Thanksgiving Week Continues

NJ Asst. US Attorney gets into trouble over his blog, since he never got permission, violating the US Attorney’s office policy to get permission before speaking to the media. Creepy. Be very careful when you’re on-line and you’re an attorney. Or, at least, don’t talk about work, like this guy talking about the federal judges…

I saw “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” on Saturday. Mike Newell, the director of “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and other stuff, got to be the first British director with the HP franchise, and he made it feel very British indeed. I kept thinking that Prof. Dumbledore would burst out “There Will Always Be An England,” what with the cinematography capturing the British landscape. “Goblet of Fire” – Book 4 – is the path to real sad stuff, so of course Movie 4 is sad. But, good movie – tight; none of the annoying excesses of Book 4; and the cast did well, even when there was still not enough time to give everybody lines (Alan Rickman as Prof. Snape, amusingly pissed with the students; the cute Cedric Diggory character; and so on). I felt that actor Michael Gambon was settling nicely as Dumbledore – he’s a bigger guy and bigger presence. I felt the grandfatherly side of Dumbledore (but his agenda still puzzling as ever…). And, of course, poor poor Harry. How much can one put a kid through?

I also liked how the movie continues the portrayal of the previous books and movies of a diverse Britain – people of various colors and races coming together to learn and so on. Picking up on FC’s point on Asians in the HP movie: I never thought that Cho Chang (played by Katie Leung) was Scottish – so that’s an interesting twist. The Patil twins (who aren’t actually twins after all, but they were in the book, so maybe they’re fraternal twins as far as the movie’s concerned?) – well, their storyline was consistent with the book indeed – Harry and Ron didn’t treat them that well as their dates to the ball (well, geez, they’re only 14 and have no clue as to how to treat girls!).

Ted Koppel’s last night is Tuesday night on Nightline. Charlie Rose did a nice interview of him Monday night.

Monday night late night tv had George Clooney on David Letterman (funny and charming, as usual – Clooney, I mean, not Letterman); Wentworth Miller on Jay Leno (sigh – so cute and so intelligent – Miller, I mean, not Leno – Miller’s a Princeton alumnus, though… 😉 … ).

So it goes…