Mormons Having A 'Moment,' But Is Buzz Good or Bad?

Without question, the LDS church is the religious denomination du jour . From Broadway's "The Book of Mormon," to players in the race for president, to Bentley the caddish heartbreaker on television's reality series "The Bachelorette," Mormons are making news, according to a story by Michell Bearden, at The Tampa Tribune.

Earlier this month, Newsweek magazine put a digital creation of a dancing Mitt Romney on the cover for its story on "The Mormon Moment: How the Outsider Faith Creates Winners."

• MITT ROMNEY AND JON HUNTSMAN JR.: Note to Mitt and Jon, aspiring Republican presidential candidates: Don't read the polls. The Pew Research Center reported earlier this month that a "significant segment of voters would be less likely" to vote for a Mormon candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Whether it's poll-driven or a desire to keep religion out of the debate, both men downplay their faith on the campaign trail. Fifteen Mormons currently serve in the U.S. Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
• GLENN BECK: Love him or hate him, this Mormon convert (whose radio talk-show career was launched in Tampa on WFLA-AM) is his own cottage industry. Brash, radical, controversial, conservative, divisive, emotional – he was a perfect fit for a daily show on Fox News. Then his ratings started to plunge, and Beck and Fox parted ways last week. Even his once top-rated syndicated radio show is taking a hit. No matter. Beck, called the "prophet of doom" by a Forbes contributor, is still writing books and giving speeches, and his subscriber-based network, GBTV, will debut on the Internet in the fall.
• DONNY AND MARIE OSMOND: Aw, they're still so cute and cuddly. Hard to believe Donny is now 53 and his little sister is 51. They're still a hot-ticket show at the Flamingo in Las Vegas after all these years. Marie just remarried her first husband and former Brigham Young University basketball player Stephen Craig (in the same dress from their 1982 wedding!) in the Las Vegas Mormon Temple; and teens to grandmothers continue to swoon over Donny, who was ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" champ in season nine.

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