THE ANSWERS to Friday's Movie Game can be found here.
NIPPLEGATE: Mickey Kaus of Slate (and formerly The New Republic argues that it wasn't the nipple that was the problem.
ARCADE FIRE UPDATE: Having noted that David Byrne joined them onstage for “Naive Melody (This Must Be the Place),” I would be remiss not to direct you to audio and video of the magic moment.
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The maybe-Libertine and Babyshambles frontman arrested for assault was bailed out by his record companies after failing to raise it himself.
THE ANTI-HIT LIST — “a sort of Top 10 from an alternate universe” — moves to The Toronto Star this week.
THE HIT FACTORY CLOSES: The legendary NYC studio that counted John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Donald Fagen, Michael Jackson, Tony Bennett, Toni Braxton, Madonna, U2, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Jay-Z, Beyonce among its clientele closes as home studios and other technological advances reduce demand for large, luxurious recording facilities.
BADGES? BADGES, SENOR? San Antonio's stripper's don't need no stinkin' badges, thanks to a federal district court's stay order against enforcing a city ordinance requiring strippers to wear permit badges.
OBITS: Actor-activist Ossie Davis is dead at 87. Actor John Vernon, best known for portraying Dean Vernon Wormer in Animal House is dead at 72.
ERIC CLAPTON becomes a dad for the third time at 59. No Rock 'n' Roll Fun provides the snark.
TEENAGE GIRLS who surprised their neighbors with homemade cookies late one night were ordered to pay nearly 900 bucks in medical bills for a woman who says she was so startled that she had to go to the hospital. Fortunately, radio station KOA-AM in Denver raised more than enough from listeners Friday to pay the fine.
“SUPERBRAIN” CHIP: Today, IBM, Sony and Toshiba are set to reveal the inner workings of a “supercomputer on a chip” they claim could revolutionise communications, multimedia and consumer electronics. The Cell microprocessor has been under development by the three companies since 2001 in a laboratory in Austin, Texas.
WARD CHURCHILL UPDATE: The professor who likened World Trade Center victims to a notorious Nazi refused to apologize, as the University of Colorado began a review that could lead to his dismissal. Questions of academic freedom and tenure should preclude him from being fired. However, claims by the American Indian Movement and Indian Country Today probably warrant an investigation into whether Churchill misrepresented himself to his employer.
SOLDIERS GONE WILD at Camp Bucca, the military prison at Umm Qasr in southern Iraq, as U.S. miltary policewomen mud-wrestle and expose themselves for the entertainment of their fellow troops. The New York Daily News has the exclusive, which it seems to regard as quite the scandal. I tend to doubt that the home front will be shocked to learn that troops getting ready to leave Iraq party hearty before their bon voyage. There is no torture allegation here, just good, dirty fun. Nevertheless, an investigation has been opened into possible violations of military regulations; a female member of a National Guard military police unit already has been demoted for indecent exposure.
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS reissues are reviewed inThe New Mexican. The reviewer is also a blogger.
BJORK is profiled by the London Telegraph, with a bit about her album for tsunami aid.
THE STATE OF INDIE ROCK: In the Observer, Louise Wener notes that there was a surge of female indie rockers in the 1990s, but now there's barely a female rock voice left. Wener blames sexism in the field, with a great closing shot: “In a year when the NME is idolising the mix of crack addict and doe-eyed woodland creature that is Pete Doherty, it makes me yearn for the Kim Deals and the Courtney Loves of this world, who did it all so much better.”
HILARY SWANK, Jamie Foxx, Cate Blanchett and Morgan Freeman take home Actors from the Screen Actors Guild awards. To be clear, the “Actor” is the name of the award, though Swank is married to Chad Lowe, so she presumably took him home also.
IRAQ ELECTION UPDATE: Iraq's electoral commission says it has received more than 100 complaints of irregularities. It has formed an independent team of three lawyers to investigate, though election officials have sought to downplay the scope and seriousness of the problems. Certainly, no one should be disenfranchised. However, I suspect that no one dared to complain or demonstrate about the elections held under Saddam Hussein's regime, so in an odd way, the complaints may represent progress, so long as the irregularities are not widespread.
OIL-FOR-FOOD SCANDAL: Investigators probing alleged corruption at the U.N. oil-for-food program are scrutinizing thousands of pages of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's documents to determine whether he exerted influence in securing a contract for a Swiss company that employed his son. Meahwhile, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau appears to have lauched a criminal investigation into Benon Sevan, the U.N. Oil-for-Food chief who recently resigned. I note that Robert Morgenthau is a serious man, respected across political party lines.