These seductive characters used to be the mainstay of movies. So, where did they go?

It's always seemed singularly appropriate that the couple behind the landmark Loving v. Virginia — in which the Supreme Court declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute unconstitutional — should have the name they did. And watching their story will give you chills.

Margaret Thatcher's children are allegedly unhappy with Meryl Streep's portrayal of their mother in the forthcoming biopic, since "The Iron Lady depicts her...as an elderly dementia-sufferer looking back on her career with sadness." The director insists that they're being sensitive.

Leandro Braga spent 13 days watching Tarantino and Coen brothers films, and then he made this: a seven-minute mashup of over 500 scenes. Perfect for those of us with stunted attention-spans - and a love of gunfights. [NYMag]

"I wanted to create some sort of feeling that girls were making movies because I was too nervous to..any woman who sent me a short movie, I would send her a tape with her movie and nine others." [DazedDigital]

The elusive St. Francis of copdom Frank Serpico is interviewed in tomorrow's Times. At 73, he still sort of even looks like Al Pacino circa 1971! Does the movie even hold up as well? I "rented" it to find out…

"According to "Murder in Fashion," a hysterical, fictionalized account of Cunanan's three-month, four-state, five-victim 1997 killing jag that culminated with the murder of the fashion designer Gianni Versace, the real culprit was the aesthetic tyranny of gay culture." [NYT]

"The sex life of Grace Kelly, like the home life of the Incas, is one of those distant but down-to-earth matters which we can investigate in depth, and muse upon at length, but never really hope to understand." [New Yorker]

And by "the best," I mean "my favorites." Let me add right now that I dislike all of the following: monsters, killer animals, aliens, vampires, zombies, serial killers. So, none of those are represented. Moving on:

Fataneh, the first animated film to come out of Palestinian territories, is based on the true story of a woman, prevented by both Israeli and Palestinian red tape from getting breast cancer treatment in Gaza, who died in 2004. [Reuters]