Of course, it may be that the organisation responsible for some of the greatest works of art and literature in Western civilisation simply thinks Brown's books and the films based on them are a bit crap. And tourist authorities in Rome may think they've got enough on their hands dealing with the faithful visiting Il Pape without having to deal with hordes of film fans who seem unable to distinguish fact from cinematic fiction.According to the BBC, Howard told a news conference: "When you come to film in Rome, the official statement to you is that the Vatican has no influence."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."Shockingly, said Howard, the Church pulled strings to ensure that the filmmakers could not film in two buildings in Rome... large buildings, with crosses on the top. You know, churches.For its part, the Vatican has shown it is fully cognisant of the powers of the dark side - or the Hollywood publicity machine in this instance - with a Vatican spokesman condemning Howard's statements as a lame attempt to drum up publicity for the film.