• TLC has decided to soothe the homesickness of Minnesotans everywhere with Mall Cops: Mall Of America, a new show about security at the sprawling Bloomington, Minnesota complex. Having once lived about a quarter-mile from the MOA, I look forward to the episode where response to an emergency is delayed because the mall cops go to the wrong one of the two Sunglass Huts.
• An interesting question: Can you commit libel in a work of fiction? The answer seems to be "maybe," at least according to one jury.
• It takes a certain kind of bravery to come out as anti-Nutcracker at the end of November, but somebody has to do the journalistic heavy lifting.
Microsoft pays good money to weaken Google, spray-tanners find their big moment, and Sandra Bullock outperforms expectations again, after the jump.
Shame, search, and Sandra Bullock, after the jump.
• Mike White not only wrote School Of Rock, but he was an extremely likable contestant on The Amazing Race (with his dad, Mel). Now, to that eclectic resume, he adds a film version of a great story that aired on This American Life just before Christmas last year. I remember the story, about warring factions of Santas, and I am already eager to see the movie.
• Having recently read Stephen King's new Under The Dome, I'm fairly bullish on a cable miniseries adaptation with Steven Spielberg at the helm. The Stand, which is in some ways a similar story, made for a surprisingly decent miniseries back in the day (Gary Sinise! Molly Ringwald! Rob Lowe!), and that was broadcast TV.
• In the continuing story of What The Heck Is Going On At NBC, note that the network ordered three more episodes of the struggling (to say the least) Trauma. As many expected, they're moving the return of Chuck up to January, too.
Two great moments in live performing, Runway chatter, and a thing about Twitter that seems even more inconsequential than most, after the jump.
• Good news? Bad news? Who knows? Aaron Sorkin is returning to the world of television set behind the scenes of television. Could be another Sports Night. (Yaaaay!) Could be another Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip. (Boooo.)
• A set of guidelines for theater critics has set off a debate about just what a critic is obligated to do -- it's summed up nicely, with lots of links, here.
• From The Department Of Gross Generalizations Debunking Other Gross Generalizations, it turns out that sex doesn't sell after all. So that's it for sex, then.
Even more spoiler discussion, a surging comedy, and Oscar documentary news, after the jump.
• If you've always wished that Darth Vader were less menacing and more functional, you will want to check out this gadget.
• Get your Twilight: New Moon premiere fix with this collection of photos from Best Week Ever, accompanied by some truly great commentary. Well done, BWE.
• Like your local bookstore? Sad about the possibility that it might close? Get together with the rest of your town and buy it. That's what they'd do in France.
Bing, diversity among writers, and Jennifer Hudson's latest project, after the jump.
• To the surprise of very few, Disney is putting on a Best Picturecampaign for Up. With ten nominees, a snub of Up would be even more shocking than last year's non-nomination of WALL-E, but everybody's got to make sure the marketing is covered.
• People in theater really loveGlee. Please restrain your shock.
• The Word Of The Year is unfriend? If that is the case, we have gotten very bad at making up new words.
A new friend on Twitter, the future of movies at home, and Heather Locklear, after the jump.
• Fans of the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup can now create their own DVDs by selecting just the episodes they want and even picking their own cover art. It's hard to picture this kind of thing replacing full season sets for series completists, but there may be a place in the long run for the ability to create your own best-of collections.
• More Hulu drama: Paywalls? Warring with the ad sales staff? The potential for Comcast to get involved? There is thinking and overthinking, as always.
• Today In Sticklerism: The New York Times explores the painful world of the expert in typography.
Artists get their songs back and the Twilight town is handled with care, after the jump.
• The Telegraph has its list of 100 Books That Defined The Decade. There's going to be a lot of this over the next couple of months, rest assured.
• Want more end-of-decade coverage? In The New York Times Magazine, critic A.O. Scott talks about important films of the decade and the first movie review he ever wrote.
• Returning to The Telegraph, Bookninja linked to this discussion of the historically respected writing that would fail under computer grading.
New "angels," bigger Comcast, and a Salon update, after the jump.
• Fully 20 animated films have entered the Oscar race for Best Animated Feature. Best of luck to you, Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel!
• You may have heard by now that there was some cancellation news yesterday, none of it surprising: Kelsey Grammer's terrible Hank and Joss Whedon's struggling Dollhouse both got the axe.
• Oprah Winfrey has started promoting her Sarah Palin interview, starting with a YouTube video in which she claims they "talked about everything."
A new show for nerds, more Fockers, and Sean Hannity apologizes, after the jump.
• Rupert Murdoch has been making a lot of public accusations about Google, claiming that search engines indexing his publications' content are stealing from him. To the surprise of absolutely no one, Google's response is that Murdoch is free to make his material vanish from its searches any time he wants.
• George Lopez managed some strong ratings for the debut of his TBS talk show on Monday night -- more viewers than The Daily Show, for instance.
• Denzel Washington is going back to Broadway to star in a revival of August Wilson's award-winning Fences.
Barry Levinson takes on a journalist, television viewing is up, and Simon Cowell makes a lot of money, after the jump.
• Excellent, and highly amusing, piece in The Guardian responding to the apparent departure of Steven Tyler from Aerosmith. Who will replace him? They suggest Janice from Dr. Teeth And The Electric Mayhem, among others.
• The New York Times takes a look at the Dreamgirls revival at the Apollo Theater. (Note that another American Idol alum, Syesha Mercado, is involved, continuing the Jennifer Hudson tradition.)
• Last night, on Dancing With The Stars, Donny Osmond performed the paso doble to "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)" while dressed up like Adam Ant. And that is, believe it or not, not the best part. The best part is that Gawker thought he was supposed to be Michael Jackson. So try to drop that into conversation today, if you can: "Donny Osmond wasn't dressed like Michael Jackson, youngster. He was dressed like Adam Ant."
• I didn't even know it was a secret that nude art is sexy, but apparently now, it's okay to admit it. The Washington Postsays so.
There can never be enough Oscar speculation, or enough ABC cancel/pickup gossip, or enough of Matthew Weiner talking about Mad Men, after the jump.
• In most ways, it was a pretty slow weekend at the box office, with the exception of Precious, which came out of the gate like a rocket in limited release in 18 theaters. As Box Office Mojo points out, it managed the 12th biggest per-screen weekend average ever. Note that it carried that average over significantly more theaters than the other movies that appear on the list of highest per-screen averages, most of which made their money at only one to three theaters. Put it this way: It is the highest reported per-screen average ever for a movie in more than six theaters.
• I'm a big fan of Amy Heckerling, who directed Clueless and Fast Times At Ridgemont High, but I have to agree with Slashfilm that news that her new venture is a vampire movie just makes me tired.
• Finally someone has applied mathematical exactitude to the problem of why on earth Basic Instinct 2 wasn't a huge success. Now I can get some sleep.
The art of writing (ugh), ignoring the Internet because you got in a fight there once, and a wonderful story about editors' revenge, after the jump.
• As cable channels continue to reach, reach, reach far beyond their original mandates, it's probably no surprise that The Cartoon Network is making two live-action shows.
• Assuming that people still have televisions in 2012, my guess is that TNT is going to make a lot of money with syndication rights to The Mentalist, judging by the fruits of the network's relationship with Law & Order and the performance of NCIS reruns on USA.
• This is a useful summary of some of the issues surrounding digital distribution of entertainment content, but quite honestly, the best thing about it is its subheading: "Promising gizmos banking on being biz's next killer app." Oh, if only everyone who had ever banked on a promising gizmo had his or her money back.
Whoopi Goldberg is unclear on the concept, Videogum puts together a great clip show, and Mickey Mouse is remade into a less pleasant cartoon mouse for marketing reasons, after the jump.
• Danny Boyle, most recently the director of Slumdog Millionaire, will next take on the story of a trapped hiker who amputated his own arm to escape from the rock that had pinned him. So: just another cheerful, upbeat tale from that guy.
• There's a battle going on, and the prize is the ability to show you movies as soon as possible. The Motion Picture Association Of America would like to be able to strengthen what it characterizes as anti-copying technology so it can provide new movies in your home much closer to their theatrical releases than is possible right now. Theater owners are not as enthused, and are putting up a fight -- as are many who aren't enthusiastic about further limitations on their use of home entertainment.
• Sheldon Dorf, the founder of the San Diego Comic-Con International, died on Tuesday, and there's already a tribute site where you can read what some folks have to say about him. I feel like it's completely in the spirit of the event to speculate that many owners of their own Starfleet uniform shirts are very sad today. Hear Ina Jaffe's report on his death below.
A list of books that's causing a stir, Glenn Beck's innards, and a classical music event at the White House, after the jump.
• If you enjoyed Gordon Ramsay on Hell's Kitchen or Kitchen Nightmares, you'll be happy to know that he has another show coming to Fox, on which he will undoubtedly call people "donkeys."
• For a good summary of the "physical books cannot be replaced, because I say so" argument that bedevils e-readers, check out this piece from the Boston Globe.
• It feels like there have been thousands of articles just like this one about the process of writing headlines at The Onion, in which journalists convey the apparently surprising facts that (1) there is a process to comedy; (2) comedy is work; (3) people who have a wildly successful formula for success that has been successful for them for, say, 20 years or so tend to understand what that formula is; and (4) people who write comedy professionally obsess over it at a level you might not expect. Because, see, they do it professionally. I generally find the tone of the articles more interesting than the articles themselves, but that one, from The New York Times, is a pretty good one.
Possibly the worst book ever and a fresh lawsuit, after the jump.
• It's seemed closer and closer over the course of the last few weeks, but apparently Comcast's possible purchase of NBC is seriously on the move. We are trying to see the possible humor in it.
• The Oscar-hosting horse race is on (following news that Hugh Jackman had declined), and I have to tell you: I don't think it's going to be NPH. Nor do I think it should be. You don't want the guy to become the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? of celebrities, burning himself out too soon. I would support Tina Fey. And definitely not Billy Crystal, who barely works anymore.
• If you read this interview with Jay Leno in at Broadcasting & Cable, you will learn that you should never give an interview in which you explain 50 times why you don't feel defensive and you don't mind criticism being aimed at you, because it will inevitably seem like you mind rather a lot. As others have noted, a beef with NBC is different from a beef with Leno about content, but I don't know that I've ever seen a performer offer so many reasons why every criticism of his show is illegitimate. It's a fascinating piece.
Glee news, David Letterman, and a sharp look at fall television, after the jump.
• The Los Angeles Times' Gold Derby blog would like you to know that there are two Best Picture frontrunners for 2009. One of them isn't out yet.
• In other Oscar news (I told you it was like hockey season!), Hugh Jackman has reportedly turned down the Oscar hosting job for next year. Who are they going to get now? I'm going with the cast of Glee.
• ABC has rolled out a teaser clip for the final season of Lost, with the slight modification that it doesn't include any footage from the final season of Lost. Making it not so much a "teaser" as a "reminder of what you used to like about this show, which makes it mathematically more likely that you will like things about this show again in the future."
• There's an interesting conversation going on about the use of prompters by theater actors, owing largely to a situation with one Matthew Broderick.
• Popular online video site Hulu was the subject of some mass hysteria last week after a metaphorical game of telephone led some outlets to treat "we're going to have to start charging for at least some things at some point" as "beginning next year, everything that's free now will require a paid subscription" and throwing their readers into a panic. You will recall that we discussed the fact that nobody actually said that. And now, Hulu is reminding everyone that nobody actually said that.
• You know, I'm not sure I'm prepared to acknowledge the giant iPhones in this YouTube video as "Halloween costumes." They're awfully literal. Aren't they just giant iPhones with guys wearing them? (Hat-tip: Mobile Content Today.)
An amazing pumpkin and the battle between good and evil, after the jump. You heard me.
• Microsoft has pulled out of an agreement to sponsor a Seth MacFarlane comedy special scheduled to air as part of a Family Guy extravaganza on Fox, based on concerns about the content. It really does make you wonder whether the relevant people at Microsoft had ever seen Family Guy before it made the deal.
• Ricky Gervaiswill host the notoriously goofy, sometimes boozy Golden Globes in January 2010. If you've ever seen Gervais show up everyone else attempting to be funny at, for instance, the Emmys, you probably instinctively understand that this is a great idea.
• Nathan Fillion fans and Firefly fans will want to make sure to check out this clip from last night's Castle, in which Fillion's old role as Captain Mal got a little love.
• I would point out that yesterday's discussion of Mad Men and January Jones was written before I saw her powerful work in last night's stunning episode. if you were wondering whether they were going anywhere with this season, rest assured: they were.
• Arrested Development creator Mitchell Hurwitz talked a little this weekend about the upcoming movie and how he's approaching it.
• Low-budget horror movie Paranormal Activity continued to look powerful this weekend. In fact, it handily bestedSaw VI, the latest big-budget horror offering.
Women in film, a dessert competition, and lowbrow books, after the jump.
• The Hollywood Reporter has this report card showing how each of the broadcast networks is faring this fall. The takeaway: They're hurting, but without strong performances from some new shows and veteran shows that have, in some cases, picked up substantially, it would be a whole lot worse.
• Soupy Sales, who did a little bit of a lot of different things in his lengthy television career, has died at 83.
• There's a hardcover price war going on among Walmart, Target, and Amazon, and a group representing independent bookstores is taking the position that it constitutes illegal predatory pricing. I don't know that the Justice Department is going to step in because they're "devaluing the very concept of the book," but the claim about selling books at a loss in order to control the entire market for hardcovers is a little more difficult to dismiss.
Hulu, CNN, and the best reality show winner ever, after the jump.
• Movie studios are strapped for cash. How strapped? They're accelerating the practice of renting out the backlots for parties.
• Glee fans (and we know you're out there) will be thrilled to hear that the first 13 episodes of the show aren't even waiting for the end of the season to come to DVD -- they'll be out December 29.
• People who want to make their children famous are getting a little help from a bill in California going after companies that scam parents out of large sums of money by taking advantage of their desire to get their kids into acting and modeling.
We're continuing to hunt for the best way to get you interesting tidbits that don't merit an entire post of their own, and I am always in favor of a coffee theme, so let's consider this the semi-caffeinated morning report.
• One of the better dancers was unceremoniously booted from Dancing With The Stars last night, to the point where -- no kidding -- one of the judges pleaded with viewers to remember that as much as they love an underdog, they should be thinking more about "justice." Dancing justice! Sparkly, spray-tanned, dancing justice!
What's cooking at the Oscars, what's coming to Oprah's studio, and what's shaking up (of all things) The Weather Channel, after the jump.
On top of what's discussed in the dangling-monkey post below, another piece of redesign news is that we have a new media player that, among other things, makes many stories embeddable, meaning you can pop them into your own blog -- look! It will look like this!
Given that, and given the temporary disorientation as folks get used to the new setup, it seemed like as good a time as any to offer some reminders of some of the radio coverage that goes on around here all the time that might pique your interest if you have an interest in popular culture and entertainment. Let's take a spin through some of what aired just today.
Morning Edition
One company thinks it has an inventive answer to digital music pricing, but how will consumers react when the price of a song changes from week to week?
You may have heard a little bit about Comic-Con in the last week or so. Nina Gregory reports for NPR, including a chat with a Comic-Con veteran by the name of Ray Bradbury.
A very dark vision of D.C., a remembrance of choreographer Merce Cunningham, the writer-director of In The Loop, and lots more, after the jump...
The Wrestler: In a fairly grim box-office weekend, it got some of the only promising signals. Fox Searchlight
• This is what a slow weekend looks like: Jim Carrey's latest rubber-faced comedy, Yes Man, opens with $18.2 million; Will Smith's latest earnest drama, Seven Pounds, opens with $16.5 million; and the mouse-based kids' movie The Tale Of Despereaux opens with $10.5 million.
One of the few movies to get good news was The Wrestler, which opened in four theaters and managed a per-screen average of more than $52,000, almost exactly ten times Yes Man's average. Compare that to the $60,236 -- the highest per-screen opening of the entire year -- for the three-screen debut of Frost/Nixon a few weeks ago, after a much more visible mainstream marketing push.
Sci-fi connectivity, honoring Jeff Buckley, and the year in satire, after the jump...
Bob wins Survivor: Maybe it was the bow tie that saw him through. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
by Linda Holmes
• Last night, Survivor crowned its seventeenth winner: Maine physics teacher and bow-tie enthusiast Bob Crowley, who beat out Sugar the pin-up model and Susie the mom/hairdresser. Bob, at 57, is the oldest winner in the show's history, and one of only two or three contestants cast this season who aren't in immediate and urgent need of a kick in the shins.
• Writer Tom Scocca takes to the pages of the Boston Globe to argue that an advertising mentality is now unfortunately creeping into everything, including your passport and the Army-Navy game.
• In the Los Angeles Times, Scott Collins takes a look at the idea of networks basing management decisions on factors other than ratings -- not the quality of programming, of course, but DVD sales, DVR viewing, and online attention. Collins winds up sort of punting on that debate in favor of advocating for quality. A viewpoint we can all agree with, of course, but encouraging networks to think less about making money isn't as likely to improve programming as encouraging them to think about additional ways to make money.
Furthermore, what exactly does a network do with a show like Arrested Development, which Fox still takes guff for canceling, in spite of the fact that they kept it on for three seasons and couldn't get anybody to watch it? (But you'll find it among the most popular shows on Hulu, even now, and in the clip above, featuring Michael Cera shortly before he became a movie star.)
Book club strife, Austen humor, and a Ralphie update, after the jump...
Culture panic: Worried about applauding at the wrong time? You're hardly alone. iStockphoto.
by Linda Holmes
• The London Times is feeling mighty optimistic these days, judging from its creation of a list of the 100 Best Movies of 2008. Now, it doesn't always feel like there are two movies a week that anyone would want to include on such a list, but they've gone and compiled their list nonetheless. (Note that it's based on 2008 releases in the U.K.; some of these were released in the U.S. in 2007.) If nothing else, it does make a nice refresher on recent movies you may have missed, and there are handy links to every review.
TiVo, penny-pinching, and fear of culture snobbery, after the jump...
• It's that time again -- tonight on ABC is the final performance show of Dancing With The Stars. The finale will feature former NFL player Warren Sapp, model and TV host Brooke Burke, and N*Sync veteran Lance Bass. (Could they be any more famous?) Above is Lance's surprisingly enjoyable jitterbug from last week -- watch for the shocking plot development around the 45-second mark. You never know what will happen on live television.
• For my money, this weekend's Saturday Night Live, hosted by Paul Rudd and featuring appearances by Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake, was one of the most consistently entertaining episodes in quite a while. Above is Timberlake's appearance on "Weekend Update," where he imagines what next week's show would have been like if he'd been free to host.
Sarah Palin's book deal, James Bond's big numbers, and more, after the jump...
Beyoncé as Wonder Woman: Not even she looks entirely sure she's ready for the invisible jet and the bracelets. Dave Hogan/Getty Images
• I agree with Slashfilm's Peter Sciretta that I'm not sure how to feel about the possibility of Beyoncé Knowles playing Wonder Woman, but I do think it's odd that no one has taken on Wonder Woman at all, given the number of superhero adaptations that have floated by in the last few years. Two Hulk movies and no Wonder Woman? I think it's time for Wonder Woman to file with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The surprisingly successful film debut of the weekend, more on CNN's terrible hologram, and what it feels like to be the "Why Obama Can't Win" guy, after the jump...
Mad Men: Get the skinny on Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and the rest of the crowd, straight from the horse's mouth. AMC
by Linda Holmes
• If you are among the Mad Men faithful and crave a thoughtful dissection of the show's second season and of last night's season finale, don't miss the lengthy and fascinating Q&A that the New Jersey Star-Ledger's Alan Sepinwall conducted with showrunner Matthew Weiner. Weiner dissects individual scenes and the season as a whole, answers a number of burning questions hotly debated by fans, and generally goes full-on wonk about his own characters.
The nature of humor, the fate of irony, and how Facebook can get you in trouble, after the jump...
Marcia, Marcia, Marcia: A date with...Michael Jackson? Really? Frederick M. Brown, Getty Images
by Linda Holmes
• I'm truly not one for celebrity gossip, but I admit that I found it difficult to resist the pull of stories revealing that Marcia Brady went out with Michael Jackson. Seriously. In her new tell-all book, Maureen McCormick not only details her well-known relationship with her on-screen brother Barry Williams, but also reportedly describes dates with Jackson and with Steve Martin.
Wall Street, 'Mad Men,' and movie posters, after the jump...
Marlon Brando in The Godfather: The greatest movie ever? A new list is here for all your fight-starting needs.
Paramount Pictures, Getty Images
by Linda Holmes
• Can't get enough lists? Can't get enough official reminders that you should see The Godfather? In what it's calling "the most ambitious movie poll ever conducted," Empire has a new list of the 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time, voted on by readers, critics, and "150 of Hollywood's finest." Start your quibbles! (I'll start by quibbling with the idea that On The Town (#277) is less great than A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (#265).)
• Does the embrace of video games mean the abandonment of reading? Some librarians and gamers say no. And when an official from the New York Public Library says that "reading is no longer just in the traditional sense of reading words in English or another language on a paper," well, we say the times, they are a-changing.
Seniors at the symphony and a stupendous video, after the jump ...
The Simpsons: Picking their Top 20 episodes could definitely cause fistfights.
Fox
• In a development that shows the muscle of both block ticket sales and Christian-themed films marketed through church organizations, a movie many people have never heard of, called Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron (from Growing Pains!), made $6.5 million this weekend. As Slashfilm notes (in a post that is definitely having some fun at Kirk Cameron's expense, so be warned), that's more than Spike Lee's new Miracle At St. Anna made. Make of this what you will.
• For the second week out of the last three, the big news coming out of Saturday Night Live was a Sarah Palin sketch starring Tina Fey. I've never thought of Tina Fey as a gifted mimic, but politics aside, you've got to admit, she's got the cadences down.
• The New York Times had an interesting piece this weekend about where gay actors stand in Hollywood these days. From the piece:
"The industry is persuaded that being known as gay will undermine your credibility both as romantic lead or an action star," said Larry Gross, director of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and author of a book on media portrayals of gays and lesbians.
"They don't test it," he said. "We're waiting for the Jackie Robinson moment when someone tests that assumption and discovers it's not true."
• The kind of list that's sure to set off arguments among your friends, if your friends are anything like my friends, who literally could make the creation of a similar list the subject of a year-long series of hours-long seminars: Top 20 Episodes Of The Simpsons.
• If you're the kind of nerd who obsesses over mix tapes and associates specific songs with specific moments in your life, and if you are the kind of big-gesture-maker who might hire a favorite musician to serenade your girlfriend, I commend to you most highly this weekend's episode of This American Life, which chronicled just such an effort.
Pub signs: This gentleman likes them, but are they here to stay?
Reg Speller, Getty Images
It's Wednesday, so let's take a quick look around at what's flying by this week that we haven't talked about. (Other than the explosion of creativity that took place in the comments following yesterday's song-product-placement entry, that is. To the suggestions "Making Love Out Of Nut'n Honey At All" and my personal favorite, "House Of Verizon Sun," I tip my hat.)
• The Guardian notes the disappearance of painted pub signs as the hospitality industry goes corporate. My favorite tidbit: "In 1393 King Richard II passed a law making it compulsory for inns to have a sign in order to identify them to the official Ale Taster." I know a couple of people who would totally apply for the job of official Ale Taster.
• Tonight on Turner Classic Movies, the theme is American politics, and the films are All The King's Men, The Great McGinty, The Glass Key, The Boss, and Flamingo Road. Of course, if you use entertainment to escape what you hear about on a daily basis, this may be a slight misfire, given that you may have seen something in the news recently regarding an upcoming election.
• Are these the 50 Greatest Villains In Literature? The Telegraph thinks so. Where else can you find The Joker and Mrs. Danvers on the same list? Other than a hypothetical list of people not to invite to your wedding, that is.
Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading: Will star power — and/or that great shot of him running on the treadmill — help the film cut through the glut?
Focus Features
The fall TV season is finally getting underway, and while it may not bring greatness, it will bring an end to the worst of the summer fare. (Fare thee well, Greatest American Dog!) We're climbing out of the August blues at the movies, too. So it's as good a time as any to pause for a roundup of interesting happenings:
• The Wall Street Journal posits today that the real problem at the movies is that too much is being produced, leaving no room for anything to succeed. Isn't the market for film destined to splinter just like the market for television, once distribution channels catch up? Is this a glut, or is the market just getting more niche-oriented? Isn't this partly a result of the insistence on packing everything potentially award-winning into the late part of the year, packing everything blockbuster-ish into the summer, and leaving the rest of the calendar to rot?
More culture bites, including Stevie Wonder, David Letterman, and challenging All Songs Considered to a duel, after the jump ...
Cher: Clearly too understated to play Catwoman.
Bertrand Guay, AFP/Getty Images
• Cinematical and Vulture have both expressed skepticism about rumors that Cher is going to play Catwoman in Christopher Nolan's next Batman movie. I, for one, would enjoy seeing Catwoman wearing duct tape and a sailor hat. It wouldn't really be any sillier than what Batman wears.
Censorship debates, unexpected convention blogs, and potentially scandalous fall television, after the jump...
The Wrestler: In a fairly grim box-office weekend, it got some of the only promising signals. 
Bob wins Survivor: Maybe it was the bow tie that saw him through. 
Culture panic: Worried about applauding at the wrong time? You're hardly alone. 
Beyoncé as Wonder Woman: Not even she looks entirely sure she's ready for the invisible jet and the bracelets. 
Mad Men: Get the skinny on Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and the rest of the crowd, straight from the horse's mouth. 
Marcia, Marcia, Marcia: A date with...Michael Jackson? Really? 
