By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Writer Ron Howard, director of the new Dan Brown movie, Angels & Demons, is accusing the Vatican of interfering with the production company’s effort to obtain permits to shoot certain scenes during filming. The Vatican is calling these claims a publicity stunt. According to a report by CathNews, Howard made the accusations during a press conference yesterday. Howard claims the Vatican exerted influence regarding his permits that would not permit him to even short scenes in Rome that had a Catholic church in the background. "When you come to film in Rome, the official statement to you is that the Vatican has no influence," Howard said. "Everything progressed very smoothly, but unofficially a couple of days before we were to start filming in several of our locations, it was explained to us that through back channels and so forth that the Vatican had exerted some influence." Howard's team was forced to build a small-scale replica of St. Peter's Square after church officials denied his request to film in the plaza. He admitted in an earlier interview that he filmed in some locations anyway, usng "guerrilla" tactics of hidden cameras and lightening-fast takes. The last film, The Da Vinci Code, was an anti-Catholic film based on the premise that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalen. The new film features the same star, Tom Hanks, playing the role of Robert Langdon, who is called in to investigate the Church-sanctioned murder of a scientist-priest. Clues lead him and a beautiful scientist, Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), to Rome and a nefarious secret brotherhood called the Illuminati. Howard does appear to be trying to stoke a controversy for publicity purposes. In a recent  op-ed in the Huffington Post, he responded to calls for a boycott of the film by Catholic League President Bill Donohue. "Let me be clear: neither I nor `Angels & Demons' are anti-Catholic," Howard wrote. "And let me be a little controversial: I believe Catholics, including most in the hierarchy of the Church, will enjoy the movie for what it is: an exciting mystery, set in the awe-inspiring beauty of Rome." Vatican spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, refused to comment on Howard's allegations about church interference, saying his charges were purely designed to drum up publicity for the film. © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly/Women of Grace. http://www.womenofgrace.com