My favourite Brett Easton Ellis book

A hard decision. For sheer impact, obviously you can't beat American Psycho. But I enjoyed Glamorama more - it is pretty cool; although on re-reading it recently, it is definitely a lesser work. Rules of Attraction is fun, but doesn't rate on the same scale. The one that troubles me is Lunar Park. It copped a lot of shit when it came out, but for what it's worth if you're a BEE fan then it absolutely hit the mark. It wouldn't convert non-believers, but I thought it was fun, funny, original, clever, a page-turned and a huge fuck-you. All good things. So overall... um... American Psycho.

We love you Summer: Rip The OC

OC Finale Spoiler alert

Seth let Summer go... and she came back to him. The greatest love story of all time ended with the perfect wedding. And no, scarily, I'm not being sarcastic.

In Australia we had the last 2 episodes back to back... the earthquake episode was a bit weak, but I thought the finale was pretty good. The full-circle thing with Ryan reaching out to a troubled kid was a nice touch.

There were some crappy elements, but overall The OC remains the best teen drama since 90210. First season Dawson's Creek was pretty good, but you can't beat beautiful but troubled californians for classic television. Summer, Seth and Sandy were all awesome characters. Caitlin was shaping up into a pretty cool character, and of course Julie had her charms. Obviously Kirsten and Marissa sucked. But the most interesting aspect is that after, what, 4 seasons I still can't remember the name of the actor who played Ryan. Like the character, he has totally flown under the radar and left basically no impression.

We LOVE the script - From Variety

Baldwin takes stand in Cussler case
Actress-turned-producer asked to testify
By JANET SHPRINTZ
Actress-turned-producer Karen Baldwin took the stand Tuesday in Clive Cussler's breach-of-contract suit against Philip Anschutz's Crusader Entertainment for an afternoon of adverse questioning about the genesis of the ill-fated "Sahara" film.

Baldwin, who with her husband, Howard Baldwin, an entrepreneur who developed several hockey franchises before turning to producing, first brought Cussler's Dirk Pitt action adventure novels to Anshutz's attention in 2000.

Anschutz thereupon bought the rights to Cussler's "Sahara" for $10 million, with an eye to developing a franchise, and gave Cussler wide script approval rights. While the Baldwins championed Cussler throughout the writing process, they acrimoniously parted ways by the time filming began in 2003.

Called as an adverse witness Tuesday by Bert Fields, who represents Cussler, Baldwin was shown several memos addressing key issues in the case. After a lengthy process during which Baldwin declined to acknowledge that it was her signature on the documents, the jury was shown a memo in which she called $10 million a bargain for a Clive Cussler novel.

Fields also showed her memo in which she had written that all of his novels were New York Times bestsellers and that there were more than 90 million Cussler novels in print. Shortly before trial, Crusader's lawyers claimed they were misled by sales figures of Cussler's novels, which, they claim, are closer to 30 million copies.

Fields pointed out that none of the memos mentions a sales figure. On the stand, Baldwin said until that moment she thought sales and the number in print were the same, but Fields showed her a series of emails involving unsuccessful attempts to determine the number of copies sold, in which Baldwin said the number in print alone was important.

Fields began to delve into the long and tortured scriptwriting process, which involved numerous writers and numerous revisions, including drafts by Cussler. In opening statements, Fields said Baldwin kept telling Cussler that Paramount, which distributed the film, loved each script, as well as Cussler's revisions, leaving him angry and baffled when yet more changes were called for.

On the stand, Baldwin was shown a memo she sent saying that Paramount loved a script written by Jim Hart and revised by Cussler. The script proved to be one of many. On Tuesday, making quotation marks with her hands, Baldwin said she realized in hindsight that when Paramount said they "loved" a script, it meant they wanted more changes.

Trial resumes today with further examination of Baldwin.

Bad Guy v When Harry Met Sally

With a big shout out to Lucas, I am proud to share with my loyal readers some insights arising out of the viewing on consecutive days of When Harry Met Sally (Rob Reiner) and Bad Guy (Kim Ki-Duk).

I have had a terrible flu / head cold this week, and due to generalised weakness and lack of concentration I somehow agreed to watch When Harry Met Sally with M on valentines day. OMG. Meg Ryan in WHMS must be the least attractive character ever committed to celluloid. I've seen a lot over the years, and the sex scene between her and Billy Crystal is genuinely the scariest, most repulsive thing I've ever seen (and yes I am taking into account Alien, The Descent and Freddie Got Fingered). The best thing about the two of them getting together at the end is that it limited the destruction their psychoses and genes could inflict on others.

Anyway, last night I'd recovered some of my strength and suggested that this time we should watch a film of my selection. Bring on Bad Guy. A Korean film by Kim Ki-Duk film released in 2001 (well before he discovered tranquility in Spring, Summer, Fall ...), it centres around a college girl forcibly turned into a prostitute by the title character as revenge for ignoring his advances.

What really stood out is the incredible similarities between the two films. In both films:
- the male lead is set up as a pig who doesn't care for social conventions or how his behaviour affects others (inappropriate public displays of affection and spitting grapes for Harry, inappropriately forcing a kiss on an unwilling college girl and looking generally disreputable in Bad Guy)
- the initial meeting between the male and female leads is highly unpromising and looks very unlikely to lead to an ongoing relationship
- the male lead comes on to the female lead inappropriately and this is held against him
- the male lead lets off steam by hitting baseballs spat out by an automated ball machine
- the leads take a long time to recognise their true feelings for each other (many years, boring conversations and failed relationships in WHMS, multiple rapes, beatings and stabbings in Bad Guy)
- each of the films is ultimately a love story about a couple who don't recognise they are 'meant to be together' for at least an hour's worth of film after it is incredibly obvious to the viewer

Of course there are some differences. Billy Crystal talked non-stop for 90+ minutes, whereas Han-Gi has about 3 lines of dialogue.

A feelgood movie waiting to happen?

Great article in today's Washington Post about a former hot young baseball prospect who went off the deep end and is now trying to get his shit together.

He makes the AFL hoons look like mama's boys

The Devil and the Son of God are waging war from opposite corners of Josh Hamilton's body.

As he guides his Chevy Tahoe out of the driveway of his rental house and onto Interstate 75, for a 45-minute drive that just so happens to weave through a minefield of ugly memories, Hamilton, the Cincinnati Reds' newest outfielder, rests his once-prized left arm on the door, and suddenly the Devil's menacing face appears, etched in dark ink into the skin in the crook of Hamilton's elbow.

As the truck speeds north on a chilly morning toward Clearwater, where Hamilton will spend another day working out in preparation for the best and possibly last opportunity of his baseball career, the tattoo devil peers out the windshield. Below the freeway sit some of the very tattoo parlors and crack houses where Hamilton years ago defiled his body and squandered his enormous potential. A few miles ahead, in St. Petersburg, the big league stadium where Hamilton was supposed to have been a star rises from the horizon to mock him.

The tattoo devil, having long ago survived a bloody, failed attempt at removal, stares intently, gently prodding Hamilton to pull over and have some wild, wicked fun. Like in the old days.

...

That was the worst of the worst," Katie says. "Bringing your baby home is supposed to be such a joyous time -- and it wasn't that way. Just to know he was out using drugs and missing those precious moments -- it was just so hard and so sad. I was devastated."

One day, Hamilton wrote a check to a crack dealer -- "A couple grand," he says -- when he knew he didn't have the funds in the bank to cover it. He begged Katie to put some money in their account, but she refused.

When the check bounced and Josh started to feel the singular heat of a vengeful crack dealer, it was Mike Chadwick who asked Josh for the guy's name and phone number.

"I called to tell the guy I was coming," Chadwick says. "He said, 'Are you going to be packing heat?' I said, 'Do I need to?' When I got there, I told him, 'Look, I understand, business is business. Here's your money. But if you ever sell Josh crack again, I'll be back here, and it won't be pretty. I'm not scared or intimidated by you or your pals. And I'm just a little bit crazy.'

"There is no question that on multiple occasions Josh banged on the Devil's door. And why it never got opened -- well, I think God spared his life, because He had something in store for him."

Awesome blog post by BB

Everyone should read this blog post by BB... the madness has the unmistakeable ring of truth. With perhaps a touch of Easton Ellis - hey Ben - have you been rereading Lunar Park - or perhaps a little Glamorama?

7/2/7- 1930hrs: Half hour late, apologies. ninemsn home page and discussion of the attention economy ensues. freelance vs relocal'g to sf gulch vs bronte views. no ladies and gentlemen this is not a bubble, but there's some interesting people with some interesting views wandering around the corridors. they may be stalkrs.

More Lara Bingle

Wonder if Lara had a chance to catch up with Brendan while she was in Melbourne for the Allan Border Medal ceremony at Crown Casino a few days ago.

Heroes

Only two episodes in (in Australia), and I am hoping Heroes can keep it up... loving it so far.

In a hard-to-put-my-finger-on kind of way it feels very emblematic of 'now' - which means that it may not last, but that it will hopefully have an awesome Season One (and if I'm lucky a pretty good Series Two).

And in the meantime the show appears to have created a folk-hero in Hiro - see interview here.

gnoos

Well not much has changed at the gnoos site since it launched, but they must be doing something right - i'm averaging 10+ readers of my blog / week who are referred from gnoos. Ok they're not google yet (and I'm not exactly a syndicated columnist) but they are certainly generating some traffic.