Monday morning headlines

LESLIE NIELSEN – died last night due to complications from pneumonia. The complication being that he had pneumonia. It’s sometimes forgotten that he was a respected dramatic actor until Airplane in 1980, which is still his best movie. The key to good satire is to not acknowledge any of the weird shit happening around you and play everything real serious. That’s what Scary/Epic/Disaster Movie doesn’t understand. Comparing those movies and Airplane as “satire” is like comparing the Notebook and Young Black Bucks Doin Mature Fatties as “love stories”. (roger ebert)

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – barely beat out Tangled ($50 million to $49 million) to win the weekend box office, but has now made a staggering $609 million worldwide in just 2 weeks. If it keeps this pace, it will make over 15 billion dollars by next year. I haven’t looked it up but I believe that would be a new record. (mojo 1, mojo 2)

CHELSEA HANDLER – spent Thanksgiving down in Cabo with new friend Jennifer Ansiton. Gosh, I wonder why Aniston seems to have a new cycle of friends every 9 months. How weird. Because she’s such a delight to be around. (splash)