Olivia Williams, The Ghost Actress

I was late to the party on The Ghost Writer but as with any good film, the party is still raging once you get there. It's already one of my favorites of 2010. But back in March I should have been out there championing it as a clever, well executed thriller (if that's the genre you'd like to define it as).  I think it was Pierce Brosnan who kept me away. Since when does he make good movies? And since when is he good in them?

Brosnan is in deep doo-doo in The Ghost Writer. Cattrall and Williams are
out-of-focus behind him. Which is just how both their characters like it, thank you.

Finally, it was you (yes you!) that convinced me to see it. It was praised enough in comment threads to make me think I'd missed out... particularly in regards to Olivia Williams. She's an actress I'd never thought much about until the past few years and now, it's getting kind of hard to deny her her due.

I wrote up her terrific work in my "Best in Show" column for Tribeca Film. She really is something (in general and here in particular). She's such a sticky actress; she haunts.

A Link of Their Own

Have your eyes yet feasted on this actual handwritten letter (thx Boy Culture) that Madonna wrote to photographer Steven Meisel? So much pop cultural memory jogging is happening: Herb Ritts, the "Sex" book in idea form, The House of Extravaganza, and --eep! -- everyone's favorite female baseball picture A League of Their Own ("Geena Davis is a barbie doll"... "I hate actresses..." HA!).

That's better than any time machine in taking me right back to 1992. This is why no one should ever throw anything handwritten away ever.

The Big Picture $40 million is the new ceiling for Hollywood drama budgets. It's about time they figured that out. You can make a great one for that amount so why not improve your profitability potential?
All Things Fangirl on Batman 3 speculation (it's actually Batman 8 if you ask me, though I know everyone likes to pretend the first 5 Bruce Wayne pics didn't happen) Which female villain should appear. I say none because of Nolan's girl problem. I was just innocently reading along and then my fur went up and I started hissing. You'll know why.

i09 interviews Eliza Dushku about the departed Dollhouse now that it's all on DVD. Will she work with Joss Whedon again?
Star East Asia Reign of Assassins character posters. I am so ready to see Michelle Yeoh again. Bring this movie to me.
Empire Black Swan graphic design
/Film Green Hornet poster
I Need My Fix Adam Sandler in drag? My eyes!
Topless Robot They're converting the whole Harry Potter series into 3D. I would someday like 2 pennies to rub together myself but sometimes the insatiable miserable greed in this world is really unsettling.

<--- Meanwhile, in my weekly column for Towleroad I've issued a cinema-altering challenge to James Cameron involving Elizabeth Taylor, bitched about the MPAA and their fear of peen, and shared a performance moment from the dueling trans stars of Portugal's Oscar submission. Why is it that no matter where you go in the world, the drag playlists remain exactly the same?