When I first saw an item in a Forbes column about the amount of money Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is raking in for him, I thought the sentence about his receiving a percentage of the merchandising from the sale of "mugs and nail necklaces" must be a joke. But it's true. The official merchandising site for the movie, Share the Passion of the Christ, in addition to "witnessing tools" like lapel pins and witness cards, is hawking mugs with images of a cross on them and, however tasteless and grotesque it may appear, 1-7/8 inch and 2-5/8 inch pewter "Passion Nail™" pendants on 24-inch leather cords.
It's estimated that Gibson's percentage of the film grosses, merchandising and DVD licensing and sales will net him more than $300 million personally.
Kind of discusting isn't it?
It's important to have a lot of crucifixion nails handy, just in case that bastard ever shows up again.
That, and when all you've got is a nailgun, every problem looks like a messiah.
I'm always amused when I hear stories like this. The religious have such solid convictions when it comes to faith... in money.
Remember the era of televangelists? They're still around, they just don't go in for cheesy TV shows any more. Now they're high-priced lobbyists like Gary Bauer and conservative wackos like John Ashcroft.
Oh, it makes me mistful for the days of Jimmy Swaggart.