Rodrigo Borgia

Blatantly, Jeremy Irons was born to play the pope, aka Rodrigo Borgia, the cosseted, gold-hoarding power-obsessed head of the Borgias clan.

The Borgias: Grace Dent's TV OD 2011

Church only through Savonarola; his moral force had been the only authority to which she had bowed; and in his excommunication she only saw the menace of hostile vice: on one side she saw a man whose life was devoted to the ends of public virtue and spiritual purity, and on the other the assault of alarmed selfishness, headed by a lustful, greedy, lying, and murderous old man, once called Rodrigo Borgia, and now lifted to the pinnacle of infamy as Pope Alexander the Sixth.

Romola George Eliot 1849

Jeremy Irons dominates this juicy chronicle of devilish debauchery as the ghoulish Rodrigo Borgia, patriarch of a power-hungry family who bribes his way into the papacy while maintaining a mistress on the side.

Matt's Picks, April 1-3 2011

It may shock a lot of Catholics to see a Pope who behaves like Rodrigo Borgia.

Feeling Wrong for the Role, at First Amy Chozick 2011

Showtime, for example, is about to launch The Borgias, starring Jeremy Irons as 15th century Pope Rodrigo Borgia; at the same time, Oz creator Tom Fontana is behind a rival take, Borgia, starring The Wire's John Doman as Rodrigo Borgia.

Two Car-Racing Shows Get Ready for Primetime 2011

The series stars Jeremy Irons as the corrupt Rodrigo Borgia, whose family builds an empire on sin and backstabbing.

Showtime Renews The Borgias for Season 2 2011

Neil Jordan said "Do you want to play Rodrigo Borgia?"

Feeling Wrong for the Role, at First Amy Chozick 2011

Premiering this spring, the period drama stars Irons as Rodrigo Borgia, the patriarch of a corrupt, Renaissance-era Italian noble family.

Jeremy Irons Shares Why He Chose SVU as His Network TV Debut 2011

Thirty years after he played Charles Ryder in the British miniseries "Brideshead Revisited," actor Jeremy Irons takes on another TV role that involves Catholicism, opulence and distrust: Rodrigo Borgia, the scheming patriarch and corrupt Pope Alexander VI in Showtime's "The Borgias," premiering April 3.

Feeling Wrong for the Role, at First Amy Chozick 2011

As Rodrigo Borgia he is comical in his self-regard and foppishness, ordering villages to be stripped of chattals or his enemies slayed before sinking back weakly into his papal throne, fingering the edges of his golden crown mumbling that God is verily moving within him.

The Borgias: Grace Dent's TV OD 2011