UNSURPRISINGLY, ALLY SHEEDY WASN'T BOOKED: In case you needed an additional reason to watch the MTV movie awards, it will feature a reunion of at least 5 of the 6 members of The Breakfast Club (Emilo Estevez remains unconfirmed) and a performance by Yellowcard of the classic theme song "Don't You Forget About Me." Breakfast Club is (IMHO) unquestionably the best of the Brat Pack movies, and is one of the only movies that I think could benefit from a "20 years later" sort of sequel--don't you wonder what happened to those kids down the road?

A-N-T-I-C-I-P-A-T-I-O-N: As we draw closer to the start of this year's National Spelling Bee on June 1-2 (and, of course, the liveblogging which will accompany it), there's a deluge of competitor profiles in the local papers.

So meet Nektarios Vasilottos, who hopes his fluency in Greek will catapult him in his third DC trip; Larisa Pachuta, a sixth-grader who really just wants some of that Air & Space Museum freeze-dried ice cream; and Morgan Gilliam, the Bee's youngest entrant at age nine. Says Morgan, "My main goal is just not to miss the first word they give me."

THE ONLY WORLD IN WHICH 'WICKEDLY PERFECT' DID BETTER THAN 'THE OFFICE': Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, the #1 (Idol) to #156 ('Big Man on Campus') ranking of all network primetime series in 2004-05, based on average viewership.

Pam Anderson's 'Stacked' did better than 'Will and Grace'. 'Amazing Race 7' > 'Law & Order: Original Recipe' > 'Law & Order: D'Onofrio's Massive Cranium' > 'Amazing Race 6'. And more.

IT'S LIKE THIS BLOG, EXCEPT WITH MORE PRETTY PICTURES: Well, in spite of (or is it because of) its inecessant hype in the form of creative vandalism, and Gawker's unhealthy obsession with it, I picked up a copy of Radar this evening. And you know what? Wing Chun was dead right. Radar is the bastard child of Spy and Talk, and that alone makes it worth reading, especially when you get articles like the fascinating one about the dark side of Disney World employment, and Dan Radosh's hysterical questioning of how we've been defining "fameworthy" downward. I'm not sure how long it'll last, given that there are plenty of new routes for immediate pop cultural snark, and given that neither Spy nor Talk lasted that long, but it's well worth picking up for your airplane reading this Memorial Day.

MY NAME IS TONY ALVA, AND I'M A 47-YR OLD PROFESSIONAL SKATEBOARDER: If you don't have Dogtown & Z-Boys in your Netflix queue, you should, just to hear Tony speak those words in the promo material for the upcoming Lords Of Dogtown feature film fictionalization of the characters (and they were characters) in that memorable skateboard retrospective. Especially if you experienced the skateboard sub-culture primarily as a derivative merchandizing phenomenon during your own mid-80s adolescence, you will find Z-Boys a heartening tale of young outlaw maniacs lovingly living their manifold manic American Dreams in a land where the thrasher esthetic was just life on a Tuesday afternoon. Yes, before it was ready-made vanilla cream rebellion for the bored-in-the-suburbs set, skateboarding had a soul.

MEANWHILE, I ALMOST ENDED UP ON THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE TWICE TODAY WHILE TRYING TO FIND THE EXPLORATORIUM: Congratulations to Minnesota's Nathan Cornelius for winning the 2005 National Geographic Bee.

Meanwhile, our S-P-E-L-L-E-R of the Day is Samir Patel of Colleyvile, TX, about to hit the Bee for his third try:

Words tumble out of his mouth so quickly that adults sometimes struggle just to keep up. His hands fly when he talks, and his vocabulary might lead you to believe he is actually a very short college freshman.

"My son does not want for words, does he?" Jyoti jokes.

But he is 11 years old. Video games are big. He devours Harry Potter books, shoots baskets in the driveway, throws the football around and invents elaborate games using sticks he finds in the back yard.

One day, he swears, he will own the Dallas Cowboys.

Last year's error? This little "man in motion" whiffed on KOR-puh-zuhnt, meaning "flamelike electrical discharge from ship's masts, steeples, etc., in thundery weather; St. Elmo's fire."

Also on her way to D.C. is New Zealand's Charlotte Roose, her nation's first representative in this competition.

THERE IS A SENSE IN WHICH ATTACKING THIS MOVIE IS LIKE KICKING A DOG FOR NOT BEING BETTER AT CALCULUS: Roger Ebert gets downright philosophical in his three-star review of The Longest Yard:

I often practice a generic approach to film criticism, in which the starting point for a review is the question of what a movie sets out to achieve. "The Longest Yard" more or less achieves what most of the people attending it will expect. Most of its audiences will be satisfied enough when they leave the theater, although few will feel compelled to rent it on video to share with their friends. So, yes, it's a fair example of what it is.

I would however be filled with remorse if I did not urge you to consider the underlying melancholy of this review and seek out a movie you could have an interesting conversation about. I have just come from 12 days at Cannes during which several times each day I was reminded that movies can enrich our lives, instead of just helping us get through them.

As someone much smarter than me once wrote (and I forget who), if Roger Ebert gave 90% of the movies he reviews the 1-1 1/2 stars they probably deserve, people wouldn't listen to him anymore.