Have you seen The Professional, erika? It's amazing, and she's really good in it. I have no idea if she has any comic timing, but I don't need all actors to be able to do everything (though it's nice if they can and they're cute too).

All I expect from actors is the acting and the looking pretty. If one's strong enough, I'll ignore the other.

Me too. It's nice if they're witty and interesting in interviews, but someone basically has to be a vocal supporter of the Ku Klux Klan for me to write them off based on what they do offscreen. Besides, they're actors, so even if they act witty and interesting for a journalist, that's no proof they really are in private life. (I think Reese Witherspoon is one of the few performers to point this out, for which I almost admire her.)

And on NP -- I think Natalie Portman was a tremendously interesting actress at 12 or 14, but her adult performances haven't lived up to The Professional or Beautiful Girls yet.

Gives people complaining about being old who are at least a decade younger than him the stinkeye.

Feh. Being old is a novel experience for me. I need the practice with my cane-shaking.

People born in 1984 can buy booze in the US. People born in 1987 can buy smokes. How did this HAPPEN?

There's a half-plus-seven rule?

Wait, how old is Timberlake?

There's a half-plus-seven rule?

Luckily Orlando Bloom squeaks in just under the wire for me.

There's a half-plus-seven rule?

I think it's from the Muslim faith. I heard about it first in Malcolm X's autobiography, anyhow. (Betty qualified.) The idea is that the woman should be half the man's age, plus seven years, though I suspect gris is applying it more loosely.

Just yesterday I was worrying that I was now old enough that I'd soon be making friends with people whose parents were younger than I was.

I know not of these rules, nor care I for them.

Just yesterday I was worrying that I was now old enough that I'd soon be making friends with people whose parents were younger than I was.

Oh. That will be painful.

I've already experienced hanging with people with parents younger than my sister, and that disturbed me enough.

I think I've got five years before I run a realistic risk of that, however.

Nope...Haven't seen the Professional yet.

Nope...Haven't seen the Professional yet.

You should. Because everyone ought to do so. When you rent it, make sure you get the version titled "Leon" instead, for the extra-disturbing extra 20 minutes.

more to do with the disturbing psychology of being a sex symbol at the age of twelve,

Which may also go a long way to explain Brooke Shields, Michael Jackson, and Donny Osmond, but that's another discussion.

On-topic, thanks to Hec for recommending Aventurera. Excellent film noir, and, since it wasn't Hollywood, I couldn't rely on the conventions to figure out what would happen next. Which means I was caught completely off guard by the big plot twist.