Jude's Thursday Dish: Your Weekly Serving of Pop Culture Scoop

1. Okay, I did it. I saw "The Dark Knight" (and yes, here's another twisted poster from the marketing campaign). Here's how I can best describe my experience. It's like going on a terrifying roller coaster. You know it should be entertaining, but you're too freaked out to enjoy it. I was jumpy the whole time. It was an excellent movie, but I wouldn't describe it as dark. It was disturbing. It took me days to recover. Yes, I'm really that big of a baby.

Great acting (the accolades going to Heath Ledger are not overhyped), but I wasn't as crazy about Christian Bale's Batman this time around. He didn't have a lot of story and his growly Batman voice just seemed over the top. Very distracting. My personal favorite was Aaron Eckhart (who went to BYU with Leslie - how strange is that?). His Harvey Dent was spectacular and disturbing on so many levels. So, do I recommend it? Yes, but if you're faint-hearted like me, be warned!

Oh -- and isn't it interesting about how all this personal stuff from the actors is coming out to keep the publicity rolling? First, the Christian Bale scuffle with his family. Then, Morgan Freeman's car accident. Now, the news of his divorce. And they keep talking about the drug charges and Mary Kate Olsen connection with the Heath Ledger investigation. The movie is about to break the "Titanic" box office record; does it really need any more P.R.?

2. $14 mil. for those Brangelina twins pictures! Wow, to have such fabulous offspring! If you were a celeb would you 1.) sell your babe's pics to the highest bidder and use the money how you see fit (i.e. trust fund, charity, a killer nursery), 2.) protect your babe and not pimp out the photo, but risk having the papz chase you down for a photo op, 3.) pull a Ethan Hawke and just lift your baby up to the papz for a photo, making any future pictures worth $0. I think I'd go the Brangelina route and pimp out the photos. At least that way, I'm in (semi)control.

3. Did you hear that Tim Burton is going to do a 3-D version of "Alice in Wonderland"? And Johnny Depp will either play the Mad Hatter or do the voiceover for the character. I'm a little skeptical since I go back and forth on Burton's "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory." I like the movie, but Johnny Depp bugs in it. Which is saying a lot, because I usually HEART him. I just don't if know I'm ready to have him play another character from children's literature in a weird hat.



4. Instead of the happy hum of my Tivo, my TV armoire has the sound of crickets chirping. I am SO ready for Fall tv to start again. But until then, check out reruns of "Reaper" on the CW. It's REALLY good. John only likes a handful of shows
and this one always makes him laugh out loud. It's on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. or you can watch full episodes online at cwtv.com.

5. In honor of my dear friend, Matt, a REAL Pop Culture Guru, I'm sending a shout out and ask you to go to his blog. He is trying to get to the 20,0000 visitor mark on his blog for its 1st anniversary. So, for the 4 people who read this, give your support and visit: http://www.themandersonreport.blogspot.com/ (sorry, I can't get the link thing to work, so you'll have to copy and paste).

That's it for this week!