Actress Susan Sarandon reportedly let loose on Pope Benedict at the Hampton’s film festival over the weekend.

During an interview about her career, including her Oscar win for the film  “Dead Man Walking,”  Sarandon revealed that she sent then Pope John Paul II a copy of the book the movie was based on.  She pointedly added that she didn’t sent it to the current Pope.

“Not this Nazi one we have now,” Sarandon said to actor Bob Balaban, who conducted the interview.  When Balaban bristled at her remark, the actress reportedly repeated the comment, according to Newsday.com.

            Henry S. Dziekan III/Getty Images; Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images

Calls to Sarandon’s representatives by ABCNews.com were not immediately returned.

The reaction from religious groups was fast and furious.  Bill Donohue of the Catholic League told E! News  that “it is very hard to find someone dumber” than Sarandon, a person he said he wouldn’t seek an apology from because  “she is ignorant and full of hatred to the Catholic Church.”

American Defamation League Director Abraham Foxman said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times that  “Ms. Sarandon may have her differences with the Catholic Church, but that is no excuse for throwing around Nazi analogies. Such words are hateful, vindictive and only serve to diminish the true history and meaning of the Holocaust.”

For more on Pope Benedict’s history read WHO IS POPE BENEDICT XVI