Heh. P-C, this fills me with relief, as I've been pimping Magnolia to Hec for the last year and a half. Since in pop-culture-consuming sensibilities sense you are frequently Hec and he is frequently you, this bodes well for his impression of the object of my mania.

I fear, however, that you may now be dead to Steph.

If he even existed, he'd be dead to me. But he doesn't exist, so that's fine.

t resumes Magnolia hatred

Tep will love me, as I saw De-Lovely on her rec and enjoyed it.

Then she'll hate me, as I join P-C and the splendiferous JZ in Magnolia love.

It's going to be hard on her, I fear.

The NYT says if Catwoman dies, it'll take African-American actresses' bankability down with it.

[Hmm. My first reading was that they were generalizing about all AA actresses, but on second reading maybe it's just Ms. Berry who'll crash and sink.]

She's the only one with bankability, so yeah, probably her.

It's unfortunate that she, with her limited skill set, is being used generalize for the bankability of black actresses. The movie will fail both because it sucks and she's not bankable. She hasn't been bankable of yet!

Thing is -- who else is there? I think she's a great excuse to say that black women can be bankable, but I agree with the article -- she's pretty much a sex object. Black women have been able to be sexy. That's not news. But she's not even a black Charlize Theron.

In the zero-sum calculations of the movie industry, Ms. Berry's bankability as a star will be judged largely on whether she can "open" "Catwoman," a Warner Brothers film — meaning whether she can make it a financial winner. If it succeeds, it will place her among a rarefied group of top-paid female stars, only a few of them established box office draws, and signify yet another achievement for African-American actors.

This makes it sound like her success would be a landmark for black female actors, but her failure would be her own.

"This movie presented to me a whole new challenge, something I haven't done," she said in an interview. "It allowed me an opportunity to hopefully prove — if I'm really lucky, if the movie god is watching — that a woman, especially a woman of color, can open one of these summer movies."

She's got her Oscar, so now she wants to prove she can succeed as a sex object in a terrible, shallow, exploitive summer movie? Who's she been taking career advice from, Cuba Gooding Jr?

If she makes Snow Bitches next.....

I think I'm having a neurolapse because I keep thinking that Angus Macfadyn is a really good actor.

I thought he was good as Robert the Bruce in the otherwise stinky Braveheart. He's good as Orson Wells in Cradle Will Rock.

Ah, Collateral makes me crazy. Sounds like a good concept, I like watching Mann's movies (he has the best soundtracks), and I really dislike the two stars.

I like Jamie Foxx well enough. I'm excited to see Collateral primarily for Michael Mann's work, more than either of the two stars.

But what I'm really excited to see Jamie Foxx in is Ray. I saw a preview for that at I, Robot and was amazed in just a few seconds by Foxx's channeling of Ray Charles.