Not really. The broadcast is still in a tailspin, becoming more of an informercial for ESPN programming every week. It’s not as shameless as the TV Guide Channel yet, but it’s getting close.

What I mean, is that SportsCenter now has its first great promo in years with this fabulous spot featuring John Anderson and Steve “Crocodile Hunter” Irwin. It’s the first ad they’ve done in a long time worthy of the SportsCenter pantheon.

Remember all of the amazing spots they did during the ’90s?

Warning: If you click on that last link, you’re going to waste a lot of time today.

IMDB reports that Netflix is suing Blockbuster:

Netflix on Tuesday sued rival Blockbuster, claiming patent infringement and maintaining that, in the words of a company spokesman, “From top to bottom, Blockbuster has deliberately and willfully copied Netflix’s business model.” In its filing, Netflix asked a federal court in San Francisco to shut down Blockbuster’s online rental service. It also seeks unspecified damages.

I’m not a lawyer and I don’t know the details of the case, but on first blush it seems to me that if Netflix has a valid complaint, then Blockbuster should have sued Hollywood Video years ago. And Colgate should have sued Crest. And Coke should totally try to get the courts to stop all sales of Pepsi.

With regard to the previous post, I think that JLH has made a perfectly fine career move. For now. I recently saw a commercial on CBS (one of the more palatable ones during the tournament) for Ghost Whisperer and was thoroughly titillated by the suspenseful sneak peaks of a coming episode.

But the point is well taken. I recently came across a show called Student Seduction and starring Elizabeth Berkley (aka Nomi Malone, aka Jessie Spano). I thought I was in for a real treat only to be terribly disappointed. Berkley plays a high school teacher accused of sexual assault on a minor. In fact, the male student hit on her and she turned him down. He then pretends it happened and that he was a “victim.” The show, incidentally, was on Lifetime.

It was all too hard to believe. Elizabeth Berkley playing a science teacher?

Jenny’s new minion on Jessica Alba’s attempt to do more serious work:

With all due respect Jessica, you really need to enhance your calm. You were in a bikini on the cover of Playboy then you were kissing a girl for MTV. According to a quick survey of me, you should do both of those more often. So don’t get all stuck up on us now. It’s not like Fantastic Four 2 or Sin City 2 is going to be about a young single mother and textile worker who agrees to help unionize her mill despite the dangers involved. I mean, you see what’s happening with Jennifer Love Hewitt. Look, do you want to be on Lifetime, or do you want to show us your tits?

This is why George Clooney is the BMOC.

In this interview, and not just about Mission Impossible: III, but about Alias, too. He even answers the question of why Milo Rimbaldi basically disappeared from the series after the second season:

Q: Will Milo Rambaldi play a significant role in the “Alias” finale, or has that ship sailed?

A: There will be a Rambaldi component to it. We would have actually gone there far more — and in greater detail, as we originally conceived it — if the network had been more amenable to that. But they were always very anti-Rambaldi, so we kind of had to pull back.

Q: Did you ever consider a circumstance that would have necessitated casting Rambaldi?

A: We actually have. In a flashback once, you actually saw a piece of his hand, but you never actually saw who he was.

[brief pause] We actually have — yes.

Galley Reader A.M. sends along this link to the Reuter’s story where Paul Verhoeven blames Basic Instinct 2‘s financial woes on the Christian Right, Bush, Halliburton, et al.

(I’m kidding about Halliburton, of course. It’s not like Verhoeven is crazy.)

Buried deep into page 2 of the story, however, is the most interesting nugget:

Despite the market downturn, “9 1/2 Weeks” and “Wild Orchid” scribe Zalman King is still penning erotic thrillers, including retro-sounding titles like “Nasty Girls Save the World.” But he admits that the appetite for the genre has taken a hit, and he blames the international market.

“Korea used to be a big erotic thriller market (in the ’80s and ’90s). Japan, too. You used to be able to cobble deals together based on those markets, but it has become more difficult,” said King, who also produced “9 1/2 Weeks” alongside Damon. “There used to be a way to finance erotic thrillers if you had the right cast based on the foreign market. The foreign market doesn’t support it in the way that it used to. They are now embracing more mainstream fare.”

Maybe the problem is the rise of the Christian Right in Korea and Japan. If Paul Verhoeven acts quickly, those countries can still be saved!

First there was the gay rowing movie and now we have Guys And Balls–a gay, German soccer movie.

Although, in fairness to the creators of Guys and Balls, this looks more like a gay Bad News Bears than a soccer-themed Brokeback Mountain.