Bishop spurns the Godfather

There is no one like Marlon Brando to remind you what happens when someone is made an offer they can't refuse. But when an adversary carries high Vatican authority, the Holy Father comes before the Godfather, writes Alan Murdoch.

Mindful of how much blood was spilt the last time one of Brando's movies saw a christening promise before the altar "to renounce the devil and all his works", Dr John Magee,Catholic Bishop of Cloyne, has risked ending up "sleeping with the fishes" by refusing a Hollywood producer permission to film in one of his churches in the "picture postcard" fishing village of Ballycotton in Co Cork.

The film's American producer, Thom Eberhardt, will decide within the next 24 hours whether to continue filming Divine Rapture - which stars Brando as an erring Irish priest - in the village or seek another location.