Spotlight Trivia Quiz

Answer: an investigative group of reporters

The "Boston Globe" newspaper has a group of investigative reporters, called the Spotlight Team. They work on stories that may take weeks or months to put together, so they do not usually work on day-to-day reporting. Some other newspapers and television stations have similar groups.

Answer: "Let's keep it that way."

One of the points the movie makes is that child sexual abuse in the Boston archdiocese was going on long before it became a major news story and was covered up, both by the Church and the police. A subtitle at the beginning of the scene places it in 1976.

The assistant district attorney goes to a back room to meet with the family and a priest representing the Archdiocese of Boston. The assistant D.A. is addressed by his first name by the priest. The priest and another man are soon seen leaving; no action was taken by local authorities.

Answer: editor

Marty Baron (played by Liev Schreiber) came to "The Boston Globe" from "The Miami Herald". After reading some of the newspaper's past articles about a Boston priest who was sexually abusing children and how the court records were sealed by a judge, he asked the Spotlight team to dig into it further.

Answer: John Geoghan

Looking through the "Globe's" own files and doing further research, the Spotlight team found out that complaints against Geoghan had been ongoing for over 30 years in six parishes (congregations) he had been assigned to. The "Globe" editor wanted the team to prove that the diocese hierarchy knew about Geoghan's predation and didn't take adequate measures to stop it.

Answer: Phil Saviano

Saviano was one of the first victims to speak out about clergy sexual abuse. He explained to the Spotlight team the influence priests often had over young children: "When you're a poor kid from a poor family and when a priest pays attention to you, it's a big deal... How do you say no to God?"

Answer: Rachel McAdams

Sacha Pfeiffer was the only woman on the Spotlight team. McAdams lost to Vikander, who played Gerda Wegener in "The Danish Girl". McAdams had been previously seen in a number of movies including "The Time Traveler's Wife" and "Sherlock Holmes". Like most of the Spotlight reporters, Pfeiffer moved on to other jobs but returned to the "Globe" in 2014, but not on the Spotlight team.

Besides Best Picture, "Spotlight" won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay. It was the first time since 1952's "The Greatest Show on Earth" that the winner of Best Picture only received one other Oscar.

Answer: Boston College High School

Boston College High School, owned by Boston College, a Catholic university in suburban Boston, was named as a school where a priest had molested students for eight years before being transferred.

Answer: Michael Keaton

Keaton, as Robinson, is seen throughout the movie directing his team and brushing aside attempts by people employed by, or friendly to, the Archdiocese of Boston to blunt or hide details of the story. To convey the power the Catholic church exerted over Boston we learn in the film that Robinson, while a staff reporter for the "Globe" in the 1990s, had received a tip about clergy sex abuse and had failed to make any headway with it. (I don't know if that happened to the real Robinson or if it was just part of the script.)

Michael Keaton has a long list of movie credits, including "Batman" and "Birdman".

Answer: Pete Conley

Fictional character Conley was a "fixer" for the Archdiocese. He tried to smooth things over and get the team to back off from attacking the cardinal. To quote some dialog from Conley: "And the Cardinal - you know, the Cardinal, he might not be perfect. But we can't throw out all the good he's doing over a few bad apples."

Conley was played by Paul Guilfoyle, who is probably best known for his role as Captain Jim Brass of the Las Vegas Metro Police Department in the TV show "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation".

Answer: Mitch Garabedian

Garabedian (Stanley Tucci) provided the first big break for the Spotlight reporters. Interviewed by Spotlight member Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), he initially refused to say anything but eventually informed Rezendes that Cardinal Bernard Law of the Boston Archdiocese knew about Rev. Geoghan sexually abusing children but did nothing to stop him and was aware of his being moved from parish to parish.