Just finished watching the Ivanhoe mini.

Now I have an unwholesome crush on Ciaran Hinds. Okay, nasty Templar knight. Traitor, etc. All this can be overlooked for that steely gaze and the following exchange:

I am rich enough to buy you...

Diamonds?

...to buy you books.

I've dreamt all my life...oh never mind.

Now I'm wondering about the Edward Rochester taste test? Who is dreamier? Timothy Dalton or my new secret lover, Ciaran?

Never mind William Hurt's version of Jane Eyre. I could never take that seriously.

I think, JZ, that I may not have seen hot Stewart yet, aside from PS.

Really? Not even in It's a Wonderful Life in the telephone scene with Donna Reed (who is super-hot in her own right in the movie)?

the telephone scene with Donna Reed

nodnodnod The telephone scene, and also one of the scenes that's often cut to make room for ads when it's shown on broadcast TV, when George comes home late at night after rejecting Old Man Potter's offer.

Mary is in bed -- somehow, despite the Hayes Code and all, they're sharing one bed, a tiny little full-minus thing barely wider than a twin -- and as he comes in she rolls over and murmurs for him, all sleepy and muzzy, and stretches out her arms. He sits on the bed beside her, leans into her, and wraps his long long arms around her, and everything about the tiny bed and the actors' body language tells you that this is their marriage bed, that their bodies have known each other here. It's dreamy and intimate and very quietly erotic.

OKay wait. Ciaran Hinds was in Ivanhoe? And he played Bois-Guilbert the Arrogant Templar?

And he was, like, not the total villain?

Please tell me Rebecca made him her bitch before the end. That's absolutely key -- I can live with it if Ivanhoe gets dumped from the story entirely, as long as Rebecca gets to tear Bois-Guilbert to pieces.

Swooning in happiness from JZ prose.

Ciaran Hinds is wonderful in Persuasion. A lovely, understaed film with a great cast.

I don't remember that. Maybe I've seen a cut version, or maybe I just scanned past it mentally.

Ciaran Hinds is totally one of my Sekrit Boyfriends. He's even in that Minnie Driver movie as one of the professors. A Circle of Friends?

So, I just saw the Bourne Supremacy. It was OK. My real question is, why do studios do screenings like this? Is it because they think regular people will like it more than critics and are hoping for good word of mouth?

Now I'm wondering about the Edward Rochester taste test? Who is dreamier? Timothy Dalton or my new secret lover, Ciaran?

What, not Orson Welles? runs away

Mmmmm. Holiday. Now Voyager. Both wonderful movies, each in its own way.

What, not Orson Welles?

TCM is showing The Magnificent Ambersons tomorrow at midnight. My TiVo is set.