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It looks like the DeCSS code-crack dispute is back in court. I have more than a passing interest in this case, considering that I possess an illegal copy of the DVD decryption code. Of course, it is on the back of a T-shirt. 🙂

Pubs to stay open round the clock. Hooray! Of course, it’s an obvious ploy from the Labour Party to get re-elected, but I don’t care. It’s absolutely ridiculous that you can’t get a beer in London after 11:00 pm. In college, we never even went out til after 11! England, welcome to the 21st century.

Also note down at the bottom of that same IMDb news page, there’s a blurb entitled “Colin Firth Causes Problems For Bridget Jones Sequel.” And what is it about? “Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding has found a flaw in the adaptation of her sequel Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason — Colin Firth has to be in it twice.” DUH. I’ve been telling everybody I know this for weeks. I don’t really think it’s much of a problem though. The main reason is that the Colin Firth interview in the second book only makes sense when you know about Bridget’s obsession with Pride & Prejudice. Since they cut all of those references in the first film, there’s no reason why they have to include them in the second. Also, as I pointed out before, the second book is really sucky plot-wise anyway and the Colin Firth bit has nothing to do with the storyline, so Fielding might as well lift it out and rewrite the whole thing. And lastly, this stupid blurb makes it sound like Fielding really just forgot that Colin Firth was in the second book. Nobody is that stupid. I think she and the filmmakers made a conscious decision to use Firth in the first film knowing that they’d have problems with a sequel. In my opinion, he was perfect to play Mark Darcy and the value of his performance far outweighs a few missing P&P references. (At least, for most of the non-Austen-fanatic moviegoing public.)

Apparently Calista Flockhart fainted when she heard the news that Robert Downey Jr. had been arrested for drugs again. Fainted. Has any woman actually swooned with emotion since, like, 1885? I suppose when you’re that tiny, any disruption in your trickle of blood flow is enough to bring on a collapse. (It’s horrible, but I found this really funny: “Everyone ran over and tried to revive her. David’s face was pale but Calista, who is usually very pale, was as white as a sheet.” Of course she’s pale, she’s a skeleton.)

Have you been following the David Horowitz story? He’s a journalist and “conservative provacateur” who sent ’round an advertisement attacking the notion of slavery reparations to dozens of American universities. When many of them refused to print it (or did print it and then published apologies), he accused them of censorship and claimed that his real point had to do with the First Amendment and the liberal press. It’s become a real headache for a lot of college papers and some of them are even revising their advertising guidelines. (For the record, my alma mater was among those who declined to print it.) Anyhoo, another Salon writer decided that if Horowitz is gonna try to paint the conservatives as the real defenders of the First Amendment, he’d put it to the test. So he devised an ad that said “God is an abortionist” and sent it to several prominent conservative universities. Needless to say, only one out of eleven printed it. I wonder what Horowitz would say about that?

You know, in my History of Film class in college, the professor defined a “high-concept” movie as one where the plot can be summed up in 20 words or less. Giving that definition, I wonder where “One Night at McCool’s” fits. Every advert I’ve seen for it only says one thing: “Liv Tyler washes a car.” I predict this film will bomb at the theaters yet do a reasonably good business on video, simply for the teenage-boy-wank factor.

Uh oh. A judge has ruled that “Irish” is an ethnic slur. A woman in Vermont tried to get “IRISH” on a license plate and was denied. If this catches on in other states, half of Notre Dame‘s student body are going to have to get new license plates. And what about our mascot? We’ll have to change the football chants! This is catastrophe in the making.

Heh. Okay, so Amazon is selling Red Hat Linux 7.0 Deluxe Edition. Check out the reviews at the bottom of the page though. How funny is that? Even funnier is the fact that Amazon refuses to remove them.

Meg pointed to “Tips for Dating Emotional Cripples.” Let’s see, I’ve experienced the musician, the best friend, the long-distance boy, the artist, and the punker. (That sounds like a lot, but really it’s only two people. The categories overlap a lot.)

I sent Snookums a link to the hacker page and he responded, “YOU are the hacker around here these days.” I said I wasn’t, and he added, “Who’s the one upstairs hacking while I cook dinner eh?” He’s got me there.

Celebrity spotting. (Scroll to the bottom.) Congratulations again, Max!