Idol Chatter

“Waitress,” directed by Adrienne Shelly, is this year’s “Little Miss Sunshine,” and Keri Russell as Jenna, is this movie’s equivalent to Reese Witherspoon’s Golden Globe-nominated turn as Tracy Flick in “Election.” The former “Felicity” star gives the performance of a lifetime as a quirky diner waitress with a bone dry sense of humor and a…

While I am not a big comic book superhero fan, I have always enjoyed the Spider-Man franchise for its unabashed mix of adventure and nerdishness with a touch of humor. And I can hardly argue with the recurring moral theme of the Spiderman saga–“With great power comes great responsibility.” Spidey fans will be happy to…

It’s official: After seven seasons the era of “The Gilmore Girls” is coming to an end. Yesterday Variety announced the news, confirming long-held suspicions among fans of the show: “After weeks of talks aimed at bringing the show back for a limited run next season, the CW and Warner Bros. TV have decided to wrap…

I have a friend who would joke that he and his wife had a second child so that they would have spare parts for the first. While he was clearly being silly, there have been cases in the last few years in which parents have decided to have another child in order to save the…

It seems reasonable to assume that a film whose soundtrack is a setting of the Passion of Christ from the Gospel of John will have a religious or spiritual theme. The film “Passio” by Paolo Cherchi Usai, presented during the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, is a silent film about the plight of the human condition,…

Many feature film directors learned the craft of moviemaking by originally making short films early in their careers. The Damah Festival, one of the most successful spiritually-themed film festivals (which focuses on short films), opens in Los Angeles starting tomorrow. The Damah (the word means transformational art) Festival has a top-notch judging panel including Christian…

We’re all Mormons. That was the essence, anyway, of the first half of “The Mormons,” the Frontline/American Experience documentary that concluded last night on PBS. The film implies that the founding myth about the United States–that Americans were a pilgrim people persecuted for the purity of their belief who then found freedom in a vast,…

Remember the 2000 Oscar’s when Angelina shocked the viewing audience by declaring in her acceptance speech that she was “so in love” with her brother, James Haven, and actually snogged with him? Definitely different. While little was known at the time about Haven, also an actor, the public had come to expect the unexpected from…

Politicians? Diplomats? World leaders? Does anyone know what to do with the Middle East conflict? It seems to be the consensus that children in the region learn from their parents and the society that surrounds them–and those messages are hard to combat. Unless you’re made of felt. After more than a decade of having been…

It’s been obvious for some time that the Dalai Lama has rock-star status. A funny piece in yesterday’s Contra Costa Times gives us the particulars: Organizers of his appearances, often in halls made famous by ’60s musical attractions, face “many of the same issues as a typical rock show: entourages, backstage ambience, and who gets…

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