We've now read this CNN.com story about the incident twice, however, and failed both times to find any mention of the broad, Spielberg-boycotting actions referred to in the headline. (The 10th paragraph does mention that they are preparing a response.) Still, should Spielberg find himself a director non grata inside the borders of the most populous nation on the planet—subjected to a Supreme and Glorified People's Movie Ratings Committee-sanctioned protest in which every copy of the director's oeuvre (except 1941, Hook, and The Terminal) was incinerated in a massive, air-polluting bonfire staged in Tiananmen Square—it seems a small price to pay for following one's conscience.

• Olympic organizers mull Spielberg boycott [CNN.com]

"After careful consideration, I have decided to formally announce the end of my involvement as one of the overseas artistic advisers to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games."

"I have made repeated efforts to encourage the Chinese government to use its unique influence to bring safety and stability to the Darfur region of Sudan. Although some progress has been made ...the situation continues to worsen and the violence continues to accelerate."

"With this in mind, I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue with business as usual. At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies, but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that will continue to be committed in Darfur.

While we respect Spielberg's decision, we must admit to being more than a little disappointed at the outcome. If the rumors were true, audiences will now be robbed of witnessing one of Olympics history's most spectacular set pieces, in which the entire Israeli cycling team would take miraculous flight across a moonlit Beijing sky, a blanket-wrapped Mary Lou Retton leading the way with one illuminated finger outstretched.

• Spielberg pulls out of Olympics [Variety]

Farrow got no response. Then she read that Spielberg was going to be an artistic director of the games. "I wrote him a letter of conscience saying I hoped he knew all these things," she says. "I really suggested he think twice. And then when I didn't hear back, I had a vision of a box within a box within a box—that he has an office, and then there's a real office behind that and maybe a really real office after that and maybe three letters a month actually get to him.

So to be fair, maybe he didn't get any of my letters. [But] I'm on another time schedule where ten thousand people a month are dying. So you wait two weeks, that's five thousand people right there. I just could not wait any longer. So the piece was born."

In the end, it seems that someone managed to penetrate the innermost of Spielberg's Russian-nesting-offices with their Darfur concerns, as a spokesman has just announced that he's considering quitting his advisory role if the Chinese don't soon address the problem of their support of the Sudanese government. While the loss of Spielberg's consulting services would certainly send a clear message, the director may need to make a bolder statement to get the dramatic result everyone's hoping for; perhaps if he publicly threatens to withhold the release of next summer's Indiana Jones 4 from Chinese theaters, the outcry from hundreds of millions of the nation's outraged Indy fans, who've suffered over two decades without a new adventure from their favorite swashbuckling archaeologist, will pressure their leaders to take real action.

• The Genocide Olympics [Slate]
• Spielberg Mulls Quitting Olympics to Pressure Chinese on Darfur [ABC News]

"That so many corporate sponsors want the world to look away from that atrocity during the games is bad enough. But equally disappointing is the decision of artists like director Steven Spielberg — who quietly visited China this month as he prepares to help stage the Olympic ceremonies — to sanitize Beijing's image," they wrote.

"Is Mr. Spielberg, who in 1994 founded the Shoah Foundation to record the testimony of survivors of the Holocaust, aware that China is bankrolling Darfur's genocide?"

"Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games?" they wrote.

Criticizing Spielberg is an almost unheard of practice in Hollywood, as it is widely believed that such an action will instantly result in swift, lightning-bolt retribution from above. We daren't imagine the vengeful results of likening the director of Schindler's List to a legendary Nazi-glorifier in the pages of one of America's most respected newspapers, though we wouldn't be surprised if Farrow suddenly found herself pinned today by a crescent-shaped moon that dropped inexplicably from the sky, only to be finished off moments later by the tumbling, barefoot boy who accidentally gores her with a fishing pole.

• Farrow warns Spielberg on helping Beijing's Olympics [AFP]
• The 'Genocide Olympics' [WSJ] (Sub req'd)