Weaver - Another new religion

A goddess for something

Origin unknown

I don't normally publish usenet's unsubstantiated rumours, but this one really took my attention. The archive suggests it's based on a report from British Channel 5's now defunct Exclusive! programme; the reporter cited, Scarlet Mabyn, has not filed any report for the programme.

With that warning in mind, here's the piece. The original article is in sans serif font, while my comments and additions are in this Roman font and spread wider across the page.

"CLAIRE DANES - THE CROWNED AND CONQUERING CHILD?"
Report on a new religious phenomenon for Channel Five's showbiz programme EXCLUSIVE! from SCARLET MABYN
Could this young American actress be Christ reborn? Some of her followers seem to think so!
Claire Danes shot to fame in 1994 as the fifteen year old star of the acclaimed TV series MY SO-CALLED LIFE. Since then she has appeared in thirteen films, including starring roles as Beth in LITTLE WOMEN and Juliet in ROMEO & JULIET. Her most recent films are The Rainmaker and Les Miserables. Still only 18, she has already been acclaimed as a great actress by her directors, who include Jodie Foster and Francis Ford Coppola, also by Stephen Spielberg, who wanted her for Schindler's List (she turned him down). A friend of Wynona Ryder, proof of Danes exceptional intelligence came with her recently being accepted at Yale University.

The typical 100-word biography, cycled ad infinitum in the media.

Eulogies to Danes border on the mystical.
"In person, Claire has a distancing quality, a kind of remove. She has a kind of magnetic mystery," says Winnie Holzman, creator and producer of My So-Called Life.
"She's a young girl and has all the innocence and enthusiasm of being young, but at the same time there's something very wise about her." says Francis Ford Coppola.
"There's certainly something deep within her that preoccupies her," says fellow-actress Gabriel Byrne. "She's like a prism. Depending on which way she hits the light, you get a different Claire."

Three drop quotes; all three lifted from February's Vanity Fair cover feature. Incidentally, Holzman was not the usual producer of MSCL...

On the Internet, Claire has the unique accolade of having not one but four newsgroups devoted to discussing her and her works. As happens with many stars, her devoted fans consider her a Goddess.

Four? There's alt.fan.claire-danes, obviously. There's alt.tv.my-s-c-life and alt.tv.my-so-called-life, though the latter is not an accepted newsgroup by all systems and is, in effect, dead. The best claim I can find to a fourth group is alt.fan.teen-starlets, a generic group pertaining to all young female talents, though a correspondent reports her server carried alt.tv.so-called-life, another dead group. Oh, and did we mention that Bill Gates has at least 25 groups devoted to discussing him and his works? Makes 4 seem like a drop in the ocean.
Furthermore, a dejanews search showed fewer than 100 articles discussing any religious significance for Danes, other than those reacting to this article. Sure, some people think she's the best thing since sliced bread; but then, every star attracts that sort of attention.
(6/21/98) Since writing the above, I've located a web site called "The Church of Claire Danes". It's just the usual sort of fan site, though with a guest book that asks its signers to select a pseudo-religious mantle, such as "Alter Boy" or "Chancery Steward". It's all done in a spirit of fun, and not intended to be taken seriously.

Usually when such titles are accorded to Hollywood stars the intent is rhetorical, but in Claire's case it seems that some mean it literally! Most recently, some people have seized on the obvious religious symbolism of a photograph of her on the World Wide Web in which she is pictured wearing a crown of red roses.

Can anyone tell me where this picture is? clairedanes.com carries no such picture.
(6/21/98) Recent developments lead me to believe it's a still from Claire's forthcoming movie Polish Wedding being taken wildly out of context.

Apart from the obvious crown-of-thorns connotation, it alludes too to the esoteric mystery of the Rosy Cross, a feminine cypher from the occult side of Christianity.
When you add in the fact that Danes has been performing some great literary death scenes - Juliet, and Beth in Little Women - it's perhaps not surprising that as the Millennium approaches and imaginations reach fever pitch (significantly, Claire Danes turns 21 in the year 2000) the word on the Internet is that this green-eyed teenager is Christ, reborn as a woman.

So, after a long waffle, totally unrelated to the real story, we get to the nitty gritty. There may be a picture, which could easily be from one of her 21 movies, and interpreted out of all context. From this, people are (apparently) drawing some quite astounding conclusions.
Now, I'm no expert on Christian theology, and I know very little about the "rosy cross" quoted here. If anyone does, please get in touch with me.
What I can say for certain is that there was no death scene in MSCL. Or in Rainmaker. Or any of Danes' other movies. Two screen deaths in 22 productions is an average corpse rate for any actor. I'm a long way from being convinced.

Link: The Claire Danes Cube (needs Java-enabled browser)

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This page updated June 21, 1998

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	"CLAIRE DANES - THE CROWNED AND CONQUERING CHILD?" Report on a new religious phenomenon for Channel Five's showbiz programme EXCLUSIVE! from SCARLET MABYN Could this young American actress be Christ reborn? Some of her followers seem to think so! Claire Danes shot to fame in 1994 as the fifteen year old star of the acclaimed TV series MY SO-CALLED LIFE. Since then she has appeared in thirteen films, including starring roles as Beth in LITTLE WOMEN and Juliet in ROMEO & JULIET. Her most recent films are The Rainmaker and Les Miserables. Still only 18, she has already been acclaimed as a great actress by her directors, who include Jodie Foster and Francis Ford Coppola, also by Stephen Spielberg, who wanted her for Schindler's List (she turned him down). A friend of Wynona Ryder, proof of Danes exceptional intelligence came with her recently being accepted at Yale University.
The typical 100-word biography, cycled ad infinitum in the media.
	Eulogies to Danes border on the mystical. "In person, Claire has a distancing quality, a kind of remove. She has a kind of magnetic mystery," says Winnie Holzman, creator and producer of My So-Called Life. "She's a young girl and has all the innocence and enthusiasm of being young, but at the same time there's something very wise about her." says Francis Ford Coppola. "There's certainly something deep within her that preoccupies her," says fellow-actress Gabriel Byrne. "She's like a prism. Depending on which way she hits the light, you get a different Claire."
Three drop quotes; all three lifted from February's Vanity Fair cover feature. Incidentally, Holzman was not the usual producer of MSCL...
	On the Internet, Claire has the unique accolade of having not one but four newsgroups devoted to discussing her and her works. As happens with many stars, her devoted fans consider her a Goddess.
Four? There's alt.fan.claire-danes, obviously. There's alt.tv.my-s-c-life and alt.tv.my-so-called-life, though the latter is not an accepted newsgroup by all systems and is, in effect, dead. The best claim I can find to a fourth group is alt.fan.teen-starlets, a generic group pertaining to all young female talents, though a correspondent reports her server carried alt.tv.so-called-life, another dead group. Oh, and did we mention that Bill Gates has at least 25 groups devoted to discussing him and his works? Makes 4 seem like a drop in the ocean. Furthermore, a dejanews search showed fewer than 100 articles discussing any religious significance for Danes, other than those reacting to this article. Sure, some people think she's the best thing since sliced bread; but then, every star attracts that sort of attention. (6/21/98) Since writing the above, I've located a web site called "The Church of Claire Danes". It's just the usual sort of fan site, though with a guest book that asks its signers to select a pseudo-religious mantle, such as "Alter Boy" or "Chancery Steward". It's all done in a spirit of fun, and not intended to be taken seriously.
	Usually when such titles are accorded to Hollywood stars the intent is rhetorical, but in Claire's case it seems that some mean it literally! Most recently, some people have seized on the obvious religious symbolism of a photograph of her on the World Wide Web in which she is pictured wearing a crown of red roses.
Can anyone tell me where this picture is? clairedanes.com carries no such picture. (6/21/98) Recent developments lead me to believe it's a still from Claire's forthcoming movie Polish Wedding being taken wildly out of context.
	Apart from the obvious crown-of-thorns connotation, it alludes too to the esoteric mystery of the Rosy Cross, a feminine cypher from the occult side of Christianity. When you add in the fact that Danes has been performing some great literary death scenes - Juliet, and Beth in Little Women - it's perhaps not surprising that as the Millennium approaches and imaginations reach fever pitch (significantly, Claire Danes turns 21 in the year 2000) the word on the Internet is that this green-eyed teenager is Christ, reborn as a woman.
So, after a long waffle, totally unrelated to the real story, we get to the nitty gritty. There may be a picture, which could easily be from one of her 21 movies, and interpreted out of all context. From this, people are (apparently) drawing some quite astounding conclusions. Now, I'm no expert on Christian theology, and I know very little about the "rosy cross" quoted here. If anyone does, please get in touch with me. What I can say for certain is that there was no death scene in MSCL. Or in Rainmaker. Or any of Danes' other movies. Two screen deaths in 22 productions is an average corpse rate for any actor. I'm a long way from being convinced.