Arts / Culture

The Showtime reality series "American Candidate," set to air during the lead up to the U.S. presidential election, will follow a dozen people as they stage and manage a "virtual" run for the White House.

Punk Voter is "a coalition of over 130 bands and about 30 independent record labels" seeking to register and mobilize punk rock fans for the 2004 U.S. presidential election. But will the effort "serve to strengthen the very political system that punk has made its reputation attacking?" Scott Evans would say yes. He writes: "Last March [political punk band] Propagandhi withdrew from Punk Voter's Rock Against Bush Vol.

Mel Gibson's controversial movie "The Passion of the Christ" is using a unique "surgical marketing campaign that has zeroed in on the Christian market and built a deafening buzz," according to the Wall Street Journal. "The promotional campaign got its start last year as Mr. Gibson hit the road and visited Christian leaders across America." Now, religious leaders are showing movie trailers and selling tickets to their congregations. But "passionate" marketing isn't just for churches.

"A number of explosions tore through the British consulate in Turkey today, killing scores of people. George W. Bush is in England, surrounded on all sides by enraged British citizens whose massive protests have required nearly every police officer in London to be put on the line of defense," writes William Rivers Pitt. "It is 3:16 p.m. on Thursday afternoon as I write this. CNN has been covering, with total exclusivity, a parking lot outside a police station for the last hour. They covered an airplane landing. They covered the same airplane sitting still on the tarmac.