The Linky City

Two bits from Chicago
Roger Ebert the eclectic international and intergenerational cast list of the new Roger Ebert Presents At the Movies. Congratulations to all! This can only be a gazillion times smarter than the previous short run with the Bens.
Wall Street Journal saddest movie news of the day: a classic cinema shut down in Chicago.

General Linkage
Cinematical Matt Damon's "abs double." A funny quirk of crediting.
Show Tracker What are Mad Men cast members up to between seasons?
The Social Network's official site overfloweth.
Ferdy on Films announces her favorites of the year. It's almost exclusively a festival list but she considers going by theatrical release like we do a hegemonic. Ouch!

Confession/Question
Weird reader question coming, so bear with me. Before you interview a star, the publicists almost always say "no personal questions!" and I'm always like "uh, why would I ask one of those?". I am so tied up in the celluloid that it honestly never occurs to me to say something like "so tell me who you're screwing." The only time this interests me is when it has curio above/below the line value -- for instance, I love knowing which costume designer or art director is married to which actor or actress -- or when its part of the overarching Hollywood Mythology (superstar couples like Brad & Angie, Newman & Woodward, Matt & Ben, Liz & Dick, Warren & Annette, etcetera). But sometimes my lack of interest in offscreen celebrity dating shocks even myself. I was reading on PopBytes that Macauley Culkin and Mila Kunis just broke up and I didn't even know they were a couple. Or if I knew it, I never committed it to memory. And they've been together for 8 years! I blame this ignorance on having next-to-no Mila familiarity until she started working on the big screen regularly a couple of years ago. (I have only seen, like, 2 episodes of That 70s Show.) Whenever a TV star is suddenly in demand in the movies, I have that damn info-lag.

So my question is this: Which specific aspect of celebrity life or the movie industry or whatnot do you have almost zero interest in, despite your interest in everything else???

Link You. Link You. And Link You.

GQ Winona Ryder's Black Swan parallels. She's being replaced! "I'm at that age I've been warned my whole life about"
Lisanti Quarterly a mysterious top ten list. Such fun. Try to guess the movies ... or even the film year for that matter.
In Contention Can that late breaking Fighter overtake the Best Pic frontrunners? Interesting question.
Indie Wire Film Comment's top 50 - the tippity top exactly mirrors those Los Angeles Film Critics Awards last week.
Go Fug Yourself a touching Burlesque conversation between Cher & Christina Aguilera
Movie|Line is rooting for Alanis Morrissette in the Original Song race

It's Roger Ebert's World...
Roger Ebert reveals his top ten list... make that top twenty-two lists. He's beloved and he's an enjoyable writer as always but I have to say that his film taste has always bewildered me; The King's Speech greater than Black Swan or I Am Love? Secretariat and Hereafter compared qualitatively to Another Year and Rabbit Hole? Does not compute. Although it does compute as more middlebrow Academy friendly than many film critics so his opinions are always worth watching when speculating about Oscarish enthusiasms. But on the other hand, here's his rulebook for critics. It's kind of awesome.

Links: "The 39 True Basterds Are All Right Network"

Warning: Teaser poster for True Grit bound to shame eventual actual poster with its gorgeous directness and simplicity. [Editor's Note: I've been in a very bad place/mood when it comes to movie posters lately. More on this soon.]

big screen
Scanners wonderful piece on the editing in Inglourious Basterds and what kind of choices Sally Menke was making.

Guardian I hadn't realized that The Kids Are All Right hadn't made it to the UK yet. But now that it's getting there: new articles! Lisa Cholodenko offers up an interesting theory about why women directors are few: It's not systemic sexism but based on what audiences value.
Cinema Blend an easter egg (we used to call them "inside jokes") in The Social Network for Fight Club fans.
Nick's Flick Picks has a brief encounter w/ none other than Roger Ebert
Our Stage the pop stars in big films this year
Boing Boing Yoda as Princess Leia. teehee

small screen
Deadline Wonder Woman via David E Kelley for television? There's a lot of snark in the comments on this post (I didn't know that Deadline had such conservative readership but I don't pay much attention to other sites...  a problem when you have to run your own). My mind unwillingly flashed to Michelle Pfeiffer playing the Queen of the Amazons (previously played to camp perfection by Cloris Leachman in the 1970s tv show.)
Daily Beast 'Why I Loathe Glee'. A compelling argument about what's wrong with the series (and why it's going to get worse)
Movie | Line The 3 worst stereotypes on TV this week

offscreen (I'm trying to avoid eyestrain)

Interview Naomi Campbell reminisces (lots of celebrities and history). Weird factoid: very few things remind Nathaniel of the early 90s more than "The Trinity": Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington.
REEAD I have no idea why this slide show arrived in my inbox under the heading "Is Madonna a religion?" but it just goes to show you that having a beautiful body can get you lots of page views... even if your headlines are misleading.
TCG Readers who are interested in theater might enjoy seeing which current plays are slated for the most regional production this coming year. I've been meaning to write about the Hitchcock spoof The 39 Steps forever. I guess I should. So many productions coming up.