Quotes of the Day

Legend has it that Alexander the Great, who conquered the fabled Babylon and India in the 4th century B.C., was a ferocious warrior. But was he also bisexual?

In Oliver Stone's $150 million Alexander, the Greek hero, played by Colin Farrell, has a gay lover and is seen kissing several men on the lips. The depiction has outraged the Greeks. A team of lawyers who have appointed themselves guardians of Greece's classical heritage has threatened to sue Stone if he doesn't add a disclaimer stating that the movie, which opens around Europe this week, is fictional. "This isn't an anti-gay protest," says the group's spokesman, Yannis Varnakos, who admits he has yet to see Alexander. "It's about falsifying history." Stone has defended the film, which also stars Angelina Jolie as the young emperor's mother, saying that Alexander's bisexuality "may offend some people, but sexuality in those days was a different thing."

It's not the first time Hollywood has angered Greeks by adapting their history for the big screen. Troy, which starred Brad Pitt as Achilles, was panned by the Greeks when it came out earlier this year; critics said the film's plot was a travesty of the Iliad — the poem on which the legend is based — and that its set bore little resemblance to the craggy hill town believed by Greeks to be the real Troy. Disney's 1997 animated Hercules was lambasted for historical inaccuracies such as its protagonist's slaying of the Minotaur — a feat normally attributed to Theseus. However, it seems unlikely that Hollywood will give up artistic license — even in the face of Greeks bearing writs.

• ANTHEE CARASSAVA
• Hollywood's depiction of a heroic lifestyle choice has upset the folks at home