1. Wells on Spielberg. By Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere.

["In a press release about the forthcoming TCM documentary Spielberg on Spielberg (airing July 9th at 8 pm), George Lucas is quoted as follows: "Steven is the consummate filmmaker. He has an extraordinary ability to make brilliant movies—brilliantly artistic, brilliantly entertaining, and brilliantly successful. Steven's genius is that he knows, innately, how to communicate through film. He is one of the few directors I know who can actually edit in his head while he is filming." Here's Hollywood Elsewhere's compassionate revision of this statement, which I've sent along to TCM publicists: "Before he compromised and then totally muddied up his once-hallowed reputation with forehead slappers like 1941, The Color Purple, Always, Empire of the Sun, Hook, Amistad, A.I., Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal and Munich, Steven Spielberg was once (i.e., from 1975 to 1982) regarded as a consummate filmmaker. He seemed to have an extraordinary ability to make brilliant movies—stylistically vivid (although not very artistic), often entertaining, and, of course, financially successful. The money part is what finally counts for industry mainstreamers who derive satisfaction from showing obeisance before power and kowtowing to the heavyweights."]

["The Israeli affinity for ninjas makes sense when you consider that ninjas are basically supercool Jews. Both practice esoteric traditions that must be kept pure or they'll lose their power, both wear black outfits, and both can destroy much larger and more numerous opponents. The main difference is that while observant Jews spend a lot of time praying, observant ninjas spend a lot of time hiding and killing people."]

["If you are able to correctly guess the identities of BOTH films first, you will win a GRAND PRIZE. I promise to dust it off before sending it your way."]

["The song's refrain says, 'We're gonna die, die, die as hard as we can!'"]

["Tom: Please give me a call about a spec script Elia Infascelli-Smith has gone out with called $40,000 Man. As you know, along with Universal, we control the rights to The Six Million Dollar Man. My understanding is this spec includes characters we own. Best, Richard"]