This was one of my favorite songs from the movie, Country Strong.

I went to a screening of True Grit last night. I had high hopes. I admire Jeff Bridges. Loved him in Crazy Heart.

He was awful in True Grit. He talked like Billy Bob Thortnon in Sling Blade. Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmmm.

Listen to him in this clip. It was really bad. The filming was decent. The story was choppy. And had a crap ending that was ridiculous. The audience didn’t know it was over. It should have been after about 10 minutes. I thought True Grit was going to be an Oscar contender. True Grit? Should have been called True Shit.

I took my guys to see American Gangster last night at King of Prussia. There were 500 people in the house and not a peep — except a few loud group gasps — for nearly three hours. As we walked out, Stephen said, “That’s the best movie I’ve ever seen.” I have to say, it’s pretty amazing. Denzel Washington is outstanding.

Best part: Guess what the main character’s name is? Frank. Yep. American Gangster FTW.

We went to Blockbuster last night. And I realized that I hadn’t been in a Blockbuster in over a year. I’m not sure I missed anything.

What did we get? Apacalypto, The Pursuit of Happyness, and The Departed. We felt a bad about giving Mel Gibson a cent, but Steve and I wanted to see a little historical death and destruction, so we threw caution to the wind and put more money in the pockets of a guy who always seems three sheets to the wind. Plus, Steve’s really into languages and says he plans to speak at least 15 languages in his life. You never know when a little Yucatec Maya language might come in handy, just in case we solve that silly space-time continuum.

I was walking through Rittenhouse Square this morning and walked right by M. Night Shyamalan. They’re filming The Happening this morning on the corner of Rittenhouse and 18th. Did I mention I love being in Philly?

Okay, this was pretty fun. When I got to work today there were Universal Pictures semi-trailers everywhere in a 4-block area. They’re filming the M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Happening, here. It stars Mark Wahlberg.

Charlie and I walked with his kids to go watch what was going on at Smedley and 16th. We got right in the action. We stood 20 ft. from Mark Walhberg (a very muscled up Mark Wahlberg, I might add) and M. Night. We watched them film a single scene of Mark Wahlberg putting a girl on a school bus at least six times. And there were still going when we left.

Here are a few snaps that I took surreptitiously. (BTW: They’re filming in Rittenhouse Square proper all day tomorrow.)

M. Night Talks to Mark Wahlberg

Mark Wahlberg and Little Girl Near Pine Deli

To the Set!

I’m no hair hopper, but I like Hairspray. The movie — the original — that is.

Last night Sheryl and I went to see The Divine Ms. Jimmi host a screening of John Waters’ Hairspray at the Trocadero. It was really a blast. The Divine Ms. Jimmi was in fine form and channeled Divine (much better looking if that’s okay to say), coming out at the start of the show in a house frock and at the end of the movie in her resplendent Roach Couture.

I was thinking that Hairspray could be the gay Rocky Horror Picture Show, with people getting up and dancing. (It would be fun to dance the Mashed Potato and do a few lines dances.) But then I remembered that Rocky Horror Picture Show is the gay Rocky Horror Picture Show, so that idea’s taken.

Funny side note: On the way home on the train, I wrote a Twitter post that said this. Blushing, I noticed my mistake and wrote down what I meant to say.

Hooray. Sheryl and I are going to see The Divine Ms. Jimmi host Hairspray tonight at the Troc. Jimmi says the doors open at 6:30 for you early birds. I might be a little later than that, but am really looking forward to the movie at 8pm.

I took Stevie and a friend of his to Superbad this afternoon. I have to say, that was a really funny movie.

Um, we agreed that we were glad that Sheryl, the mom, wasn’t with it. It was more of a male bonding thing. (Read: Obscene.) I laughed through most of the movie and the dialog came so fast and furious that I almost want to see it again because I missed so much of it.

Superbad is by the same guys who did The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. I’m not saying it’s Sense and Sensibility, but it’s some pretty good and hilarious film making. You can get a sense of where it’s going by having a glance at the trailer. Warning: NSFW.

I’ve seen Dirty Dancing at least 100 times. I stopped counting a long time ago. But while I was flipping through the channels this morning at work, guess what’s on Turner Classic Movies? Dirty Dancing.

Which leads to the title of this post. I’m glad that I don’t work in a big company for any number of reasons, but one of them is that I’ve called men and women alike “Baby” for 20 years. I don’t know why. I don’t mean it in any demeaning way, it’s more in the “Hey, Hey, Baby” way. It’s more like from the movie and less like Sinatra.

My Favorite Lines from the Movie
Johnny: One month I’m eating Jujubes to stay alive and the next month women are stuffing diamonds in my pockets.

Johnny: What’s your real name, Baby?
Baby: Frances. For the first woman in the cabinet. [laughs]
Johnny: Frances. That’s a real grown up name.

Johnny: Nobody puts Baby in the corner. (and a line those who know me have heard a thousand times)

My Little Brush With Dirty Dancing Fame
My kids went to a very high end Montessori school when we lived in a Chicago suburb. And one of their classmates was the child of singer Richard Marx and Cynthia Rhodes, who was Penny, as in “The Penny Situation” in Dirty Dancing. I swear I was dazzled to see her because I was such Dirty Dancing freak. We used to see them all the school events. Funny small world, Baby.