The most enjoyable, juicy entertainment story of the morning is Andy Dehnart's piece at The Daily Beast about a situation developing over at CBS's flagship reality show, Survivor. The show's been spoiled on message boards for many a season, but apparently somebody at either the show or the network got tired of the specificity of a particular message-board poster's inside information and set out to find out where the leak was. Apparently, the leak now says his source was ... Russell Hantz, the show's pet player, who is about to be featured for the third time in four seasons. Andy's story is worth reading not only for the Probstenfreude involved in the show's most relentlessly overexposed character [maybe possibly allegedly] stabbing it in the back, but also for his detailed explanation of the sociology of the fan communities where these spoilers emerge. Oh, and there's an apparent sabotage where the leaker alleges that Hantz set him up by feeding him phony information about Kimbo Slice. Seriously, it is compulsively readable.
I recommend this particularly odd essay from Neal Gabler in The Guardian, despite the fact that I disagree with almost every factual assertion in it, from the idea that nobody criticized Freedom to the idea that there is still a sharp line between "bloggers" and "critics," to the waving of Harry Knowles as the standard bearer for movie blogging. It's an interesting look at criticism and populism, but I'm not sure it's grounded in a thorough understanding of what critics actually do. Read it for yourself.
Naturally, this street art seemingly advocating for an Oscar for Exit Through The Gift Shop is the subject of considerable discussion: Who did it? Was it Banksy? Was it Mr. Brainwash? Wait, is it done ironically? I'm so confused.
I actually consider The Stand as it was rendered as a TV miniseries to be one of the more successful screen adaptations of Stephen King's work. Nevertheless, they're making a big-screen feature-length version, which will need to cut out ... what, about 90 percent of the story?
Ricky Gervais says he's been invited to host the Golden Globes again next year. Oh, good, let's have this entire discussion again in January of 2012.
The Smithsonian has decided to "preview and provide an opportunity for public comment about future exhibitions that could prove sensitive." This change in policy comes after a controversial decision to pull a piece of artwork from an exhibition after it was criticized for its content.
According to one study, television is Americans' favorite form of media. Too bad, internet, music, books and movies!
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