The News: Today in Filmmaker Deaths, Jeremy Blake

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

--It wouldn't be a midsummer day in 2007 unless another talented filmmaker died, so today, The New York Times confirms what were, as of last week, our worst suspicions: Authorities revealed Tuesday that a body recently by a fisherman off the Jersey coast is indeed that of painter and video artist Jeremy Blake. The 35-year-old was reported missing July 17, one week after the suicide of his girlfriend, the artist Theresa Duncan. Scandal abounds, per Karina Longworth at Spout Blog, but mostly, everybody is just sad. Rest in peace, and the rest of you geniuses, stay away from the chess board! It's a trick!

--I love the movie musical of Hairspray, but amid all the showstoppers and Walken/Travolta tangles, little made me smile more than watching Nikki Blonsky hit her debut role as Tracy Turnblad out of the park. But will she get the chance to top it, I asked on my way out of the theater? Well, sort of: Gregg Goldstein reports she's been tapped to play the friend of balding teenager Spencer Breslin in the comedy Harold, now shooting at -- wait for it -- Blonsky's old middle-school in Great Neck. Unbelievable.

--As a grad student at NYU I once organized a panel that featured John Podhoretz among its members. Which is really weird, because I don't recall a mouthbreathing, festering contrarian fucker with a dick for a head showing up that night. Pissing on Bergman's grave wasn't enough for him in yesterday's NY Post "appreciation"; he wants you to have a taste as well. Abandon taste all ye who enter here, and, if necessary, delouse with Tony Scott over at The Times or my own remembrance at The Huffington Post.

Posted at August 1, 2007 10:16 AM