Valenti Spins in Grave; Kidman Presides Over Funeral

Take your ratings and stuff ‘em, Jack! Superbad, an R-rated teen comedy produced by Judd Apatow and written by Seth Rogen and friend, Evan Goldberg, had the late Motion Picture Association of America head Jack Valenti spinning in his grave over the weekend, as it lured thousands of impressionable teens into theaters, most—gasp!— without their Read More

The Man Who Beat Valenti

On Sept. 27, film producer Ted Hope was on the phone with distributor New Line Pictures talking about the Academy Awards campaign for American Splendor, which he had produced. “They said, ‘Well, it’s going to be much different this year,’” Mr. Hope recalled in a nasally, New England–inflected accent, from his Tribeca office. “Because they”–the Read More

Legal Battle Over Copyright-Intellectual Property Gets Hip

Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity , by Lawrence Lessig. Penguin Press, 368 pages, $24.95.

In a profession dominated by nerds, intellectual property (I.P.) lawyers have long served the useful role of letting other lawyers feel that at least they’re not the nerdiest. Read More

Book Review

Ripped From the Headlines,

A Sad, True Novel About Haiti

The Dew Breaker , by Edwidge Danticat. Alfred A. Knopf, 244 pages, $22.

Only a few hours away by luxury jet lies an island paradise of palm trees and warm sand where the air itself feels forgiving. Lovely chocolate-skinned women wear pink nightgowns, Read More

The Man Who Beat Valenti

On Sept. 27, film producer Ted Hope was on the phone with distributor New Line Pictures talking about the Academy Awards campaign for American Splendor , which he had produced. “They said, ‘Well, it’s going to be much different this year,’” Mr. Hope recalled in a nasally, New England–inflected accent, from his Tribeca office. “Because Read More