THE PEACOCK CHICKENS; BRITNEY LOSES FAITH

The dreadful threat of having to wade through badly worded emails from fuming evangelical fundamentalists has been enough for NBC to flap about changing Britney Spears' forthcoming Will & Grace role.

Not, of course, that NBC is admitting that it's caved in at the slightest whiff of pressure from the only-slightly-barking American Family Association. No, the company claims that it was all a terrible misunderstanding. Indeed, the really detailed press release was somehow issued containing "erroneous information":

The episode has not been written yet, NBC said in a statement, and "the reference to 'Cruci-fixin's' will not be in the show and the storyline will not contain a Christian characterization at all."

Plus, NBC really loves Jesus, and welcomes the day when the whole world is renamed Jesusplanet. And if it ever hears of suggesting that, for example, the American Family Association are a bunch of self-aggrandising egomaniacs who wield a power totally out of proportion compared with the number of people who follow their "take offence at everything" strictures, why, NBC would be the first to ask the AFA for permission to denounce those people in the strongest terms.

The final scheduled slots for the farewell season of Will and Grace will be used instead for back-to-back episodes of the Angelus, bought in from RTE specially for the occasion.

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