Celebrity News

Michael Moore raises holy hell

Michael Moore got a bad review from at least one upset critic at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards at Crimson on Monday. Moore was there to present Best First Film to David France for his doc “How To Survive a Plague,” a salute to a protest group that stormed St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1989 over the AIDS crisis. But Armond White, gadfly critic and former organization chair, began heckling him for “anti-Catholic” rhetoric. Moore raised hackles when he recalled how activists at the height of the epidemic blocked roads, threw pies at politicians and interrupted Mass at St. Patrick’s. Moore stated, “I personally like that one. I say that as a former seminarian.” But White and a friend shouted, “[Bleep] you!” “You liar!” “Shut up!” and “Drop dead!” Moore responded, “I’ve pissed off the Catholics,” and began a blessing in Latin. He then went on to say that “those who would deify Reagan and Pope John Paul II are responsible for the deaths of thousands of people . . . because of their bigotry.” White — who has dished out his fair share of criticism to Moore in his reviews — was later heard saying that Moore “disparaged Catholics,” and told us, “I was offended . . . He was there to present the film and not present a personal political diatribe.” Moore says, “I was just describing some of the things of the film . . . [White] is a reactionary conservative [bleep]hole.”