Free Republic

If you happened to stumble across a devout Christian in Hollywood, you’d likely assume he was one of two things: He must be Mel Gibson, or he must be lost. But, in fact, you just might have run into a Christian businessman named Philip Anschutz. Philip has just spent $150 million to film The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the first of the Narnia books by C. S. Lewis. Anschutz is showing us what we’d find at the box office if Hollywood gave Americans the kind of films we really want to see. When he first considered bankrolling films,...

ARLINGTON, Va. — When it comes to movies, give me an adorable dog, a flawed father, a motherless girl-child with a heart the size of Disney World — toss in an eccentric dowager librarian and a Magical Negro (to borrow the term popularized by Spike Lee), not to mention Dave Matthews — and for two hours I'm all yours. Especially if I'm 7 years old. So goes the cast of characters in a new movie due for release Feb. 18 — "Because of Winn-Dixie" — that parents can take their children to without cringing. It's a sweet tale, full of...

A Billionaire and His Dog By Kathleen Parker ARLINGTON, Va. - When it comes to movies, give me an adorable dog, a flawed father, a motherless girl-child with a heart the size of Disney World -- toss in an eccentric dowager librarian and a Magical Negro (to borrow the term popularized by Spike Lee), not to mention Dave Matthews -- and for two hours I'm all yours. Especially if I'm 7 years old. So goes the cast of characters in a new movie due for release Friday -- "Because of Winn-Dixie" -- that parents can take their children to without...

When it comes to movies, give me an adorable dog, a flawed father, a motherless girl-child with a heart the size of Disney World — toss in an eccentric dowager librarian and a Magical Negro (to borrow the term popularized by Spike Lee), not to mention Dave Matthews — and for two hours I'm all yours. Especially if I'm 7 years old. So goes the cast of characters in a new movie due for release Feb. 18 — "Because of Winn-Dixie" — that parents can take their children to without cringing. It's a sweet tale, full of humor 'n' tissue...

CASTRO VALLEY -- Pari Cariaga can now say that she knows people in high places -- really high places. Last summer, the Castro Valley fourth-grader expressed to her parents, Hilarie and Rudy Cariaga, that she had been feeling lonely because she was an only child. "She came in one day and just started to cry in my lap," Hilarie said. "She had told me that it was due to the fact that she had nobody to play with." After seeing this, Rudy suggested to his young daughter that she write a letter to none-other-than first lady Laura Bush, an only...