Show-biz hype often doesn't make sense

In Thursday's paper, I reviewed "Color of the Cross," an intriguing retelling of the Christ story with Jesus as a black man.

The DVD was released by 20th Century Fox, though, for some reason, not on its recently instituted Fox Faith label. Still, as you might expect, the film is being sold to the Christian audience.

So can someone explain to me why the press materials describe the film as having "new interpretations of Christian mythology"?

Or this: "Extensively researched, the painstaking re-creation of biblical and historical accounts addresses four key areas of the Christ mythology. ..."

The word I'm having trouble with here is "mythology."

According to my Merriam-Webster dictionary, "myth" is defined as a "parable" or "allegory" to "explain a practice, belief or natural phenomenon."

Second definition: "An unfounded or false notion."

A "parable" is a "short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle."

An "allegory" is an " ... expression by means of symbolic fictional figures. ..."

Isn't suggesting that Jesus is a fictitious character a bit insulting to the faithful Christians who are the film's target moviegoers?

First rule of selling entertainment: Know your audience.

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But then there are lots of show-biz things I don't understand.

• Screaming people outside the network morning shows like "Today" and "Good Morning, America." Do they think they're on "Deal or No Deal"?

• Reserved seating at movie theaters. Actually, this seemed like a pretty good idea when we bought tickets early enough to sit wherever we wanted — until we found one of the seats was broken.

Then it was just uncomfortable.

• I also don't understand why so many movies have flatulence jokes these days. It's quite astonishing that so many comedies have at least one flatulence gag.

Especially kids movies.

Even "Charlotte's Web"!

Is it a rule?