YOU EVER DANCE WITH THE DEVIL BY THE PALE MOONLIGHT AND GET INTERRUPTED BY A PHONE CALL AT 3 AM? Jack Nicholson, real-life Hillary Clinton endorser? Nice. But Jack Nicholson's film roles endorsing Hillary? That's some crafty YouTubage.

e.t.a. Details here, including Nicholson's personal involvement.

EXPELLIARIUMUS LITIGO: J.K. Rowling has sued the folks behind the upcoming published version of the Harry Potter Lexicon, claiming it infringes on her copyrights. Complicating matters is that Rowling had been nothing but supportive of the site until it became a book that would sell alongside hers. Will be interesting to see how it shakes out.

(Also on a legal note, how awesome is it that the billable-hour-obsessed senior partner on Eli Stone is named "Posner?" Economic optimization, folks!)

HE STILL, APPARENTLY, OWNS THE BEST UMBRELLA: While most of the attention paid to Bill Carter's overview of the upcoming bidding war over Jay Leno has been to Leno's post-2009 options (ABC, FOX, Sony syndication) now that his show has been promised to Conan O'Brien, I have to issue a warning about one detail, a followup to a red flag Matt first raised fifty-three weeks ago:

Several executives predicted that NBC would use the months Mr. O’Brien will be off the air to introduce his successor, widely expected to be Jimmy Fallon, the former “Saturday Night Live” cast member. Mr. Fallon is the favorite of Lorne Michaels, the “Saturday Night Live” producer who had success in choosing the unknown Mr. O’Brien in 1993 to succeed Mr. Letterman and who will again be involved in the selection of the new host of “Late Night.”

Everything I said about him back in January 2003 (same day I blogged about Joe Millionaire premiere) still stands, and I do still love these quotes I found:

"Jimmy Fallon is going to be gross when he's old, because he'll still be doing that 'awww shucks' cute-boy thing, like Paul McCartney still does. But Paul's rich and can make those faces, being a 20th-Century Beethoven and all. Jimmy's just gonna be icky, like a Monkees reunion tour."

"I believe that there is a special place in hell for people like Jimmy Fallon," says a 24-year-old former record label employee who asked only to be identified as Craig. "A place where pretty-boy comics who get inventive with hair gel crack each other up with 'pull-my-finger' jokes. If there is any justice, Fallon will get a corner suite."

This must be stopped.

ACT LIKE YOU'VE BEEN THERE BEFORE: You know the school of thought where certain "classy" players after scoring a TD will just matter-of-factly hand the ball to the ref, rather than jump into the crowd, strike a pose, or, any matter of preconceived celebration? The oft played shot from "No Country For Old Men" of Javier Bardem's character walking through the pharmacy while the car explodes outside on the street seems to me the cinematic equivalent. That shot (about 1:05 in the preview) seems to me to be the iconic one that will be featured in Oscar montages for years to come (you can guess Billy Crystal would have used it for his opening had he been the host this year). I was trying to think of other examples of that kind of shot earlier this week, but couldn't come up with any. And then I saw the latest Iron Man Trailer

(the fan boy in me thinks the movie looks awesome), which ends with a similar shot of Tony Stark firing a missile at a tank and then turning around and casually walking away without turning his head.

So, ALOTT5MAers, my question to you is can you think of other cinematic examples of this shot or have the Coen Brothers started a trend?

ONE CONSTANT: All Desmond episodes of Lost are awesome. I haven't had a chance yet to write down the rest of my comments, though; I'll have to remember them later.

SONT LES MOTS QUI VONT TRES BIEN ENSEMBLE: Nothing terrifically surprising from tonight's AI results show, except that I found the third exit to be surprisingly moving. I've always wondered why more contestants don't find themselves caught up in the throes of emotion when their time comes. And couple the outpouring of woe with the first verse of the song, and, well, the sappier among us (hi) would not be unjustified in finding ourselves just the slightest bit weepy.

But the big news from the show was the part that wasn't really news anymore -- by now we've all heard that AI has finally obtained the rights to whichever subset of the McCartney/Lennon catalog the good people of Sony Neverland have opted to offer up for mangling by the 12 finalists.

I myself am not a Beatles fan -- as Mr. Cosmo puts it, there are Elvis people and there are Beatles people, and there is one of each in our marriage -- but even my husband the Beatles devotee is concerned about the total unsingerliness of the Fab Four's songlist. I am cringing at the thought of "All You Need Is Love" and "Birthday" being performed on the show. What would you all suggest that our final 12 sing in a couple of weeks to avoid the seemingly inevitable comment that their song selection didn't properly show off their voices? So far I'm content to hear "Back in the USSR" and "Penny Lane," but that's about it. I do, however, think that the band is gonna have a blast.

THAT PIE-IN-THE-SKY LAND, PALM TREES AND WARM SAND: Regular commenter D'Arcy asks:

My husband has been offered a job in Santa Clara, California. We need to look into housing, schools, etc to see if we want to/can make it work (we currently live in southwestern Ontario, Canada, so it's a big move) I know at least one or two thing throwers live in northern California - is there a way to ask them if they can give me any advice or point me to useful websites, etc?