The premise of the film came from Rock's own daughter, who asked him why she didn't have "good" hair. It looks like Rock talked to both men and women, celebrities and regular folks, for a spectrum of viewpoints. On question: Would any of the stunningly beautiful women in the clip — Salt N Pepa; Raven-Symone; Meagan Good; Nia Long — be celebrities if they had natural hair?

Coincidentally, there is a debate going on over a YouTube video called "Nappy Ass Hair," in which someone is seen (violently?) trying to comb out a little girl's hair. NPR's Dani Tucker notes: "Hair grooming is still a painful, or brutal, experience for too many young women of color." But isn't that because forcing black hair to fit a certain mold that is "acceptable" and "professional" in a white-dominated world is always going to be a struggle?

Good Hair: Chris Rock's Harrowing Investigation Into Raven-Symone's Weave [Movieline]
Good or Bad Hair?: Hair Combing Video Stirs Debate [NPR]
Beauty, the Brush and Black Girl Pain [The Root]
Nappy Ass Hair [YouTube]

In case you don't know, the story revolves around an overweight, illiterate teen from Harlem who is pregnant with her second child and invited to enroll in an alternative school.

Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe plays Precious and Mo'nique plays her mother; Paula Patton and Mariah Carey also make appearances. In addition to a spectacular-looking trailer, the design geek in me has to give Lionsgate props for this poster:
…which is powerful and very much like some of the old posters designed by the great Saul Bass.


Precious premiered at Sundance in January and will be shown at the Cannes Film Festival (which started yesterday) but won't make its theatrical release in the U.S. until November (Oscar season!).

Precious Trailer [Trailer Addict]
Precious/Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire [IMDb]
Related: Precious [Feministing]
Precious Trailer [Women & Hollywood]

While the flick is "loaded" with Rock's "wisecracking humor," he reportedly takes a grave and honest look at the cultural pressures and identity issues that come with having "black hair." Rock explains: "I have daughters, and I'm really dealing with them and their hair a lot, and my friends have daughters, and we talk about our daughters' hair issues." In a Reuters Q&A, Rock adds: "I had no idea of the business of hair. I had no idea that it was as organized as Apple or Microsoft or General Motors. I had no idea the chemicals could be scary and damaging."

The film, which is being produced by HBO but may get a theatrical release first, shows "neighborhood salons, businesses dealing in hair-care products and the streets of India, where human hair is a huge export industry for hair weaves." In addition, Rock examines why some African-American women feel they need long, silky, straight hair to fit into white society. Executive producer Nelson George says: "It's this whole thing about approval. That approval is not simply, 'I want white people to love me.' It's like, 'I need a job. I want to move forward, and if I have a hairstyle that is somewhat intimidating, that's going to stop me from moving forward.'"

One might wonder whether Rock's perspective — as a man, a father and a comedian — can do justice to a subject he has no first-hand personal experience with. But consider this heartbreaking passage from Good Hair's description on the Sundance site:

When Chris Rock’s daughter, Lola, came up to him crying and asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” the bewildered comic committed himself to search the ends of the earth and the depths of black culture to find out who had put that question into his little girl's head!

Rock Splits Hairs With Documentary On Black Styles [AP]
Just a Minute With: Chris Rock On his "Good Hair" [Reuters]
Good Hair [Sundance]

• Jennifer Lopez attended the Latino Inaugural Gala on Sunday and said of Barack Obama: "He is the biggest star here, even though it's chock-full of celebrities." Well, yeah. [People]

• Aretha Franklin warmed up for the inauguration with a Martin Luther King Jr. Day concert. She's gonna bring it today. [AP]
• Brad Pitt is psyched today! He says of Barack Obama's inauguration: "It's a new era for us - it reconfirms the original ideals of America. We're very excited about what the future holds. You see people look invigorated at home rather than the cynicism for the last 10 years." [Mirror]
• Ellen Burstyn says: "If you're only going to do one inauguration in your life, this is the one." [USA Today]
• Moby is in D.C. for the festivities, especially since he loves MoveOn.org. Apparently he DJ'd a party and the power went out, but then "hope" brought it back on, or something. [Politico]
• Isaiah Washington was one of the many, many celebs at the Huffington Post party. The place where you could see John Cusack hop a barricade to kiss Marisa Tomei. Washington got "star struck" by meeting Christiane Amanpour. [Politico]
• The Root Ball had Oprah, Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee and Chris Tucker, among others. David Gregory was seen dancing to Biz Markie. [WaPo]
• Ben Affleck is in D.C. where he says he'll "camp out" to get good seats. [MSNBC]
• Also in town: Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, Tina Brown, Sharon Stone. [WaPo]
• Want to know where the celebs will be tonight? There's a rundown of the balls and which stars are expected here. [Page Six]
• Serena Williams is at the Australian Open, but is following the Obama news on TV. "This is an amazing moment for American history. Even yesterday, the United States being Martin Luther King's birthday. To have his birthday and Obama's presidency fall so close to each other… This morning, I was watching on the TV before I went out to play. I looked at my arm, and I practically had chill bumps." [AP]
• Quincy Jones, Grammy Award-winning producer and composer, is now a newspaper columnist. [Reuters]
• Remember Vogue's tabloidy December issue with Jennifer Aniston on the cover, and the line, "What Angelina did was very uncool"? The mag sold an estimated 465,000 single copies of the issue, outselling the December 2007 issue by nearly 65,000 copies. Anna Wintour knows what people want. [WWD]
• Paris Hilton is at Sundance, though she seems to have no interest in movies. Her sister, Nicky has been avoiding her, and Paris has been ditching her MTV BFF Brittany Flickinger for Danity Kane singer Aubrey O'Day. [Page Six]
• Paris Hilton swears her airhead image is just an act. "I'm a lot more serious and shy...and if I'm not out, having to be, you know, 'on', I'm at home just chilling and wearing sweat pants." Plus! She's totes an artist: "I have a room in my house where I paint. I've been offered an exhibition, which I might do next year." [The Sun]
• Maybe it's the Utah altitude? Paris was seen sucking face with MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe at a Sundance party. [Gatecrasher]
• Lily Allen texted a nude picture to Ricky Wilson, the lead singer of the Kaiser Chiefs, by accident. A minute later Wilson got another text which read, "Sorry, wrong Ricky." Says Lily: "That was really embarrassing. I was completely topless." She claims she meant to send the snap to Rick Astley, yukyuk. [The Sun]
• In this video, Lily Allen talks about how she doesn't like how the world is so obsessed with celebrity culture, aesthetic beauty, money and consumerism. "And yet I'm a little pop star consumer," she muses. [Pop Dirt]
• Pete Doherty says of his buddy Amy Winehouse and her Caribbean vacation: "She had gone deeper and deeper into a black place. She needed a bright light. And that bright light turned out to be the sun." Profound! [ONTD]
• Meanwhile, Amy Winehouse has met a new fella in St. Lucia: A clean-cut tennis instructor. Love means zero! [The Sun]
• Amy's dad says: "Stories about my troubled daughter are selling newspapers and magazines. They don't want her to get better. But she is better. They didn't see her lying in bed for days in a dark room. She was close to death twice. We have been working a lot to get her to where she is right now." Liquored up in the Caribbean? Really? Guess it beats cracked out in Camdentown. Oh, and there's a documentary in the works, called Saving Amy. [Perez, People]
• SNL's Fred Armisen and Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss: It's on. The two were spotted canoodling. [Page Six]
• Hugh Laurie's Playboy interview touches on his house in Hollywood, depression, Facebook, his similarities to his character on House and the suicide pact he made when he was 15. [ONTD]
• Page Six has a bone to pick with Sean Penn. [Page Six]
• A one hour as-yet-untitled TV documentary about Spongebob Squarepants is in the works. That's right: Spongebob. [UPI]
• Meanwhile, Russell Simmons is working on Spongebob bling. [Gatecrasher]
• While filming the upcoming miniseries The Last Templar, Mira Sorvino broke five teeth trying to kiss Scott Foley on a speedboat. [Page Six]
• There's a hearing in the Roman Polanski case tomorrow, not that the director will be in the country. His lawyers are using information from the HBO documentary Wanted and Desired to try and get the case dismissed. [AP]
• Look for Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, Katie Holmes and John C. Reilly in The Extra Man, a comedy to begin filming in New York next month. [Variety]
• Aww, adorable pictures of Michael Stipe and his photographer boyfriend! [Perez]
• News you cannot use: Coolio has had crabs twice, and only once from a female. [The Sun]
• Jailed Boy George has been signing autographs for inmates who "demand" them. [Daily Mail]
• Blind item! "Which eccentric actor got his start in the biz by letting directors in where the sun don’t shine?" [Gatecrasher]
• James McAvoy hates overexposed Hollywood stars and thinks they're not thespians: "I just know so much about them. So how can I accept them in a role? There are just some people, they're not actors to me. They're chip paper. Just glossy paper. If I'm in a film, or a telly, or a play, then why should people come and see it? Because you know, they can just pick up some fucking rubbish magazine, and see me in that." [Daily Express]
• Olivia Newton-John says positive thinking helped her beat breast cancer: "I was terrified of chemotherapy, and nearly didn't have any. But my best friend Nancy reminded me that I had a little girl who needed me and that I had to take every chance I was given to beat the cancer. So rather than thinking about the toxins going through my body, I visualised a stream of pure gold. That night, instead of going to bed feeling lousy, I went to the cinema with Nancy." [Daily Mail]
• "I'm not so afraid of getting old, I'm more afraid of how I'll go. Fire and tight spaces don't appeal. A shark would be interesting." — Brad Pitt. [Reuters]
• "The one thing we have to offer, we are peddling joy with both hands. You come to our show and you will leave a happy camper. In a downturn, people need a few laughs. I know that sounds corny, and I can imagine some old-timer saying it. (But) I'm always happy to be uplifted when I go to a show. People look forward to it during the hard times. If they're looking forward to it, we got it." — Bette Midler on her Vegas stage show, The Showgirl Must Go On. [UPI]
• "[Antidepressants] are something I’ve tried that has helped. They’re probably good for my work because they help with confidence, and confidence is the prerequisite of all successful endeavors. But then again, as I said, I get suspicious if things start to feel too easy or comfortable, so that’s not a perfect solution either. Pharmaceuticals do raise the question of who we are as human beings. What are moods and feelings if we can change or even do away with them? Does that reduce the essence of who we are? Then again, I tend to overthink these things. I overthink everything, I think. But if your eyesight fails, it’s okay to wear glasses or contact lenses, is it not? If you feel cold, you put on a sweater. Is that changing the nature of who you are? No." — Hugh Laurie. [ONTD]
• "I didn’t go to acting school so I didn’t know that’s what I wanted to be. I came from a background of lawyers and academics and we just didn’t watch films in our household. I had no idea who Maggie Smith or Gary Oldman or any of these people were." — Emma Watson. [Daily Express]
• "I know the studio is gobsmacked by its success, and a lot of the critics have been surprised, but I wasn't. It was a no-brainer. I knew it would do well because it was aimed at an audience that has been neglected in recent years in film offerings - women. They are the last group anybody ever cares about." — Meryl Streep, on the commercial success of Mamma Mia, which has made almost $600 million worldwide. [Telegraph]

• Oprah asked Jennifer Aniston about calling Angelina's behavior "uncool." Jen said she was merely responding to the reporter's question. "I basically just answered it as honestly as I could." Plus, did you know that her flick, Marley And Me, is opening the same day as Brad Pitt's The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button? [People]
• Brad Pitt called Jen and cut her a slice of "shut it" cake. [TMZ]
• Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson are heading to Paris, where they'll get engaged, says a spy. "After spending weeks discussing rings, they want to visit two leading jewellers there with their finalised design." OMG please do it at the top of the Eiffel Tower? Please? [Mirror]
• Prince Harry on his hair: "I'm not ginger. I'm auburn, that's what I've been told." Some of us would beg to differ, dear. [Telegraph]
• Oh God: Sarah Palin on Desperate Housewives? [Page Six]
• Madonna told a friend that A-Rod "has the heart of a poet trapped inside an insanely gorgeous body." Vom. [Page Six]

• Miley Cyrus says she'd love for Sasha and Malia Obama to come to the set of Hannah Montana: "I know they have a lot going on, but I think for them to come and hang out with normal kids would be fun." Cuz having your own TV show is like, so normal. Way more normal than having a dad in politics! [E!]
• Three Amy Winehouse fans buzzed her apartment, found her to be at home and had a lovely conversation with her through the intercom. She asked them for the spelling of their names and then signed photos for them. Watch the video just to hear the girls adorable Liverpudlian accents! [TMZ]
• Whoa. George Clooney may come back to ER for the finale? Yeah. Right. [E!]
• Goodbye, Lipstick Jungle and My Own Worst Enemy! NBC has canceled you, and you will live on in TV heaven. [E!]
• Mariah Carey went to London for three days and brought 20 pieces of luggage: Business as usual. [MSNBC]
• Mariah Carey says she goes over the top at Christmas and has a bedroom in her Aspen home made to look like the North Pole. What's cooler than cool? [The Sun]
• Here's how Mariah celebrates the holidays with her friends: "We go in the hot tub in our Christmas bikinis, then roll in the fresh snow and jump back in the tub." Her Christmas outfit is "a red bikini with a Santa hat." [Page Six]
• '90s boyband Boyzone got into a drunken brawl with Rihanna's band in Sydney and security had to break it up. When did pop get so rock and roll? [News.com.au]
• Speaking of Boyzone, they've got a gay couple in their new video. [BBC News]
• As for Rihanna, she canceled a concert in Indonesia after a travel advisory was issued. [Yahoo News]
• Click to see a snippet of Rihanna's new video, the one with Justin Timberlake! [Concrete Loop]
• Will Arnett on his new baby with Amy Poehler: "He's loving being a baby right now. He's thinking about smiling. He's trying to decide if he's ready or not." [People]
• If you'd like to see a picture of Clay Aiken, his egg donor and his baby, click away. [Perez Hilton]
• Some gay rights groups are thinking about boycotting the Sundance Film Festival in an effort to protest the Mormon Church and hurt Utah's business. But is affecting Robert Redford's celeb-studded film fest the right way to go? "Sundance was founded on the idea of championing diversity and freedom of expression," says a spokesman. "It would be a grave disappointment to us if our festival were to be singled out for a boycott." [Independent]
• Ed Norton's documentary about Barack Obama, or as one commenter suggested, "Barackumentary," is drawing wide interest. A lawyer repping the film says: "We’ve had an enormous number of incoming calls from territories all over the world." It should hit HBO next spring. [NY Times]
• Bob Saget approves of Mary-Kate and Ashley's boyfriends.
  "I approve of anyone that makes my friends happy, and they're my friends," he says. What he meant was: "I am not their actual father, I just played their dad on TV, get over it." [People]
• The former American Idol contestant found dead in an apparent suicide near Paula Abdul's home had been causing "a disturbance" there for several years, the police say. [People]
• Read more about Paula Goodspeed, one of the "delusionally bad performers" from American Idol, here. Was she ridiculed when she was clearly mentally unstable? [Washington Post]
• Anne Hathaway's ex, Raffaello Follieri, is not having fun in jail in Brooklyn. He says there are "unspeakably harsh conditions" and "unspeakably unsanitary" toilet and shower facilities and an "intolerable" stench. Rats "roam freely" and there is "excrement in the shower." [The Smoking Gun]
• Baz Luhrmann answers questions about Australia, which Oprah and her audience saw and LOVED. The film is getting compared to Gone With The Wind and Luhrmann says: Gone with the Wind is more than a movie; it's an icon, you know? So it's always scary to make that comparison. But in the same way that Gone with the Wind has a passionate love story that is played out on the canvases of a country's landscape and historical events, this movie has that about it." [LA Times]
• Luhrmann also says the rumors that he's had to reshoot the ending are "absurd." [Page Six]
• What the world needs now: A sequel to Meet The Fockers, with Ben Stiller and Bobby DeNiro. [Fox News]
• Carmen Electra will appear in an eight-page spread pictorial in the January 2009 issue of Playboy. Snooze. [Daily Express]
• What's this? Billy Corgan ranting about James Iha on stage? [Rolling Stone]
• Julia Stiles' mom just opened a home furnishings store in New York's Tribeca neighborhood. [Page Six]
• James Bond's Lotus from The Spy Who Loved Me is expected to fetch up to £120,000 at auction next month. It sorta looks like a DeLorean… [The Star]
• Jamie Oliver will not stop swearing on his TV show, where he uses the F word repeatedly, when he's angry about pork farms and stuff. [Mirror]
• Willam Shatner's moving his online feud with George Takei to a TV show on the Biography Channel. Leave George alone! [MSNBC]
• Hmm, George Takei is on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here? And no one met him at the airport when he flew to Brisbane. Boo. [Mirror]
• Rob Corddry and his wife welcomed a second child on Wednesday: A daughter named Marlo Stevenson Corddry. [People]
• A woman has been placed on three years of probation following her guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of stalking actress Sandra Bullock. [Yahoo News]
• "My daddy said that I should wear it up and put it in a 'Get your hair as high and close to Jesus as possible' type hairdo. I said, 'Daddy, I don’t think I can get it any higher, but I did my best.'" — Miley Cyrus on her hair at the Country Music Awards. [E!]
• "I love Monopoly by the fire on Christmas Day." — Sienna Miller. [WWD]
• "In the future, if a gay person in California wants to get hitched, he'll have to do it the way God intended, to Liza Minnelli." — Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report. [Page Six]
• "I've had a hair transplant. Because I have got a very strange shaped head. It's very pointy. And I don't like wearing wigs." — John Cleese. [Telegraph]
• "My insomnia started in my mid-20s. It got to the point where my immune system would give out. It affected my concentration level and being able to perform on the job." — Debi Mazar, who is promoting a web site for insomnia sufferers. [Daily Express]
• "I don’t think about it much because I don’t plan to keep acting very long. I’m ready to do a few things now and fade away and get ready to be a grandma one day. So I’m not so worried that I want to keep this pace up and try to be something and be a celebrity and be a successful actress forever. I think it’s nice, I’ve had a time to tell stories and be able to be successful enough to tell the ones I want to tell, and to earn some money at the same time is great. But everything comes in seasons and, you know, I hopefully won’t be needing to do that later in my life in any way." — Angelina Jolie's answer to the question of whether losing her looks would cut her career short. [The Sun]
• "I moved to California and my mom moved with me when I became a star. If we were still in Chicago she wouldn't have had that done. I've been going through anguish thinking about it. I have been so lonely." — Kanye West, on his mother's death after having plastic surgery. [Mirror]

The Good:
Um, according to the picture caption, this is Broadway diva/Private Practice star Audra McDonald. (We think it's actually Sanaa Lathan. But, you know, all black women look the same!) Anyway, Sanaa looks hot in her minidress, boots, and practical but still chic mid-length puffy coat.
Against my better judgment, I love AnnaSophia Robb's (faux, I hope!) fur floppy hat, puffy coat, and layers of sweaters. She looks angelic and cozy.
Though Virginia Madsen's scarf sorta looks like a towel, snaps to her for going with such fresh and kicky colors. Also, someone has clearly been watching What Not To Wear and learning about how layering can keep you from looking like you're cutting yourself in equal parts across the middle!


The Bad:
There is so much good in Angelica Huston's outfit. The Christmas color palette is not one of those things.
Janice Combs: Too much fringe, not enough warmth!
There's a reason Tom Arnold is no longer a star. We just never knew that his sartorial choices might be it.
Mischa Barton's crime? Looking way too much like Lohan.


The Ugly:
Beard + Uncle Jesse = UGH

[Photos via INF.]

• Diva drug discovery! Before she went to court to support her jailed husband, Amy Winehouse snorted ecstasy, cocaine, and smoked crack. Friends asked her to come out with them and she said, "I'd be useless to you because I've had about six Valium." Wait, what? [Page Six]
  
• Holy crap and here are pictures — and video of Amy smoking crack. Ugh. [The Sun]
  
• Britney showed up for her deposition. She testified for two and a half hours, and could come back for another round. Progress! [TMZ]
  
• "Britney calls the paparazzi before she goes out," says photographer Alison Silva. "We know 15 minutes before she leaves the house. It's all staged." [Page Six]

• Oscarwatch: A "senior Hollywood figure" says: "I am 90% confident the Academy Awards will not go ahead." [Gatecrasher]
• Carla Bruni was asked if she is indeed married to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "Not yet," she said. Those crazy kids. [Reuters]
• Sundance news: Nicky Hilton's boyfriend David Katzenberg was seen pulling down his pants and photographing his "private parts"; Paris Hilton kissed and gave a lap dance to Jared Leto. Anyone see any movies? [Page Six]
• Meanwhile Paris has been scooping up loads of free shit, like a $1500 baby gift basket (probs for Harlow Madden) an iPhone and an XBox. Because, you know, she can't afford that stuff on her own. [MSNBC]
• Oooh, Gossip Girl gossip! Leighton (Blair Waldorf) Meester and Blake (Serena van der Woodsen) Lively "avoid each other like the plague," says an insider. Xoxo! [Gatecrasher]
• Blind item! "Which legendary singer is being kept on a tight leash by her producer as she works on her comeback album? She was not allowed to attend a glitzy weekend celebrity event over fears for her sobriety." [Gatecrasher]
• John Travolta is coming to the defense of fellow Scientologist Tom Cruise. "We all have — the right to practice how we feel," he says. And he feels like the power of Xenu is awesome! [People]
• Dr. Phil says he's not sorry for trying to help Britney while she was hospitalized, and that he does not need to apologize for reaching out to a friend. Yawn. Go away. [AP]
• Oh, and the staff of Dr. Phil's show is disgruntled and "fed up." [MSNBC]
• Guess who else is mad at Dr. Phil? Oprah. Uh-oh. [MSNBC]
• The father of R&B singer Usher has passed away, though the cause of death is not known. [UPI]
• Unrelated: Hot pictures of Brad Pitt! [Perez Hilton]
• Hot pictures of James McAvoy! [ONTD]

• Have Britney Spears and Adnan Ghalib broken up? Sam Lutfi claims she's requested a restraining order against Ghalib; Ghalib says he's heard no such thing. Guys, guys: Maybe you should just arm-wrestle or flip a coin? Sheesh. [People]
  
• Meanwhile, Britney's working on "amazing" choreography for her song "Hot As Ice." [People]
  
• And Brit will be on the cover of the March issue of Blender, because she hasn't had enough press lately. [Page Six]
  
• Reports claim Gwyneth Paltrow's hospitalization was for a "gastrointestinal situation." Macrobiotic food poisoning, anyone? [Page Six]
  
• Law & Order and Sex And The City star Chris Noth is a daddy! His girlfriend Tara Wilson has given birth to a baby boy, Orion Christopher. Hey, did you know she was black? Me neither. [People]

• The assistant to famed photographer Annie Leibovitz lost his iPhone in a taxi — along with contact numbers for luminaries like David Bowie, Diane von Furstenberg, Stella McCartney and Anna Wintour. The contacts got downloaded and drunk-dialed... Can't Steve Jobs track this kind of thing? [Gatecrasher]
• Barack Obama fan Oprah has given Kosher Sex author Rabbi Shmuley Boteach a show on her XM radio channel; Boteach is a supporter of Rudolph Giuliani. Whoops. [Rush & Molloy]
• Kiefer Sutherland is out of the slammer! He served 48 days in Glendale City Jail for his second DUI conviction. [TMZ]
• Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt: Planning on looking at orphanages in Africa over Easter? [TMZ]
• Eva Mendes wore a revealing dress on a French TV show and had a little nip slip. [The Sun]
• Jada Pinkett-Smith claims bff Katie Holmes is "running her own show." Explains Jada: "Tom don't run nuthin' in that house. It is Katie's house. It's her world." [MSNBC]
• Lindsay Lohan and Eddie Murphy are nominated for the Razzies — awards for the worst performances, in I Know Who Killed Me and Norbit. Yay! Or, uh, Boo! [USA Today]
• Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman's son Max had his bris over the weekend. Ouch. And Mazel tov! [E!]
• Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush are at the Sundance Film Festival (?!?) and were seen taking pictures in a booth sponsored by a condom company. What is the world coming to? [TMZ]
• Also at Sundance: A documentary about Roman Polanski has lots of buzz; the Weinstein Co. is distributing and HBO acquired North American rights. [Reuters]
• Bam Margera's uncle, Don Vito, was sentenced to two years of probation for cocaine possession (on top of the 10 years to life on probation he got for sexual assault on a child). [AP]
• White lotus flowers in hand, actress Mia Farrow led a protest at the Khmer Rouge Cambodian prison notorious for torture. Police blocked the group from lighting a torch outside the site and Farrow was "jostled" before she and the other protesters left the scene. [Independent]
• Militants in Nigeria have invited George Clooney to visit the area as a "messenger of peace." Mmmm. Clooney. [Time]
• A German historian has compared Tom Cruise's Scientology speech to Nazi propaganda spewed by Joseph Goebbels. [Telegraph]
• In an interview, Charlize Theron said she loved the Turkish city of Budapest — which, of course is in Hungary. She probably meant Istanbul? [Daily Mail]
• Cloverfield was a monster at the box office this weekend, shredding Katherine Heigl's 27 Dresses. [Reuters]
• RIP Suzanne Pleshette. [TMZ]

What we loved, and what we really loved, after the jump.

(As always, click on any picture to enlarge).

Gorgeous, chic, summer sandals ($165) that purport to "shape themselves to your feet." We're sold.

We love road trips as a way to escape the claustrophobia of both New York and our tiny New York apartments. And we love auto collectibles. So this might help tide us over until the next ride. Except it won't fit in our 450-square-foot apartment. And it's $3,895.

We like leisure bikes like this ($1195) almost as much as we like cars. Almost.

"Rusty Merv", an Amish craftsman from Pennsylvania, makes this steel sign, which would look great in a kitchen. If we had a real one.

Next up: Williams-Sonoma & Grandinroad.