DEEP AND WEIGHTY QUESTIONS: The first and most obvious question about "Princess Diaries 2," I can answer--namely, why I saw it. I liked the first one, Anne Hathaway is a lovely young lady with a gift for physical comedy, and the Julie Andrews/Hector Elizondo relationship is wonderful. The sequel's not bad, although it's utterly predictable, and there's a wholly unncessary slumber party sequence that should have been cut entirely, especially a painful portion where Garry Marshall apparently thinks that we'd rather hear Disney tween starlet Raven (f/k/a Raven Symone of "The Cosby Show") sing than hear Julie Andrews sing.

There are questions I can't answer, though. Why is Stan Lee (yes, "Spider-Man" and "X-Men" creator Stan Lee) in this movie? Why is he playing "Three Stooges Wedding Guest?" Why is Kelly Clarkson recording a song co-written by Avril Lavigne? These questions and more remain to be answered.

Despite the incongruity of the Stan Lee cameo, nothing beats what happens to me when I saw the first one for surrealism. On my way out of the theatre where I saw "Princess Diaries," I was offered (and accepted) free preview screening passes for "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" the next day. I may be one of the five people in America who actually saw both of those movies.

WHEN CHILDREN RULE THE WORLD . . . TONIGHT! As Opening Ceremonies go, that was, yeah, Greek and stuff.

Opening ceremonies are one of those ridiculously self-important and over-the-top things that, well, I'm glad we do them every couple of years. Because if you had an unlimited budget to tell the story of your country, how would you tell it? Atlanta chose pick-up trucks. Athens chose freaky human statues, a lot of really impressive floating-in-the-air-on-wires work, noted Greek singer Bjork Gudmundsdottir, an Olympic cauldron that once was a prop at a Cypress Hill concert and, well, I don't think you saw this angle on American television. Or her.

("Hey, Jen," I called on the phone based on early reports. "You need to watch the early part of the ceremonies. Apparently, they've got a centaur. . . . no, not a guy dressed up like a centaur -- an actual, living centaur, who they found on some island and kept in lockdown until tonight." She didn't buy it.)

A.I. looked either overwhelmed or bored, and I'm already sick of the diving lady with the long hair. As for Rulon Gardner, I like athletes with an odd number of digits, so he's alright in my book. While Katie Couric always sounded like she was reading off cards (why not get an actual Classics major in the booth?), Costas was his normal, affable self, with my favorite moment was when he started talking about the great Greek mathematicians like Pythagoras, Euclid and Archimedes, and he started to bring the glib, if not the snark.

Your thoughts, on all this, are of course welcome, even after Bravo's badminton and table tennis coverage starts Saturday.

PROOF THAT GOOGLE IS NOT INFALLIBLE: Ah, the joys of the site meter. I took a look to see what brings people to our fine locale of late, and frighteningly, someone came here as a result of a Google search for "Pictures of David Gallagher 7th Heaven doing stuff like eating." No word on why they were searching for this subject or whether they were satisfied with what they found.

SO THIS FINALLY PROVES SHE'S NOT AN ACTRESS: As part of our continuing quest to notify our faithful readers when semi-famous people post on TWoP, it's worth noting that Amanda Naughton (aka "Jane Schmo" from "Joe Schmo 2") has shown up on the boards, and is as humble and funny as one might hope.

BON APPETIT: Julia Child has died. One of the most unexpectedly pleasant surprises at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History is this exhibit, in which Child's kitchen (which she donated to the Smithsonian) is on display. I'm a little young to remember Child in her prime, but the kitchen is filled with stories and detail.

(On a snarkier note--that makes two big celebrity deaths of late. Who will fill the obligatory third slot?)

DRAFTING MEMO RE: PORN--7 HOURS: Sadly, The American Lawyer is not fully online, so I can't link to the short piece on page 25 of the July 2004 issue that provides actual billing entries from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison's representation of artist Jeff Koons in connection with his divorce from porn star Ilona Stadler. I can note that the headline is just one of many examples given in the article of billing entries that boggle the mind. Others include:

"Organized Exhibits, Reviewed Pornography, 8.5 hours."
"Reviewed Pornography, prepared 'best of' book, 12 hours."

And to think we got told when I started that "document review, 12 hours" wouldn't cut it for timesheet purposes.

TREE. FOREST. [SILENCE]: Craig Kilborn is leaving the Late, Late Show.

I confess to never having watched him much, and not being up at that hour much anyway, but I'll throw it out there: who would you like to see in the after-Dave slot now?