THOU SHALT FIND CONTROVERSY.

Byline: - Bob Strauss

While religion used to be anathema to Hollywood, the recent mega-success of ``The Passion of the Christ'' reportedly has every studio in town trying to tap into the newly discovered devout audience.

One studio that doesn't have to scramble is United Artists, which had already made ``Saved!,'' a comedy set in a Christian high school. At least that's what they think, if reports of special target marketing to Christian groups are to be believed.

But ``Saved!'' is a movie in which believers throw Bibles at one another other. Its message is one of acceptance of all manner of alternative lifestyles. On the surface of it, anyway, it looks like something that's more likely to outrage fundamentalists than entertain them.

But the filmmakers insist that they don't see it that way.

``The film isn't so much about saying religion is bad; it just says that some people get carried away,'' explains the movie's director and co-writer, Brian Dannelly. ``I've seen stuff on the Internet, where one Christian critic said it was morally offensive, and I find that scary because I do think the film is sweet. It promotes tolerance and that God's love is bigger than, maybe, what everybody thinks it is.''

The film's stars, Jena Malone and Mandy Moore, seem even more naive about the movie's negative reception potential.

``There's nothing controversial; this film is a comedy,'' says Moore, who made thousands of Christian fans when she played a believing heroine in ``A Walk to Remember,'' but in ``Saved!'' is the school's holier-than-thou mean girl Hilary Faye. ``It so happens that I played another Christian character, but that was coincidental. To be honest with you, I didn't even think about that when I decided to do this film.''

``We're poking fun at extremes in a certain religion,'' adds Malone, whose character Mary is impregnated by her gay-leaning boyfriend. ``My sister came to the premiere and she's a born-again Christian, and she was cracking up from the first two minutes in. She sees those types of zealots and extremist points of views, and for her it's not cool. It sort of brings down her own faith.''

Some of the faithful, however, are convinced that that's exactly what the movie does.

``We're not asking to boycott it, but I think it's a terribly unfortunate film,'' says Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission, a group that monitors and rates pop-culture products. ``The best way to put it is, just imagine if this was a Muslim school and the heroine met a Christian girl who decided to show just how evil and mean-spirited all the Muslims were. Or let's say it was a Jewish school with a Muslim girl doing that; in any other context, this would just be abhorrent to people.

``I understand that there are a lot of rotten Christians and rotten Muslims and rotten Buddhists and rotten everybody else,'' Baehr adds. ``But the movie has no light in it. It has no answered prayer, it has no presence of God, it dismisses God.''

As indicated, director Dannelly is aware that such attitudes are out there. But he still believes that there's a religious audience to be found.

`` 'The Passion' really opened so many doors for us,'' the filmmaker says. ``But we're marketing it to everyone. We've had screenings for Christian groups, we've had screenings for teen groups, we've had screenings for gay groups, we've had screenings for cinephiles. Some people stand up and scream or leave the screenings, but they're pretty few and far between.''

Macaulay Culkin, who delivers some of the film's most acerbic lines, feels that seeing ``Saved!'' will prevent more criticism than it generates.

``From the outside, you have unwed mothers and teen pregnancy, homosexuality, things like that, so it's weird,'' the now-grown ``Home Alone'' star says. ``From the outside, some people are going to be against it just on principle. I think at the base of this movie is a good Christian message. So I hope Christians like it and I hope non-Christians like it.''

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Mandy Moore, left, and Jena Malone star in the teen comedy ``Saved!,'' which has come under fire for its portrayal of Christians. The film's stars, however, insist the movie preaches tolerance.