Fox Re-evaluating Sniper Film's Release
By The New York Times
October 12, 2002

Executives at 20th Century Fox were huddled today to decide what to do about "Phone Booth," a thriller whose plot is a little too close to the killing spree in suburban Washington.

If you've seen the trailers for Phone Booth, you probably understand why Fox began doubting to release this film: "The movie stars Colin Farrell as a publicity executive who innocently answers a sidewalk pay phone only to find himself trapped on the line by a sniper who has him in the crosshairs." Too close to current events for box-office comfort, wouldn't you say? Call me callous but I wanted to see this film. Wanted, as in: its release has been delayed indefinitely. "In light of recent events," of course. If studios were really sensitive they'd either be making less exploitative, better thought movies or releasing them and facing the music.

Regarding the similarity between fiction and fact, Phone Booth's screenwriter Larry Cohen commented: "I thought it would be far above any possible imitation in life. And yet nothing is too far-fetched today." I would call this simply a case of life imitating art if it weren't because Phone Booth surely is no art.

Hollywood's foreign affair
By Gregory M. Lamb
October 11, 2002

Foreign filmmakers have directed some of the most quintessentially "American" films — from "Yankee Doodle Dandy" to "American Beauty." Today, Hollywood's giving the melting pot a brisk stir, importing directorial talent from Asia and Latin America.

John Woo, Guillermo del Toro, Ang Lee, Alfonso Cuarón... Why are all these and other foreign directors such hot commodities in Hollywood? According to Gregory Lamb, the reasons "include Hollywood's perpetual hunt for new talent, the need to consider worldwide markets, and the hope that foreign directors might bring a fresh eye to shop-worn formula pictures." I have no problem with the first two, but the last one? Rubish.

No doubt a foreign sensibility can be used to tell a well-known story in a new way (if the auteur theory, as applied to Hollywood, still applies). But that can only take a movie so far if the story, well, sucks. I mean, have you looked at Mexican director Luis Mandoki's résumé? Though I'm glad for my paisanos Cuarón and del Toro (Hollywood movies get greater worldwide distribution than Mexican films), I think Hollywood would save on working visas if it spent some more on better screenplays. And made less movies.

{Edited on October 17, 2002. Changed "making less movies" to "made less movies."}

From the A.Word.A.Day newsletter for October 14, 2002:

Today when we spell the word "catalog" instead of "catalogue" we can thank a crotchety, humorless man for saving the wear on our fingers, not to mention savings on paper and those obscenely expensive inkjet printer cartridges. Oct 16 marks the birth anniversary of Noah Webster (1758-1843), who compiled the 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, the first authoritative lexicon of American English.

Webster believed in establishing cultural independence from Britain and as such he emphasized a distinct American spelling and pronunciation. His dictionary listed various unusual and shortened spellings of the words. He would have hardly imagined how the tide would turn one day. According to reports, more British and Australian children spell "color" instead of "colour", for example. Webster's suggestion of using "tung" instead of "tongue" didn't stuck, though. As he said, "the process of a living language is like the motion of a broad river which flows with a slow, silent, irresistible current."

Today Webster's name is synonymous with dictionaries and the date of his birth is observed as Dictionary Day... Happy Dictionary Day!
— Anu Garg