The woman formerly known as Larry Wachowski made her first public appearance as Lana in a promo for the film Cloud Atlas, which she helmed with brother/collaborator Andy and Run Lola Run director Tom Tykwer.

Click to viewFor all its confectionery imagery, Christina Ricci scene-stealing and the few other things Speed Racer gets right, it still faces a box-office false start that could make Leatherheads look like a hit in comparison. We sketched a few of the hurdles here yesterday (number one being its own studio's resignation to its underachievement), but at this point there's only one that counts: Larry and Andy Wachowski need to climb out of their hole.

Yesterday, the internets were ablaze with rumors (well, really, one rumor) that allegedly gender-shuffling Matrix co-director Larry Wachowski had finally completed a long-whispered-about sex change, opting to spend the rest of his life as a woman named Lana who would haunt the dreams of every embattled publicist unlucky enough to be assigned to subsequent Wachowski Family films. Troubled by the swiftly spreading report, Fox 411's Roger Friedman put in some calls, and today is satisfied that Larry is still happily beschlonged:

We have no idea if the "newly released photo from a rare public appearance earlier this year" posted in an item at Rated-M.com (as excavated by Cinematical) is evidence of anything but reportedly transgendering Wachowski brother Larry's predilection for dangly earrings and sassy bandanas, but the blog claims that his much-rumored journey towards womanhood is now complete, a transformation that has obvious implications for hopeful 2008 summer blockbuster Speed Racer and the way the directing duo's names will be listed on its one-sheet. Says Rated-M:

The upcoming Larry Wachowski Rolling Stone expose referenced a few posts ago has been conveniently posted today to their website. The article, not surprisingly, is as utterly bizarre as would befit a tale of a Hollywood wunderkind who decided to have a sex change and form a civil union with his dominatrix. But with virtually every paragraph chock full of quotes from scorned, mangina-having lovers, envious, dishing dominatrixes (and we all know how mean they can be), and anonymous Hollywood insiders weighing in with career advice ("Lose the estrogen, kid."), we must admit, we were left at a bit of loss as to where to begin. How about the Marcus Chong (Tank from The Matrix) SAG arbitration?