Screening Gotham: The Ever-Expanding Church of Spurlock

Why is Morgan Spurlock smiling? Why do you think? (Photo: John Rice/Eastern Michigan University)

Welcome to the return of Screening Gotham, the late events post which will henceforth be repurposed as a daily blog entry highlighting news tidbits and notes from around New York cinema. Or maybe mostly around New York cinema, anyway; you never know when Charlie Sheen is going to go auctioning off a noteworthy Marlon Brando tone poem on "sled dog urine and dried East Indian vulva":

--Hammy stater-of-the-obvious Morgan Spurlock received another double-barreled blast of PR love last weekend: MSNBC snapped up Super Size Me for its renewed primetime doc push; and the AP notes the Earth-shattering suspicion that Spurlock's film may have influenced a shift in McDonald's menu selections. Nice to see that hating on retards has not slowed his momentum a bit.

--True item (if you believe Page Six): Los Angeles Clippers forward Elton Brand co-produced Werner Herzog's upcoming Rescue Dawn.

--The NYT's Stuart Elliott breaks down the ad industry's commodification of A Christmas Story. My cynicism hardens -- I double the bourbon in my egg nog.

--Also in the NYT, David Carr's most impressionistic Carpetbagger video yet implies the heartbreaking reality that deep down he, too, craves a statue of his own.

--Finally, thanks to the Guardian for finding the New York angle in Lindsay Lohan's latest inelegance: "Somewhere out there in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, is the person responsible for teaching Lindsay Lohan English. They will probably have been forced into hiding over the weekend." Read why here.

Posted at November 27, 2006 10:16 AM