Frank, you've given me a great segue to one we saw over the weekend. Touch of Pink is a romantic comedy about a young Ismaili (think Pakistani Muslim) man living in London, the mother living in Toronto who wants him to marry a successful Ismaili woman, and the English UNICEF economist with whom the young Ismaili man has a live-in relationship. And did I mention that the English UNICEF economist is male?

Mother drops in on son for a surprise visit as a (male) cousin back in Toronto is getting ready to marry a dentist. Complications ensue.

It's a pleasant, undemanding little movie that provides a few laughs. The one twist is that the young Ismaili man has a guardian angel -- the spirit of Cary Grant, played (quite well) by Kyle McLachlan.

(ETA: Yes, there's a shout-out to Charade. And several other Grant movies, including a scene with a lengthy quote from The Philadelphia Story.)

She [Halle Berry] returned out of fondness for her co-stars. But she's a little worried. "When your first two do so well and are so loved by the fans, it can make you nervous. We don't want to disappoint."

Oh honey, no need to worry about disappointing. It's not as if your performances were loved by the fans.

Oh, Fred Pete, thanks for reminding me about that movie! I've been meaning to track it down for a while.

I watched Rushmore again over the weekend and liked it a lot more than the first time I saw it, but I still think Bottle Rocket is the best movie Wes Anderson ever made. The thing that bugs me most about Rushmore is that I find Max Fischer really creepy, and it's hard for me to want things to work out well for him.

As to the changes - yeah, the ending of Pygmalion is great, and My Fair Lady makes it happier, more saccharine, but that was rather the way with musicals at the time

I can see that, but the ending of Pygmalion is just so wonderful - she's completely under her own agency now, and she's making a very deliberate choice to move out from under a shadow - that I can't help but resent the end of MFL. I really do.

Really want to see Touch Of Pink, though.

See, I always like to think that the next line, after "Where the devil of my slippers?" is "I don't know, Henry, why don't you get your lazy arse off the couch and find them yourself? I'll be sitting over there, ready for you to discover the difference between 'woman you love' and 'well-trained puppy.'"

I can't see any reason their relationship would stop being built on arguments just because she comes back to him.

All y'all "Deadwood" partisans can doblerize on the mission a bit now...I should get some (eps) tomorrow. Leaving a little time between too in case I need translations, like in my "Wire"-newbie days. Between the cornerspeak, cop talk, and legal chat, I used to get lost. Now, I think Simonverse dialogue is the total bomb, if not quite fun for the whole family ETA: If you get me to like a Western, though, you'll accomplish something quite radical, but I trust my invisible bunkies not to burn me.

I can't see any reason their relationship would stop being built on arguments just because she comes back to him.

And I can't see any reason that he'd ever become aware that she's a woman and not a puppy, especially when she comes back to him. A man like that is not high on the emotional intelligence scale.

Whoa. Those X3 pics reveal a...surprisingly...ripped Ben Foster. Huh. My cutie crush from Liberty Heights goes all washboard. Again, I say...huh.

I've not yet seen a pic of Ben Foster that convinces me. I need to see his face.

I know of one guy who auditioned and didn't get the role, but would have made a good match to the pictures in my head for the comics.

(sidenote -- I wish Wendy Hiller was remembered more - she was one tough actress and my definitive Eliza Doolittle.)

Amen. Even with the few lines she gets as the ancient Russian countess in Murder on the Orient Express, she really nails the role in her interrogation scene with Poirot. Also, she stars in my all-time favorite romantic comedy, I Know Where I'm Going.