Without Nail and I

Ah, good ol' Mary Stuart Masterson. Was she not the proverbial Tomboy of the '80s? This is a still from At Close Range, and on reflection it kinda doesn't do her justice. I get kind of a Brigitte Nielsen vibe from it now.
Anyway, big things are happening on Comedy Central. Harrison Ford on The Daily Show last night!! He really must be desperate with this whole Firewall thingie. Apparently he's the Top Dog in Hollywood, but still smarting after the anemic returns on Hollywood Homicide. Anybody got a copy of Water to Wine? Firewall was directed by Richard Loncraine (what? Was Peter Howitt unavailable?), and aspiring film directors take note! Where there's life there's hope. You hang around long enough after directing Sting in Brimstone & Treacle, you'll get that Band of Brothers gig.
Oh yeah! Freedomland is on the march. The trailers are nice but as it turns out, Joe Roth directed, so it's probably nothing special. I've been burned too many times, I'm sorry.
Besides, the big story this week is The Pink Panther. All of Hollywood is waiting with baited breath for this to be a #1 hit, but it runs a little deeper than that. Is Blake Edwards still timely? How long can he coast on just getting character credit in the WGA? How far can the Middle Age envelope be pushed by the likes of Steve Martin? Is not the role of Inspector Clouseau a young man's game? And can Beyonce do it all, or does even she have trouble selling a line like "I didn't kill him!"? Move over, Queen Latifah, you just been bitch-slapped by Beyoncé, girlfriend! And is Shawn Levy the new Frank Oz?
In the meantime, everyone's doing their part. Cartoon Network's Boomerang has a scattershot showing of many of those old Pink Panther cartoons, for those of you who haven't bought the 5 disc DVD collection. Shame on you if you haven't, by the way. And shame on them for not putting any of the other members of that extended family on there: the Inspector, Roland and Rattfink, Hoot Kloot, what have you.
Lastly, but not leastly, since the whole (media) world is still reeling from this whole James Frey thing. Kissing a Fool? I just hope the David Schwimmer character isn't modeled after Frey himself, but upon reflection it seems like it. I just hate the thought of Frey even attempting to do a stand-up comedy routine. Anyway, I think there's only one solution to the whole Million Little Pieces debacle waiting to be bourne into existence: we call it Adaptation 2 and get the two Kaufmans to try adapting it, but I think it's a scenario that would be too depressing, even for two people as narcissistic as the Kaufmans.