People: Sarandon says, 'Pope is a Nazi'

10/19/2011

Susan Sarandon appears to have pulled up a chair at the table of Hank Williams, Jr., and Lars Von Trier. The activist-actress is in a harsh spotlight after describing Pope Benedict XVI as a Nazi during a sit-down chat at the Hamptons International Film Festival on Saturday.

During an interview by actor Bob Balaban, the Dead Man Walking Oscar winner said she’d sent a copy of that book to the pope — clarifying that she was talking about the previous pontiff, John Paul II, “Not this Nazi one we have now.”

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and the Anti-Defamation League were less than amused.

“Ms. Sarandon may have her differences with the Catholic Church, but that is no excuse for throwing around Nazi analogies,” ADL national director Abraham H. Foxman said Monday in a statement suggesting the actress apologize to the Catholic community. “Such words are hateful, vindictive, and only serve to diminish the true history and meaning of the Holocaust.”

The pope, born John Ratzinger, grew up in Nazi Germany.