Church Ruffled by Da Vinci Sequel

A shocker from the "water-is-wet" department: The Catholic Church was not amused by Ron Howard's new film adaptation of Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, the prequel to the vaunted Da Vinci Code, the Telegraph reports. The film's storyline involves a plot by the Illuminati, a secret society, to exact revenge on the Catholic Church, which murdered their predecessors years ago—an event not backed by history. One of the church's most senior bishops called the movie "total rubbish" and "far removed from the truth." The studio's senior vice president countered, "We don't believe the nearly 40 million people worldwide who purchased the novel were confused by the fact that this is a fictional mystery thriller." The Vatican's economics minister saw another plot at hand—"Let's be careful not to play their game... by giving them free publicity," he said.