Oh, would to that it 'twere

The movie "Rent" hasn't exactly been burning up the box office. I haven't seen the film (I wrote about my feelings on the stage version here last month), but the Rotten Tomatoes consensus was:

Fans of the stage musical may forgive Rent it's flaws, but weak direction, inescapable staginess and an irritating faux-boho pretension prevent the film from connecting on screen.

However, news comes today that there may be reason to appreciate it after all: It's driving a group of homophobic parents from Rhode Island positively around the bend.

A group of parents is calling a high school field trip a "promotion of homosexuality". The parents are threatening to pull their teenage children from a Ponaganset High School trip to see the movie "Rent" at a local theater.

"The lifestyles depicted in this movie are not the majority, not the lifestyles of 99.9 percent of the kids that live in these two towns," School Committee cochair Donna Mansolillo told a meeting of the committee this week.

Mansolillo then handed out a review of the film by the conservative group Focus on the Family that calls the movie "an in-your-face glorification of homosexuality and lesbianism."

My first response to this quote was the headline above. Then Pam pointed out something. Homosexuality and lesbianism?