More stuff I wouldn't dare make up

This might be too weird even for a ripped-from-the-headlines episode of Law & Order. And, of course, it just had to involve people who work in Texas.

Comic Book confidential

This comic-book movie gains a director, that comic-book movie loses one. Hey, that's showbiz.

Final Super Bowl take

Is it just me, or was this the first time in a long time when the game was more entertaining than the commercials?

Pre-game peeks

From the look of the pre-game commercials, looks like Oscar winner Nicolas Cage will burn up the screen this month, and Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg will do some serious ass-kicking in March. But would Eddie Murphy's Oscar chances be helped if folks didn't see commercials for his next film? (Is that the lamest Super Bowl posting on line today, or what?)

Helen Mirren isn't getting older...

She's getting hotter. And she's not the only one, God bless her.

A blast from the past?

Back in the 1970s, wouldn't this have been a nifty premise for a Burt Reynolds movie? Wait a minute, wasn't it actually the plot of Outlaw Blues? (Well, no, not really.)

Speaking of the big game...

Looks like, once again, a horror flick is dominating the megaplexes on Super Bowl weekend.

Super Bowl counter-programming

The folks at Turner Classic Movies must figure that foreign film aficionados aren’t into sports, or that football fanatics don’t like to read subtitles. Whatever the reason, the network is offering Cinema Paradiso (with the late, great Philippe Noiret) and The Battle of Algiers (recently screened for decision-makers at the Pentagon) as counter-programming during Sunday’s telecast of the Super Bowl.

BTW: Why do I suspect I will never again use the words "Philippe Noiret" and "Super Bowl" in the same sentence?

Tonight's the night for Marty

Martin Scorsese is the odds-on favorite to get the top prize tonight at the Directors Guild of America Awards.

What if they opened a movie and nobody came?

As Samuel Goldwyn famously noted: "If people don't want to go see a movie, there's nothing you can do to stop them." Want proof? From Greenbriar Picture Shows, the story of how nothing -- not even a post-release title change -- could help a classic Billy Wilder film draw audiences into theaters. (Hat-tip to GreenCine Daily.)

YouTube? No, you can't!

Viacom drops the hammer on the video-sharing site. Expect others to follow suit. Or file suits.

The not-so-dearly `Departed' ending

The Oscar-nominated scriptwriter makes a strong case for the rat. (Beware of spoilers.)

Last 'Inconvenient Truth' posting until Oscar night (maybe)

Over at the Talking Points Memo Cafe, Eric Kleefeld reports that Al Gore has been nominated for a Nobel Prize -- largely, though not entirely, because of An Inconvenient Truth -- and notes: "This makes Gore to our knowledge the only movie-maker who's been nominated for both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar on the strength of a single movie."

R.I.P.: Molly Ivins (1944-2007)

Quick: What do Bruce Lee, Brandon Lee, River Phoenix, James Dean and Molly Ivins have in common? The answer: Each died while poised on the brink of movie superstardom. Seriously.

In recent years, Ivins -- the unapologetically progressive and exuberantly feisty author and columnist -- had become the go-to gal for documentarians seeking pithy and prickly commentary on Texas politics and politicians. Indeed, she provided some of the brightest, sharpest and wittiest insights in movies as diverse as Bush's Brain, Last Man Standing and The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress. Her death at the ridiculously young age of 62 is a tragedy. While she was here, though, she made her indelible and inestimable mark. To pay her the greatest tribute I can think of: She left this world a better place than it would have been without her in it.

Post No. 300: Real men like chick flicks and rom-coms

Does this mean it's OK for me to admit how much I enjoyed In Her Shoes? And that I smiled a lot while watching Two Weeks Notice and Something's Gotta Give? Don't get me wrong: I also think Hellboy kicked ass. And Batman Begins rocked the house. But when I think of how close Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon came to not getting back together in Love Actually, well... Excuse me, I think I need a Kleenex.

Insert joke about lightsaber here

Or is Sienna Miller "just a really good actress" opposite Hayden Christensen in Factory Girl? Or was The Force with them? Inquiring minds want to know.

DVD viewing tip: 'The Motel'

Michael Kang's The Motel -- one of my favorite films released in 2006, and a Best First Feature nominee at the Feb. 24 Independent Spirit Awards -- has been released on DVD. Consider yourself tipped: It's well worth your time and money.

R.I.P.: Sidney Sheldon (1917-2007)

Sidney Sheldon's enormous success as an author of best-selling page-turners -- Bloodline and The Other Side of Midnight, both turned into potboiler movies, and several other titles that inspired scads of miniseries -- has largely overshadowed many of his earlier accomplishments. During the 1960s and '70s, he created the popular TV shows Hart to Hart and I Dream of Jeannie, and wrote several episodes of The Patty Duke Show. And during his heyday as a Hollywood scriptwriter, he earned an Academy Award -- Best Original Screenplay -- for writing 1947's The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.

Even so, it wasn't until he decided to try his hand at novels -- at the age of 50! -- that he achieved the status of a pop culture icon. Let this be a lesson to us all: You're never too old to become, for better or worse, a phenomenon.

(BTW: Think we'll see a photo of Sheldon during the "In Memorial" segment of the Feb. 25 Oscarcast?)

The Real McCain

Producer Robert Greenwald -- the politically active producer of such hard-hitting documentaries as Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism and Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers -- has a new target in his sights. And this time, has a partner providing additional firepower.

Seven surprises from Sundance

According to Time magazine, Surprise No. 4: "[E]verybody in Hollywood is trying to be as cool as that hip documentary A-lister, Al Gore."