You Had Me At Jello [Stereogum]

Marcie Bloom, former Co-President of Sony Pictures Classics, did a little student chat at an (unnamed) film school. Evidently she doesn't have high regard for Miramax head Harvey Weinstein. That's crazy talk; isn't everyone is charmed by ol' Harv?

You know what the day after Thanksgiving means: the Oscars insanity begins! Miramax's Harvey Weinstein is surely wedged in the back booth of an unsmoky bar in the Valley right now, whispering cruel words about his Best Picture competitor, Clint Eastwood, and Clint's Oscar-contending Warner Brothers film Mystic River. Somewhere a tabloid reporter is repeating scurrilous gossip about Sean Penn; Harvey must keep Sean's clammy fingers away from that gold statuette if he wants an Oscar sweep.

Writer Matthew Baldwin has an impressive roundup of the reviews for The Cat in the Hat, which was by all reports a piece of celluloid crap. Nevertheless, the film still did $40.1 million at the box office this weekend. Maybe it was the promise of a Paris Hilton cameo that filled those theaters.

In short: The Matrix 3 is actually worse than The Godfather 3.

In A. O. Scott's glowing review of Shattered Glass, he writes: "[E]ven if the memory of the [Jayson] Blair scandal were not painfully fresh, the earlier debacle would still exert a morbid fascination among journalists of a certain age and temperament, the kind of people who spend way too much time surfing media-gossip blogs and Web sites and who are generally obsessed with tracking the behavior of the fish in the neighboring bowls."

The shroud of secrecy is lifting from Austria's scheme to destroy world culture. First they gave us The Schwarzenegger Thing. Now, the Vienna Film Festival has awarded Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny the International Federation of Film Critics prize.

Ben Affleck's film project, "Ghost of Girlfriends Past," mentioned here a month ago, has been axed. Speculation is that Affleck's tabloid lifestyle has been detrimental to his box office — but last we heard tabloid coverage was good for actors who rely on big opening weekends and mass market romantic comedies.

In her new Washington Post column — debuting today — Tina Brown takes on the public relations mess in the wake of the MPAA screener ban. In one little column, Tina manages to smack the rabidities of publicist Peggy Siegal and the acting talents of Gwyneth Paltrow. On the history of screening copies, she writes:

This morning, the Jewish media conspiracy set its sights on kindly Gentile Gregg Easterbrook, senior editor at The New Republic. Mr. Easterbrook, it seems, blames the violence of Kill Bill on Weinstein and Eisner at Miramax and Disney. We're just glad that someone is willing to say that bloodthirsty money-hungry Jews are still running Hollywood. All of us here in New York have been saying that for years.

There's nothing I'm more excited about than next September's Republican Convention in New York. Chaos! The complete inability to hail a cab! Bailing silly friends with politic beliefs out of the Tombs! Plus, George Clooney and his camera everywhere!

Regarding today's alleged filming at Conde Nast, a Nast Neighbor writes: "Leave it to Conde Nasties to assume the world revolves around them. If they'd walked a half a block in a less fashionable direction they would notice that One Times Square (the former WB store and future 7-11) is fully decked out as a campaign headquarters set. Seems they're filming a remake of the Manchurian Candidate apparently starring Denzel Washington and directed by Jonathan Demme. Set is fully visible through the windows from the street. Worth a look if you're nearby."

The debate on the merits of Kill Bill lazily, ennui-edly stumbles on in offices where slobs are forced to work on Columbus Day:

Born Rich, the snippy documentary starring the children of the uber-wealthy, finally filters up (down?) to the New York Times. Since the film's debut its director, Jamie Johnson, has been largely banned from proper society: "There are no more engraved invitations to debutante parties for girls I don't know with, like, five middle names," he tells the Times.

Maybe you should save your "eight dollars" tonight:

The trailer for Shattered Glass is out, with the rather limp tagline "He'd do anything to get a great story." The film, of course, is a shocking true story of betrayal and invention at The New Republic. Yup; a Big Hollywood Movie about a guy who, five years ago, made stuff up at a magazine that is only read by Americans within 12 miles of the Atlantic or Pacific. Smell the box office.

The North American premiere of audience-torturer Vinnie Gallo's film Brown Bunny took place at the Toronto Film Festival this week... and the audience applauded. Enthusiastically. More people lingered post-screening for the Toronto Q&A with the director/star/author/on-screen blowjob-receiver than actually remained in the theater for the film at its Cannes debut, noted Mr. Gallo. We can't even suss out how many levels of irony there are in this blow-by-blow description of the screening. "Fuck Cannes," hollered an audience member. How completely un-Canadian.
So Bad It's Good? [National Post]

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