Passion of Christ star struck by lightning.

You know, they say that an actor who dares to play Jesus invites misfortune. Some go as far to say that the role is cursed, noting some wildly unproven statistic that every actor who has played Jesus of Nazareth has died before his thirty-third birthday.

But that's garbage, of course.

Jim Caviezel, the actor assuming the part for the new (and controversial!) Mel Gibson produced film, is thirty-five and--more importantly--survived the lightning strike.

Jeremy Sisto, who played Jesus in the 1999 eponymous television movie, is alive and kicking (though our conspiracy theorists will point out that he's only 29.)

Willem Dafoe and Ted Neeley provide arguably the strongest case against the theory that to play Jesus is to die young. Dafoe, who was Jesus in 1988's The Last Temptation of Christ, is going strong at forty-eight. Neeley, now 60, appeared on screen as Jesus in Norman Jewison's Jesus Christ Superstar and has--in recent years--taken up the part again in North American tours of the musical.

Curious how these "theories" get started... No truth to this one, as far as I can see. Though I'm sure there'll be a few fanatics who will use Caviezel's accident to prove their case.