Newest Celebrity Coupling: De Paciro.

I know the difference between De Niro and Pacino.  Ronin, Scent of a woman.  Wag the Dog, The Recruit.  See?  Its easy.  But I will admit that when I saw Heat, I didn't notice they were two separate characters until very late in the movie.  I just though he was a crooked cop and a bit of an asshole.  What?  Its an honest, and I contend, not unheard of mistake  Whatever.  De Niro and Pacino will star in another movie together, apparently sharing more than two scenes this time.  I dunno what's gonna happen, but I bet there will be some yelling involved.

• BBC NEWS | Entertainment | De Niro and Pacino pair up again

Too Bad We Didn't Have Assigned Seating When I Was In School.

Take your top off for a good seat in the dining hall? Brilliant! A school in Denmark is coming under fire for an annual competition where the girls strip it off for the teachers and students. Not because of the event itself, but apparently this year a couple of girls got carried away with baby oil and each other's chests. That's still not the trouble. 4 students filmed it on their cell phones and posted it on youtube. Uh-oh. Sorta, maybe, busted. The school administrator seems real cool about the whole thing. Basically he had a talk with everyone involved and its no big deal. They're still gonna do the event in the future, they just don't want it on the Internet. And as for the Oilers, they didn't even win cause no one wants to see a couple of 18-year-old Danish girls strip off their clothes and oil each other up.

Do you SEE how much cooler Europeans are than Americans? Imagine this happened at any school in the US and think of the onslaught from countless groups that take heinous and irreparable offense.

• Students' stage strip for teachers |Metro.co.uk (NSFYourMom)
  

I'm Gonna Need That Shash Back.

Damn, I've gotta start paying attention to pageants. Miss whatever nearly had her title stripped after accusations of partying too hearty in New York. Really? She sounds cool. Hey, back off Donald, you're the ones who picked her in the first place. Its not her fault that you're a bad judge of character. And who's to say she's not doing your little show a favor? You know, scandals draw interest. I didn't see any of the contest in April, but I'm willing to bet that her answer to "what will you do as Miss USA?" didn't include making out with Miss Teen USA.

• BBC NEWS | Americas | US beauty queen to keep her title

Pretend This Bag Of Chips Is A Cat.

I do like CG. I normally just think about it in Pixar films because its noticeable there; the entire film is CG. I like to watch the special features and see how the shots and objects were modeled, or how the creative process worked to created the characters in movies like Finding Nemo or Cars.

But that's one type of CG that's about style and art. The goal of traditional CG is to blend in to the film and be unnoticeable to the viewer. (watch the Emperor's new groove, a hand animated movie, and pick out the CG objects. they did a good job.) I finally got around to watching my copy of Dead Man's Chest this weekend and didn't really think about the special effects. I spose that means they did a good job; especially so considering how much actual editing ILM did for the film. Now, I didn't watch the 8 hours of special features yet so I'm sure this site is just a taste, but I like the interaction. Head on over to the ILM site and you can view some of the process and mouse-over clips to reveal the original shot. These guys are good.

• Industrial Light & Magic - The Show: Pirates of the Caribbean 2

Don't Restrict Me.

Good for you Emusic. They've sold 100,000,000 DRM free songs online. I'd call that sticking it to all those music executives that say you can't make money without DRM. Emusic is now the second most popular online music source behind the iTunes music store, and they've done it with independent labels. That's right, they're selling less "popular" music and doing it better because their users don't feel shackled and criminalized. I know because I'm one of them. Hell, I feel like upgrading my account just to stick it to the music industry a little more.

• Techdirt: DRM-Free Music Sells, Major Labels Keep Pretending The Jury Is Still Out

Don't Talk Through My Show.

I just dropped 20 bucks to get in here so sit down, shut-up and turn your damn phone off. Remember back in the days when there were ushers wearing little red vests at the movies? Yeah, me neither. Theaters have had to streamline their work-flows just to squeeze out a profit. Basically that means you're going to buy your ticket at a touchscreen kiosk, wait 20 minutes in line for food with a 300% mark-up, and that there's no one to oversee unruly behavior during the show.

But don't worry, they're working on a fix. Select theaters are handing out remote controls to 'mature' audience members that will alert employees when attention is needed. Its kinda like an air marshal, except his gun shoots ushers instead of bullets. Now I'm all about throwing people out for talking on their phones, but I'm not sure if a teenager in a red vest is the right medium. I want it to be some thing public, something shaming. Something you want never to happen again. So I've come up with a few options:

1. The movie stops, a spotlight cuts through the pitch black from directly above the phone user and a parabolic mic pumps his conversation over the 7 channel surround sound.
2. Five men dressed as Storm Troopers charge into the room and escort the offender out at 'laser-point.' He is then taken to a separate room and forced to watch episode one.
   
3. A big claw descends from the ceiling grasping the offender by the head and drops him into a slot on the side of the auditorium. He shoots down a slide and ends up in a Chuck E Cheeze and gets left in the parking lot by the 8-year old who won him.
   
4. Pee-Wee Herman rushes in doing the secret word dance and screaming and then proceeds to do what he does in movie theaters.
   

• Techdirt: Ever Wished You Could Push A Button To Remove A Disruptive Movie Watcher?

Its Fair Use Till We Say Its Not.

Freaking MPAA. Do they just wake up in the morning trying to think of new ways to be a pain in everyone's ass? After spouting off last week about how they 'understand' and 'champion' fair use, and that its the device manufacturers are the problem, it didn't take long for the entertainment industry to show its true colors.

So you know fair use? Limited legal use of copyrighted material NOT requiring the permission of the rights holder. It boils the MPAA's blood. They'd probably outlaw watching movies with other people if they could. This limited use clearly includes personal backups of purchased material, which the MPAA seems to have reluctantly accepted.

But wait, the battle isn't over. There's something other than the content you paid for on those DVD's in your livingroom. That's right! Its DRM! Digital Rights Management, or in other words a pain in the ass that treats valid consumers like criminals, stripping their digital rights. Couple that together with the DMCA and you have quite the dynamic duo. The DMCA protects the DRM itself, not the copyright that the DRM is supposedly protecting. So now in cases where the copyright does not apply (ie. fair use) but the DRM is still in place, the DMCA makes it illegal to exercise your fair use rights.

How the hell did a piece of legislation like that get passed? That's like having one law that says you can tinker with your car; minor upgrades, change the oil, fill the wiper fluid. But also having another law that makes it illegal to open your own car's hood.

This is just one of the problems the DMCA provides by not requiring more accountability by the rights holders. Doesn't it seem like a piece of legislation that applies such broad powers to a concept should also restrict the instances where that concept is allowed to be implemented; so that the law doesn't overstep its jurisdiction?

If they can't produce a reasonable, well scoped protection system, they shouldn't be allowed to saddle us with one at all. Land mines are really good at preventing unlawful entry. I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to surround my car with them in the Wal-mart parking lot.

• Techdirt: MPAA Sues Firm For Loading Legally Owned DVDs Onto iPods

Stop The Presses!

Get the BBC on the Phone! We've gotta tell people about this. Britney and what's-his-face are splitting. Or something. I haven't been this broken up since Nick and Jessica started banging other people. *sniff* Why Britney, why?

Dammit, I could have used those braincells to learn Italian. I guess my only option is to try and take them out with a laser-guided precision beer strike.

• BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Britney Spears files for divorce