Busted burial box

That limestone burial box some scholars believe is the oldest archaeological link to Jesus ("James's box," Nov. 2) was badly damaged in transit from Israel to Canada for a museum tour late last month, Royal Ontario Museum officials in Toronto announced. The box was badly cracked but remained intact, they said. They offered proposals to treat the damage, essentially with cement patches, but were waiting to hear from the box's owner, an antiquities collector in Israel.

However, its ownership is in question. An Israeli newspaper identified the collector as Oded Golan, an engineer in Tel Aviv. He told Biblical Archaeology that he obtained the box about 15 years ago. A 1978 Israeli law deeds ownership of all such artifacts to the state. But when questioned by police investigators several weeks ago, he said he acquired the box in 1967 (he would have been just 16 years old). Authorities granted him permission to temporarily take the box, known as an ossuary, out of the country before they learned its true significance.

Archaeologists date the box to about a.d. 65. An authenticated inscription shows it once contained the bones of someone named James, who was the "son of Joseph" and "brother of Jesus."

Renegade bishop

Following three days of closed debate late last month, the bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) released a gloomy "message to the church." They had convened in a Toronto suburb to discuss the international uproar over Bishop Michael Ingham's unilateral decision to draw up a rite for blessing same-sex unions in his Vancouver-area New Westminster diocese.

In their message, the bishops said they were unable "to speak with a unanimous voice on this issue of national concern, especially with regard to the subject of homosexuality in the light of Scripture." They urged Bishop Ingham and eight parishes in his diocese strongly opposed to his action to seek reconciliation. They also recommended that bishops uphold 1997 guidelines that preclude "the blessing of homosexual unions."

During deliberations, several bishops implored Bishop Ingham to put the same-sex rites on hold. They warned he risked breaking communion with a large part of the Anglican world. But the bishop said three parishes had same-sex unions pending, and he would proceed.

The bishops voted 28 to 9 to adopt the nonbinding statement; Bishop Ingham abstained.

New York's time?

New York City billed itself as "the world's second home," and that was enough to push the Big Apple into first place among U.S. cities to bid for the 2012 Olympic games. Now the city will compete with Rome, Toronto, Moscow, and Istanbul for the right to spend $5 billion to host the Olympics; the International Olympic Committee decides in 2005.

In the city's winning presentation, comedian Billy Crystal offered wisecracks as arguments in favor of his hometown: "New York-all the foreigners are already there," he said. "Every athlete can go home with gold and a fake Rolex." But Sept. 11 sympathy may have had more to do with New York's nomination. Will that remain a large factor three years from now, especially if another Gulf War has come and gone by then?

For New York's city fathers, the plan is sure to bring in money, something sorely needed in economic slow times. Proposals include $904 million worth of fields, courts, and arenas, $1 billion for an Olympic stadium, plus billions more for other projects.

Proponents also plan to use existing facilities: baseball at Yankee Stadium, soccer at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, equestrian on Staten Island, and gymnastics at Madison Square Garden.

Altered reality

The Osbourne family is finally asking its houseguests to leave. Sharon Osbourne (Mrs. Ozzy) says she's pulling the plug on The Osbournes, the MTV program that was this year's big cable success story. Cameras followed heavy-metal legend Ozzy Osbourne and his family around their Beverly Hills house, with the footage edited into half-hour segments. The result was a popular but somewhat freakish reality show.

Sharon Osbourne, who is fighting colon cancer, told ABC's 20/20 that the program has uprooted her family. She says her health problems have pushed Mr. Osbourne to start drinking again: "Yes, now, this series, people will see what the first series has done to our lives and it will take people to the next stage. But after that, it's over."

MTV plans a second season this fall and a third sometime next year. The show already won an Emmy for best reality show. The Osbournes has made minor celebrities of kids Kelly and Jack Osbourne. The whole brood will host the American Music Awards in January. "I know the ABC-TV censor is already having dreams, or should I say nightmares, about their live ad-libs" said executive producer Dick Clark. | Chris Stamper

A charade of a remake

The Truth about Charlie brings to mind Charade, the classic 1963 thriller on which this new film is based. Charade is a "classic" film in that it is old (by film standards), has aged well, and features wonderfully charismatic performances by its two stars, Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. Charade is not the best of its genre, nor of its period, but it is one among many classics of old Hollywood.

The Truth About Charlie (rated PG-13 for some violence and sexual content/nudity) is not, by contrast, a good movie-despite its potential. Charade is not untouchable. In fact, it's not at all a bad choice for a remake. The film, despite being reasonably suspenseful and thoroughly entertaining, plays like a Hitchcock without the inventive, boundary-pushing edge that the master of suspense brought to all of his own films.

But director Jonathan Demme butchers this remake. Give him credit for picking good source material-but don't give him much more than that. Mr. Demme's story is more confusing, and, remarkably, more inconsequential (dramatic force was not a strength of the original). He's eliminated most of the key ingredients that made the original so memorable: the snappy, erudite dialogue (given mostly to Grant and Hepburn) and a colorful supporting cast of nasty criminals (the bland bad guys here just don't come close to James Coburn and George Kennedy).

Mr. Demme fills the gaps with pseudo French New Wave filmmaking, which occasionally keeps the picture afloat but mostly seems contrived and/or distracting. Arty camera angles and extreme close-ups can't completely mask uninvolving characters and a muddled script.

The simple set-up to the story has a young wife returning from a Caribbean vacation to find her husband of three months murdered, their Paris flat empty. Her husband was not, it soon becomes clear, the man she thought he was. With little more than the contents of her husband's carry-on luggage to go on, this young widow must piece together not only the clues to his identity, but also the location of a very large sum of money that he apparently hid before he died. A friendly but mysterious stranger enters her life at about the same time as three dangerous thugs who are also looking for the loot.

Thandie Newton, in Hepburn's role, does fine, often mimicking Hepburn's mannerisms. Mark Wahlberg, on the other hand, is not even given a chance to fill Grant's shoes. Although Mr. Wahlberg's acting is bland, this isn't entirely his fault-for some reason both the humor and subtle menace of Grant's character, which were essential to the original, have been entirely eliminated from the remake.

It's unsurprising that The Truth about Charlie is not a true match for Charade. But this remake is a fine occasion to remember that it's worth looking beyond the racks of new releases the next time you find yourself at the video store. | Andrew Coffin

Street fight

Some wheeling and dealing between Salt Lake City and Mormon officials has created strange bedfellows and resulted in a lawsuit that could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It all began when the city sold a block of Main Street to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1999. The street divided the church's main administrative complex from the Mormon Temple and other historic sites. When city and church officials drew up the deed, they added a restriction allowing the church to regulate speech and other activities at the site: no open-air preaching, tract distribution, demonstrations, or other activities opposing the church.

The American Civil Liberties Union, along with the Utah Gospel Mission and other groups that handed out Mormon-targeted literature on that section of the street, objected. A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month agreed, ruling that the sale terms violated free-speech rights.

The church, contending the privately owned property is now a park "infused with religious imagery," has asked for a rehearing by the full court. Fifteen religious groups, ranging from a Southern Baptist regional unit and the United Methodist Church to an Islamic society, filed a brief supporting the LDS church. Its central point: The ruling endangers the rights of churches to remove protesters from their property. | Edward E. Plowman

Claritin coup

The drug, generically known as loratadine, is an antihistamine that controls symptoms of asthma and allergies without the drowsiness caused by other medications. The drug's high popularity and low risks fueled demand to make it available without a prescription.

The Claritin debate is a case study in the controversy over prescription drug costs. Manufacturer Schering-Plough, standing to lose millions if the drug lost its prescription status, originally fought the transition. Some insurance companies supported the transition because it would reduce costs.

Over-the-counter Claritin will allow patients to self-medicate, and those without coverage will have better access to the drug. Others, however, may actually pay more, because the price may not fall enough to make up for what insurance companies covered through co-payments.

Schering-Plough gave up trying to keep Claritin as a prescription drug earlier this year, hoping a variant called Clarinex would catch on. But the company's third-quarter profits plunged 29 percent in part because wholesalers reduced inventories of Claritin, anticipating the drug's disappearance from behind pharmacy counters. Meanwhile, Clarinex sales actually fell.

So when does Claritin join the ranks of Motrin and Benadryl? That's up to the FDA, and action could come as early as this month.