with him that the show was hostile to the beliefs and values of the Catholic Church, and ABC canceled Nothing Sacred after less than a season, reportedly for poor ratings. Observers think Donohue may have played a significant role in the show's rapid demise as advertisers often become leery of shows deemed "controversial". With regard to the controversy, Henry Herx, director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office of Film and Broadcast (successor to the National Legion of Decency), emphasized that the Catholic League is not an official agency of the church. Dogma The year 1999 saw the release of Kevin Smith's controversial film Dogma. Smith was a practicing Catholic, as Kevin Smith confirmed in an interview on the film's DVD. Several religious groups, especially the Catholic League, said the film was anti-Catholic and blasphemous, and organized protests, including one that took place at the November 12 premiere of the film at Lincoln Center in New York City. Smith said that several of the protests occurred before the film was even finished, suggesting that the protests were more about media attention for the groups than for whatever was controversial about the film. The Catholic League's main complaints were that the film's main character is supposedly a descendant of Mary, who happens to work in an abortion clinic, which were seen as ironic conventions for a Catholic. The film's distributor, Miramax, removed its name from the production, and hired attorney Dan Petrocelli to defend it publicly. Petrocelli accused Donohue of trying to stir a violent reaction to the film. Donohue responded by taking out an op-ed ad in the New York Times on September 12, 1999, saying that the comments were an attempt to stifle his free speech. According to Smith, "[Donohue] actually invited me out to have a beer after making my life hell for six months." The Passion of the Christ Donohue is a staunch defender of Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ. On the December 8, 2004, broadcast of Scarborough Country, he stated: "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It's not a secret, OK? And I'm not afraid to say it. That's why they hate this movie. It's about Jesus Christ, and it's about truth. It's about the Messiah." In Donohue's book, Secular Sabotage: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America, he responded