OH, 'SISTER' SHOWTIME FILM VERSION OF CONTROVERSIAL COMEDY EXPLAINS IT AGAIN, ONCE AND FOR ALL.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

It seems kindly Sister Mary Ignatius will never get through that lecture of hers without someone raising a fuss. Not in 1981. Not now.

Look no further than the blood-red full-page advertisement in a recent issue of the Hollywood trade paper Variety. Writing to Summer Redstone, chairman of Viacom - parent company of Showtime Entertainment - William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, sounds off on the airing of ``Sister Mary Explains It All'' at 8 tonight on Showtime.

``This Catholic-bashing episode has ... occurred on your watch,'' Donohue writes. ``Given your track record of condemning intolerance, Mr. Redstone, we Catholics want to know whether you will join with us - and with people across faith lines - in condemning 'Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You.' ''

Playwright Christopher Durang, the self-described ``lapsed Catholic'' who adapted his own play to the screen, has heard remarks like Donohue's many times before. During the play's initial run on the regional theater circuit in the early 1980s, productions of ``Sister Mary'' inspired protests across the country. A production at the University of Missouri inspired one senator to try to revoke funding to the Missouri Arts Council. The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights also tried to get the New York State Arts Council to change its funding laws.

Of course, having your program on a pay cable television station is a pretty good way of confounding would-be picketers.

``My feeling is if they sense they wouldn't like something, this is a free country,'' said Marshall Brickman, the Oscar-winning co-writer of ``Annie Hall'' who directed Showtime's ``Sister Mary.'' ``They can always not watch, and spend their time reading the First Amendment of the Constitution instead.''

``The protests make me sad as well as frustrated,'' added Durang. ``Because I also think that the protesters are misunderstanding, perhaps purposefully. In a kind of bullying way, they want their image of Catholicism put forth and that's it. The play doesn't in any way attack or make fun of any core teachings of Christianity.''

In both the play and the film, Sister Mary (portrayed in the film by Diane Keaton) is an old-school nun who gives an educational lecture on subjects ranging from the nature of heaven and hell, to degrees of sin, to a partial list of people who are going to burn in hell. The lecture is interrupted by the return of four of her former students (Brian Benben, Jennifer Tilly, Laura San Giacomo and Wallace Langham) who confront Sister Mary, blaming her teachings for their damaged lives.

Filmed in Toronto, the 76-minute film opens up the action only slightly. Sister Mary still talks directly to an audience - in this case, a congregation at an annual Christmas lecture. Her explanation is still based on church doctrine that gets twisted and reinterpreted for major satiric effect.

The film is still set in the 1980s because, as both Durang and Brickman note, changes within the teaching of church doctrine would make an update to present day nearly impossible.

``I know the church doesn't teach things in the same way,'' says Durang, a product of Catholic schools in the 1950s and '60s. ``In writing the play, I was suddenly looking with the critical eye of a young adult at things that I had accepted as a child. The list of what was mortal sin, that sends you to hell, was startling and highly debatable. Murder sends you to hell. So does masturbation.''

While the play's controversy often helped sell tickets, it didn't exactly grease the wheels for a film adaptation. Optioned for the screen in 1985, ``Sister Mary'' has gone through a different set of producers and several screenplay drafts. When the rights returned to Durang in 1995, he joined up with the husband-and-wife producing team of Kirk Stambler and Victoria Tennant (who has a cameo in the movie).

Brickman, who also signed on in the mid-1990s, enlisted Keaton, with whom he had worked on ``Annie Hall'' and ``Manhattan.''

``We both said, 'Let them try to raise the money. It will never happen,' '' said Brickman. ``It was like that dinner date you make for August in January. Then, at some point, I had to call Diane and say, 'Guess what. They've got the money. Let's go.' ''

Keaton may seem an offbeat choice for Sister Mary, who has been played on stage by the likes of Lynn Redgrave, Nancy Marchand, Mary Louise Wilson and Elizabeth Franz.

``Sister is so strong-willed and such a bully in many ways,'' agrees Durang. ``Diane to me is so charming and likable that when Marshall first suggested her, I thought, 'Interesting, but what would she be like?'

``And then we got thinking about some of her serious acting parts like 'Shoot the Moon' and how good she was. I thought she did a really good job.''

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Diane Keaton dons a nun's habit in her role as the fearsome Sister Mary Ignatius.