-billed leading roles. "When we get to the bus captains and the busboys [roles], then we get into the Latinos," commented Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

BSkyB chief James Murdoch has lashed out at British regulators, calling current oversight policies "authoritarian." Murdoch's comments came in the midst of controversy over his satellite company's acquisition of 17.9 percent in the commercial network ITV, a move damned by Virgin chief Richard Branson as an attempt to block competition. British regulations prevent BSkyB from acquiring more than 20 percent of ITV. Although he did not cite specific regulations that he objected to, Murdoch, regarded as the heir apparent to News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch, said that those that are now in place amount to "a basic reduction in human freedom."