For your consideration — "monstrous, twisted and eccentric" edition

Vimeo via Dangerous Minds: Sam Fuller auditions for 'The Godfather II' with Al Pacino — "A moment of cinema history - legendary film director Sam Fuller auditions for the role of Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part II. He reads alongside Al Pacino, as Michael Corleone, and the pair are superb together. The part eventually went to Lee Strasberg (who was nominated for an Oscar for his interpretation), but Fuller's Roth has more genuine menace, and a surprising warmth, which Strasberg's depiction lacked. You sense Fuller's Roth could stab you as much as smile at you, and Pacino's Corleone seems genuinely awed."

Misfortune Cookie: Auteurist amusement parks — "Altman's Bumper Cars. Up to 30 people can ride it at once, frequently crisscrossing and interacting."

MakingOf: Aaron Sorkin: Reel Life, Real Stories — Breaking the back of the story. (video)

MakingOf: Insider Interviews: Screenwriters

The Guardian: Fictional scientists - in pictures — "...we present some of the most monstrous, twisted and eccentric scientists ever depicted in television and film"

Bob Green (CNN contributor): Are our small screens making big stars little? — "Damn," he said. "Cary Grant."

Speaking of Cary Grant, some years ago I was invited by editor Esther Friesner to contribute a story to Chicks in Chainmail, an anthology of Satirical Tongue-in-Cheek Feminist Sword-and-Sorcery Fantasy stories. That book was a hit, and when the sequel followed (Did You Say “Chicks”?!), the editor invited me into that one too. That second story, "Like No Business I Know," was a modern Hollywood satire. In it, Cary Grant is referenced twice in regard to the affected style of a character's speaking voice.

Not Gary.

Now the first three Chicks books have been collected into a single omnibus edition, Chicks Ahoy (yes, I know). However, apparently the original books were digitally scanned during the preparation of the new volume, a now-common practice that occasionally results in little errors of a typographic nature. So now, in Chicks Ahoy, the two lines in "Like No Business I Know" referencing Cary Grant have been altered to read "Gary Grant," thus killing the joke each time.

Unless, of course, there's some very high-profile guy named Gary Grant out there I've somehow missed and whose voice makes the lines work even better than before. I don't think a retired NBA point guard quite cuts it.

Glad I didn't mention Bumphrey Bogart.

NYT: 'The Hangover' and the Age of the Jokeless Comedy

Ebert Presents: Movies That Made Us Critics: Jacques Tati's Play Time — Yes.

Media Darlings: Disney's "Pinocchio"? Proceed With Caution — "But in truth, it again feels more like every parent and child's worst nightmare of abduction and permanent disappearance, the boys literally silenced as they weep for mother and plead for mercy. Once more, the context and circumstances of the abuse are allegorical, deeply cynical, and not easily understood by a child. Even an adult could find these scenes haunting."

The Final Edition (NYT parody): New Spielberg Holocaust Epic Awarded Pre-Oscar 

Balloon Juice: The Entire Upcoming Republican Primary Campaign in 3:30 (or, the Brits got there first, as usual) — A bit of Fry & Laurie. "I thought at one point he was going to say something that actually made sense." "Yes, he just avoided it." Before he was House, Hugh Laurie was already brilliant.

5-Second Films: Check 'em out at the website or as or as compilations at Cracked.com. These guys will be running Hollywood within five years.

Roger Ebert's Journal: "I texted! You threw me out! You're assholes!" — Austin's Alamo Drafthouse theater turns rude patron's rude voice mail into a promo video that would sell me on the virtues of patronizing the Alamo Drafthouse, were I in Austin. (There's worthwhile commentary over at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule.)

The Atlantic: Nearly 100 Fantastic Pieces of Journalism — Not movie-related, but fine writing is always worth sharing.

Music: Susannah McCorkle, "Do You Miss New York?" (Yes.)
Near at hand: Elizabeth typing