ABC News Presents: Jesus, Mary and Da Vinci

Tapping into all the excitement over Dan Brown's bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code, this ABC News-produced special investigates now-familiar claims that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and that artist Leonardo Da Vinci encoded his paintings with references to their union. Reporter Elizabeth Vargas spends time with Brown and hopscotches through the Holy Land, France, Scotland, Italy, and elsewhere in search of hard evidence to support these theories. Unfortunately, she comes up with a report so measured and cautious that Jesus, Mary and Da Vinci makes for fairly dull viewing. Part of the problem is that Vargas and her production team chase after the most elusive aspects of the story--looking for evidence of Christ's bloodline in French descendants, for example--and come up empty; meanwhile, the Da Vinci connection (the most tantalizing part of Brown's puzzle) is largely forgotten, following a perfunctory look at his mysterious "The Last Supper." On the plus side, Vargas pays a visit to Umberto Eco, author of The Name of the Rose (he pooh-poohs a possible Jesus-Mary romance), and she uncovers much about the Catholic Church's systematic and deliberate destruction of Magdalene's early reputation as a key Apostle. DVD extras include a featurette on Christ's mother Mary. Given the overwhelming interest in Brown's novel, this is a strong optional purchase, although Da Vinci Code Decoded (VL-1/05) is a better treatment of the subject. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)