UNFORTUNATELY, MOM LEADS THE PARTY OF PARIS:

God, Mom and Country: A Filmmaker's Odyssey (FELICIA R. LEE, 1/11/07, NY Times)

You are a young documentary filmmaker with a reputation for capturing politicians' antics. In a deliberate departure from politics, your latest film is a road trip into the world of evangelical Christians that includes a drive-through church, a Christian wrestling federation, a stand-up Christian comic, an evangelical Elvis and a biblical miniature golf course complete with the empty tomb of Jesus.

It just so happens, though, that your designated tour guide in that world is the Rev. Ted Haggard, then president of the National Association of Evangelicals who, after your film is finished, is accused of buying illegal drugs from a male prostitute and paying him for sex. And your mother, it turns out, makes history, becoming the first female speaker of the House just weeks before your film is broadcast.

Those two big events are the back story for Alexandra Pelosi, whose film "Friends of God: A Road Trip With Alexandra Pelosi," is to be shown on HBO on Jan. 25. The youngest child of Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat sworn in last week as speaker of the House, Ms. Pelosi said the other day she worried that her film would not be received in an "open-minded way."

People might love it or hate because of her mother or because of its association with Mr. Haggard, she said. But what she really wanted, Ms. Pelosi said, was to further the conversation about religion and culture.

"I believe in the culture war," she said. "And you know what? If I have to take a side in the culture war I'll take their side," meaning the Christian conservatives. "Because if you give me the choice of Paris Hilton or Jesus, I'll take Jesus." [...]

On the road, she said, she was repeatedly asked about her own beliefs. "I got saved five times a day," she said, describing herself as a believer in God and a lapsed Roman Catholic who dislikes church. But she and her husband, Michiel Vos, a journalist for Dutch media, intend to make certain that their son, Paul Michael Vos (born Nov. 13), goes to church, she said, so he would have "more than himself and capitalism to believe in."