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After the Fauxteur Fashion Minute reports of the last couple of days, it's so refreshing to see a director (one with actual talent and ideas!) taking an active interest in how his appearance might affect people's perceptions of his work. Todd Solondz, the proto-nerd behind Paindromes, frets in the LAT:

With his pinched features, nasal voice and oversized eyeglasses, words such as "geek" and "nerdy" have long been used to describe him. He has taken to removing his glasses during public appearances and most photographs in an effort to thwart people's preconceived notions.

"I do think people make certain judgments about the work based on my physical appearance," he said. "I feel comfortable with the way I dress and look, but a lot of people make certain assumptions.... I guess because I don't talk much about me personally and it's the work I'm happy to talk about, it's just a sort of poking and stabbing at 'Who is this guy?' People want to use this as a map to try and decode me. That's really so unimportant ultimately."

Making satirical films about child molesters and abortion doesn't lend itself to stonewashed jeans and white Nikes (what does, really?) so someone needs to save Solondz before he starts riding shotgun in Michael Bay's Ferrari up and down the PCH. Can't someone hook up him up with Wes Anderson for a playful day of carefully-calibrated nerd-refurbishing, full of happy romps through the geek-trendiest thrift stores and used record shops? Embrace the tweed and armpatches, Todd, and go dork-fabulous.