Tourists take note: as of this week you'll have to travel to sunny Lincoln to see Westminster Abbey.
And it's all thanks to Dan Brown.
Yes the Da Vinci Code debacle continues thanks to the Hollywood version currently being filmed with Tom Hanks as the dashing hero.
Hanks and director Ron Howard are currently over here shooting the adaptation but ran into a bit of trouble when Westminster Abbey turned down an approach from the producers, saying any filming would be "inappropriate" (although if you want a real 'church behaving inappropriately' story you should read this).
Although it is a fine page-turner, we cannot commend or endorse the contentious and wayward religious and historic suggestions made in the book — nor its views of Christianity and the New Testament.
That's what the Abbey said, but strangely enough that viewpoint does not seem to have reached Lincoln yet:
It has clearly touched the public imagination, and the church needs to open up a debate about it rather than throw one's hands up and walk away from it.
That's Lincoln's dean, the Very Rev. Alec Knight defending his decision to take a reported $180,000 from the Da Vinci Dode's producers in order for Lincoln Cathedral to double as Westminster Abbey (maybe they need the dough to pay for their fancy pants website).
Other Cathedrals who are throwing open their doors to Hollywood are Winchester Cathedral and Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh.
Jesus must be turning in his grave.
