Iran is complaining about the negative treatment of the Persian Empire in the new Hollywood hit “300,” which depicts the famous battle at Thermopylae between the Empire and the Greeks. Government sources are describing the film as “anti-Iranian.” I think they’re overstating the problem a bit - in order for the film to be effectively anti-Iranian, American audiences would first have to realize that Iran used to be Persia. Sounds like someone’s Cultural Ministry just got up on the wrong side of the bed today.

::: Iran calls Hollywood blockbuster cultural “warfare”
Fredrik Dahl, Reuters, March 13, 2007