Madonna's recent glittery cross and crown of thorns during her concert tour is designed to stir outrage, but at this point in her career, it screams Desperate Housewife. But then there are always the young singers who are corrupted into imitating the routine. Probably the last one you'd expect to try Sacrilege 101 would be the girl named Charlotte Church, but obviously she's trying to live her (stage) name down. Catholic News Service reports:

The U.S. publishing company Ignatius Press has refused to sell any works by Welsh singer Charlotte Church after she called German-born Pope Benedict XVI a Nazi and mocked the Catholic Church...Church, dubbed the "Voice of an Angel" before she turned her talents to popular music, also dressed up as a nun and pretended to hallucinate while eating "communion" wafers imprinted with smiling faces signifying the drug Ecstasy. She smashed open a statue of the Virgin Mary to reveal a can of hard cider inside, said she worshipped "St. Fortified Wine," and stuck chewing gum on a statue of the child Jesus.

...Church, 20, was raised a Catholic and sang for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican at the age of 12. The pilot for "The All New Charlotte Church Show" was filmed before a live studio audience July 12.

Oh my, is this the drop-dead tactic to getting your Channel 4 pilot picked up? On their blog, Ignatius said "we cannot stand by a young woman who uses her stature in the media to mock the Eucharist, slander the Holy Father, and denigrate the vows of religious women." Why do these girl stars always feel they have to throw their reputation in a blender to get "adult" credibility? The Ignatius news link was this. They also found some humor in the title of her first single as a pranking pop tart: "Crazy Chick."

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center