Winter Passing (2006):

Winter Passing is a film from auteur Adam Rapp, a professional novelist and playwright who is making his screenwriting and directorial debut. The film opened Friday in a whopping seven theaters in the U.S. of A, which will give you some insight into its projected far-reaching appeal. Reviews have been mixed. It does have a strong cast, featuring Ed Harris and Zoe Deschanel - and Will Ferrell, of all people, who seems to covet some arthouse cred.

• If you want details about it, here is an extremely detailed positive review from a literate IMDb contributor.
• Here is a negative review from Slant Magazine which includes a fairly good synopsis.

Here are two clips (zipped .wmv) from Winter Passing, and a sample capture from each one.

• In the first one, Zoe wanders about in a t-shirt.
• In the second, Zoe is having sex with some guy, but is not even vaguely interested. I think the scene is supposed to create the illusion that she is topless, but the clip and the sample capture make it evident that her nipples were covered.

Zoe Deschanel

Dallas (TV Show):

Here's one for you old farts. A zipped .wmv of Victoria Principal in a bathing suit that doesn't even come close to hiding her her nipples and areolae.

Other Crap:

"10 MORE COMMANDMENTS FOUND!

• Apparently Moses was so enraged he forgot to tell the Hebrews about commandments eleven through twenty
• "The 20th commandment is too worn away to fully read," Wul said, "but after 'Thou shalt not' the words 'war' and 'oil' were legible. It's still a mystery."

Norm MacDonald appearing on David Letterman immediately after being fired from Weekend Update

Rolling Stones draw 1.2 million for live concert on Copacabana beach

• Per Guinness, this is nowhere near the record. According to the article, Rod Stewart played to 3.5 million at the same location in 1994.

The trailer for L'Enfant (The Child)

• "Dispossessed twenty-year old Bruno (Jeremie Renier) lives with his eighteen-year-old girlfriend Sonia (Deborah Francois) in Seraing, an eastern Belgian steel town. They live off Sonia's unemployment benefits along with the panhandling and petty thefts committed by Bruno and his gang. Their lives change forever when Sonia gives birth to their child, Jimmy. She returns home after Jimmy's birth to find that Bruno has sublet their apartment to total strangers. After an initial and promising change of heart about becoming a father and changing his ways, Jimmy becomes little more to Bruno than a potential source of wealth. Desperate for money and unable to face his parental responsibilities, Bruno sells Jimmy to a black market connection, who promises to find the child an adoptive home. Realizing the error in his actions Bruno sets out to try and undo his callous deed, leading him to a powerful personal transformation."

Google files a formal rejection of the DofJ's subpoena. (complete motion)

Another group to develop a passenger spaceship

Streep tells young actresses to keep clothes on

• And she said it with a perfect Polish accent
• Quick, somebody shut that old busybody up
• Actually, she's right. No actress will have to do much nudity to get famous, provided she has as much talent as Meryl Streep.

"Actresses Denise Richards and Neve Campbell are set to team up again for another steamy instalment of the hit film 'Wild Things'."

• At last! Scorsese's route to "best picture."
• I don't know how this is possible. Wild Things 2 and 3 have already gone STV with different characters, and they can't go back to the original characters because Richards's character died in the original.
• On the other hand, if they do more lesbian scenes and three-ways, I applaud this fine cinema endeavor.

Nicole Richie in language mix-up

• "Richie was in for a shock recently as she attempted to learn Greek. After one month of lessons, the socialite and Simple Life star realised that she had actually been studying Italian."

Cartoon protests kill 16 in Nigeria.

• See if you can figure out what Nigeria had to do with the cartoons.

Amsterdam's 'Red Light' District Declares Open House. This would be the Dutch equivalent of a President's Days Sale.

Bosnian film surprises with top award in Berlin

• "A moving drama about Bosnia's post-war trauma and the lingering impact of the systematic rape of women by Serb soldiers during the 1992-95 conflict won top honors at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday."

Daily Box Office - Friday, February 17, 2006

• Date Movie and Eight Below open 1-2, Freedomland bombs
• #1 is probably still in play. Eight Below, basically a kids movie, may do better over the weekend

Fans, cops wait for Stones to start it up in Rio

Stephen Colbert celebrates the American worker

Stephen Lynch - If I Were Gay

• A funny song for people who aren't gay but who are mistaken for one.

Lachey Seeks Support

• "In divorce papers, Nick Lachey is seeking spousal support from Jessica Simpson, and he wants his jewelry back."

Letterman: Top Ten Signs Your Pilot Is Drunk

Eminem and Jimmy Kimmel play Basketball, or a similar game using a basketball.

The legendary Star Wars Holiday Special!!

• Terrible quality and a terrible show - but still a forgotten, rarely-seen cultural treasure.

A script review of There Will Be Blood, a new PTA film which may star Daniel Day-Lewis. (He's not signed.)

Wil Wheaton Wins World Series Of Strip Poker

Historians Call for Preservation of Cheney-Whittington Shooting Site ... Loss of the Aaron Burr-Alexander Hamilton Site Is A Lesson for All

The Daily Show: If we're gonna do the Star Wars Evil Empire analogy, the Democrats are Ewoks. At best.

The Daily Show's Lewis Black whines about something or another

Jon Stewart talks to big deal movie star Ed Harris

Oldies but goodies: Charlize Theron topless at the beach

Oldies but goodies: Uma Thurman naked on the beach

Enough With The Brokeback Spoofs! Here's a ton of 'em.

Slashdot - The Looming Battle Over Online Gambling

Did Paris Hilton get some new boobs for Christmas?

Movie Reviews:

Yellow asterisk: funny (maybe). White asterisk: expanded format. Blue asterisk: not mine. No asterisk: it probably sucks.

"Purgatory"

Purgatory (1988) is a South African WIP film staring Tanya Roberts. It is set in a mythical country, where she and her friend are working in the Peace Corps. They are to leave for home anyway, and martial law is declared. On the way to the airport, they pick up a hitch hiker. They are stopped by a road block, where they find a large quantity of heroin in his backpack. He is shot to death trying to escape, and the girls are arrested, tried, and convicted.

The warden had a Harvard Business School education, and figured out how to raise some extra capital using the ASSets at hand. He was forcing the women into prostitution. Robert's friend was gang raped and hung herself. Her mother tried everything she could to get her out, including bribing her first judge, but ended up killed for her trouble. Finally, a US embassy official becomes sympathetic to her case.

Robert's shows breasts, buns, and maybe a distant hint of bush in a mirror. Several unknowns show breasts in the obligatory shower scene.

IMDb readers say 3.2, and with only 33 votes. The forced prostitution angle is the only unique element in what is otherwise a typical WIP effort, but with less lesbian overtones and less nudity. This is one you can easily skip. The transfer quality is abysmal. D-.

Tanya Roberts Unknown

"Ski School 2"

Ski School 2 (1995), a Canadian titty comedy, is a sequel to Ski School, an equally unfunny take-off on Hot Dog, the Movie. It uses the oft repeated plot line of the good guys (poor, fun loving underdogs) versus the rich assholes. It is set at a ski lodge, where the daughter of the deceased owner is set to marry the head rich asshole, who is only interested in her because he has an agreement from her father that he gets the mountain if he marries her. Her ex boyfriend, one of the good guys, gets a wedding invite, and comes back to rescue her.

Two running gags are responsible for all of the nudity. First, one of the good guys is supposedly irresistible to women, so we see breasts and buns from two unknowns and Shannon Lee Brown in his apartment. Second, former Heffer Wendy Hamilton (December 1991) is a nude portrait artist. No, she doesn't paint nudes, she gets nude to paint.

IMDb readers say 4.3, and the few reviews available are most unkind. Most of the jokes fell flat, there wasn't nearly enough female flesh, and the skiing was mediocre. D.

Shannon Lee Brown Wendy Hamilton Unknown