Christmas Is So Commercial

Look closely at the above nativity scene. Yes, that's Samuel L. Jackson. And Hugh Grant. And David Beckham. And Posh Spice. And George Bush and Tony Blair and the Duke of Edinburgh as the 3 Wise Men. And Kylie Minogue as an angel.

And the British are supposed to be the smart ones, right? The Vatican would beg to differ:

"This is worse than bad taste. It is cheap," an official Vatican source told Reuters in Rome.

"You cannot use contemporary personalities as the central figures of the Nativity ... And it becomes worse, if that were possible, if the people may be of questionable moral standing," he added.

I know, the guy started a war based on nothing, and has led to the deaths of tens of thousands. I'm with ya, Vatican.

However, this is kind of a time-honored technique. Every saint or divine figure you see in a devotional painting from the Middle Ages was likely a patron. The only difference here is that rather than a bunch of rich people being self-aggrandizing, celebrity has become a new religion. The only people outraged by this are those that don't want to admit it.