Haggard Docu Director Alexandra Pelosi Somehow Manages To Be More Annoying Than Her Speaker Mom

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20090129_pelosihaggard_560x375Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of House Speaker Nancy, is the director behind HBO’s The Trials of Ted Haggard, which originally was supposed to be the keystone to the defrocked pastors comeback tour, only, you know, it turns out in addition to hooking up with Ted Haggard, he also went after volunteers in his church as well. Now Alexandra’s doing a quick backpedal on her film, which she now says is really not about Ted at all, but how mean the New Life Church is. Best of all, she doesn’t see how being the daughter of the Speaker of the House has anything to do with her super-political film.

Enjoy this entertaining back and forth she had with New York Magazine:

“

Haggard told a reporter that your mother, Nancy Pelosi, sent him words of comfort through you. Was that true?
No.

But of course you’ve talked to your mother about Ted Haggard.
Of course … in passing. I do remember having one big conversation with Ted and saying that my mom always says, “God is bigger than that,” because she does, but I think he picked up something my mom said and took it heart. Sometimes some little thing I say in a story just gets recalled as a Nancy Pelosi story. “Nancy Pelosi supported him in his darkest moment?” That’s a stretch. And now every single story about the film says, “Nancy Pelosi’s daughter.” Why? Where’s the relevance?

Oh, come on … you know what the relevance is. You say you don’t make political films, but your subjects are the most charged political people in the country and Mom’s speaker of the House.
Oh, I’m not being naïve. I’m not stupid, and I’m not complaining. And I’m a proud, liberal, flag-waving, gay-loving Democrat and I have no problem with that. It’s not like I’m Michael Reagan …. Well, maybe that answers your first question, just wrap it all up, which is, “Why did he let you in the door?” Well, maybe deep down he was a loser and he was a nobody, and he had an HBO person who had a mother whose name he knew. Ted was happy I was there. Maybe that reveals, deep, deep down, he knew that I was somebody. Maybe if I took my husband’s name and he never knew my mother, maybe he wouldn’t have let me in the front door.”

But the best part is this little exchange:

“You really hammer the church’s hypocrisy.
The basic point of the church is to help people with their sin. Ted came out and said, “I’m a sinner,” and they’re like, “Here’s some money. Get out of town.” The other point, which Ted makes in the film, is that churches are huge corporations. Ted’s biggest sin was that bad publicity is bad for business.

His church still seems furious.
In the sermon on Sunday, the preacher, Brady Boyd, said: “Anyone else who feels they’ve been violated by Ted, please come forward.” They want to build a case against Ted, to discredit him, because they think [the film] is too compassionate of a portrait. I really think that gay is the cultural divide in America, not abortion. The evangelicals versus the gays, and Ted is just right there, falling into the crack between them, saying, “I’m an evangelical, and I struggle with my sexuality …” He doesn’t want to say he’s gay.”

Now, we’re certainly not in the business of helping out the New Life Church, but I don’t think Brady Boys is asking people to come forward if they’ve been harassed by Ted to discredit him. The guy is pretty much already discredited and hey, now that they realize hush money isn’t going to silence Ted’s victims (which is what they are), at least they’re making the beginnings of an effort to come clean.

Sorry, but we’re just not buying the ‘Ted Haggard is the victim’ elixir that Pelosi’s hawking.

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