one thing I forgot to mention about that "Oz" trailer...

I'm so surprised this thing didn't pop up in my nightmares last night. Maybe tonight?

Goddess Behaving Badly

She's ba-aaaack!!! Look, it's Sharon Stone on the set of Gods Behaving Badly (via Zimbio). 

Goddess on the mountain top 
Burning like a silver flame 
The summit of beauty and love 
And Venus was her name 

-Bananarama "Venus"

She also goes by Aphrodite.

Gods Behaving Badly is producer turned director Marc Turteltaub's first feature so we have no idea whether to salivate or run for cover but the high-concept plot "Greek Gods living in NYC intervene in the lives of a young couple" sounds like the kind of thing that could go either way. It might be immense popcorn fun with lively star turns or the more common typical modern comedy which tends to rely on concept and stars (they've got both here) and forgets that you actually need ideas beyond them if you want more than a three or four laughs over two hours.

Beyond Sharon -- hugely watchable whether great or terrible -- John Turturro and Rosie Perez as Hades and his trapped wife Persephone sound like potential comedy gold, right? Other cast members include: Phyllica Rashad as Demeter, Edie Falco as Artemis, Christopher Walken as Zeus (top billed), and Nelson Ellis as Dionysus. The weirdest casting has to be Oliver Platt as Apollo.... uh, okay. I hope there's a more clever joke there than merely the casting of a rolypoly comic actor as the blindingly beautiful sun god.

20:10 "all dragons have a limited number of shots"

Screen capture from the 20th minute and 10th second of How To Train Your Dragon
(or thereabouts. I'm not so sure this VLC time counter works properly grrrr)

"How many does a Gronkol have?"

It's less than 19 hours until Oscar nominations!!! Which animated feature do you think will place alongside How To Train Your Dragon and Toy Story 3? It seems like a coin toss doesn't it between Tangled (the commerce and corporate tradition votes), The Illusionist (the art and international votes) and Despicable Me (the scrappy upstarts, comedy votes)? Well, a coin toss if you have a... uh... three sided coin.

Here's my chart of final Oscar predictions and the post in which I ask the big questions about uncertainties tomorrow morning.