Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Watch a police officer stop this plane with his car
John McLane's got nothing on this real Brazilian Federal Police Officer, who use his cop car to take down a plane loaded with smugglers and $150,000 of stolen electronics.
Paul Krugman: Oligarchy, American Style (New York Times)
Inequality is back in the news, largely thanks to Occupy Wall Street, but with an assist from the Congressional Budget Office. And you know what that means: It's time to roll out the obfuscators!
Froma Harrop: A Less Super America Will Be Happier (Creators Syndicate)
A perceived decline in "national greatness" haunts Americans of all political persuasions. Many equate it with the drop in our superpower status. But others ask, "Are the costs of perpetually commanding the high ground worth it?" Money we spend defending the world, others spend building fast trains.
JOHN MARZULLI: We fabricated drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas, former detective testifies (New York DAILY NEWS)
A former NYPD narcotics detective snared in a corruption scandal testified it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas.
Philip Seymour Hoffman: 'I was moody, mercurial... it was all or nothing' (Guardian)
He's made his name playing creeps and freaks. Now Philip Seymour Hoffman is directing his first film, Jack Goes Boating - and he's cast himself as the romantic hero. Interview by Simon Hattenstone.
Interview by Laura Barnett: "Portrait of the artist: Julie Walters, actor" (Guardian)
'The worst thing anyone ever wrote? "Julie Walters obviously thinks she's got good legs." That was painful.'
Roger Ebert: The Sudden Death of Film
Who would have dreamed film would die so quickly? The victory of video was quick and merciless. Was it only a few years ago that I was patiently explaining how video would never win over the ancient and familiar method of light projected through celluloid? And now Eastman Kodak has announced it will no longer manufacture motion picture film.
Roger Ebert: Review of "Le Havre" (4 stars)
This movie is as lovable as a silent comedy, which it could have been. It takes place in a world that seems cruel and heartless, but look at the lengths Marcel goes to find Idrissa's father in a refugee camp and raise money to send the boy to join his mother in England. "Le Havre" has won many festivals, including Chicago 2011, comes from a Finnish auteur, yet let me suggest that smart children would especially like it. There is nothing cynical or cheap about it, it tells a good story with clear eyes and a level gaze, and it just plain makes you feel good.
David Bruce has 42 Kindle books on Amazon.com with 250 anecdotes in each book. Each book is $1, so for $42 you can buy 10,500 anecdotes. Search for "Funniest People," "Coolest People, "Most Interesting People," "Kindest People," "Religious Anecdotes," "Maximum Cool," and "Resist Psychic Death."
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Reader Suggestions
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Last Night
Cold (for these parts) and rainy.
Fox Admits Lip Syncing
"X-Factor"
Fox admitted to lip syncing on its singing competition "X Factor" after contestant Leroy Bell was heard singing on Thursday's episode before he even held his microphone to his mouth.
"All survival songs are performed live, with just a backing track," a show representative said in a statement to TheWrap.
"For the group ensemble performance, the vocals are pre-recorded to allow acts to concentrate on preparing for their own live competitive performances on Wednesdays -- this is also no different to what other competition shows do for ensemble performances."
That may be the case -- but "X Factor" got caught. The sight of Bell raising the mic to his mouth only after his voice was heard elicited scorn from fans online. He was performing as part of an opening medley, not in competition.
The lip syncing comes after previous accusations against the show of rigging a contestant's exit, and implying nudity where there was none.
"X-Factor"
May Return As Golden Globes Host
Ricky Gervais
Has all been forgiven? Ricky Gervais seems to be hinting that it just might be, via his tweeted response to a New York Post article about him potentially returning to host the Golden Globes next January.
"Ooooooh! The plot thickens," Gervais tweeted on Thursday, along with a link to the Post article, which reported he had dinner in Paris with Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Aida Takla-O'Reilly and NBC programing executive Doug Vaughan to discuss a possible return to Globes hosting duty.
Representatives for Gervais and HFPA did not immediately respond to TheWrap's requests for comment.
Gervais' celebrity-aimed jabs while hosting the Globes last January ruffled some famous feathers, and it was rumored he wouldn't be asked to host again.
Ricky Gervais
Launch Teen Program
The Who
Two members of the British rock band The Who have launched a program for teens and young adults with cancer.
Roger Daltrey and Peter Townshend pledged Friday to raise money to renovate part of the Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center pediatric floor into a separate space for patients ages 15 to 25.
Townshend was unable to appear in person in Los Angeles, but sent in a video message.
The effort is being supported by other celebrities including Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. The goal is to create rooms clustered around a common lounge area where young cancer patients can hang out with one another.
The Who
Mask Becomes Symbol
Guy Fawkes
Look at a photo or news clip from around the world of Occupy protesters and you'll likely spot a handful of people wearing masks of a cartoon-like man with a pointy beard, closed-mouth smile and mysterious eyes.
The mask is a stylized version of Guy Fawkes, an Englishman who tried to bomb the British Parliament on Nov. 5, 1605.
"They're very meaningful masks," said Alexandra Ricciardelli, who was rolling cigarettes on a table outside her tent in New York's Zuccotti Park two days before the anniversary of Fawkes' failed bombing attempt.
To the 20-year-old from Keyport, N.J., the Fawkes mask "is about being against The Man - the power that keeps you down."
But history books didn't lead to the mask's popularity: A nearly 30-year-old graphic novel and a five-year-old movie did.
Guy Fawkes
Catholic Paper Retracts
The Boston Pilot
The oldest Roman Catholic newspaper in the United States has retracted an opinion column that said the devil may cause homosexual attraction after the essay was condemned by gay rights groups.
The 184-year-old weekly newspaper, the Boston Pilot, run by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, on Wednesday removed from its website the October 28 article titled, "Some fundamental questions on same-sex attraction."
The article stated that "scientific evidence of how same-sex attraction most likely may be created provides a credible basis for a spiritual explanation that indicts the devil."
The newspaper also posted on its website and in its November 4 print edition a "retraction/apology" by the author, Daniel Avila, who advises on policy against gay marriage for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In his apology, Avila wrote that he opposes "all unjust discrimination" and noted that his column did not represent the position of the Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Pilot echoed his statement of regret and apologized for not having seen the theological error in the column before publication.
The Boston Pilot
CA's 37h District
Rep. Laura Richardson
Rep. Laura Richardson suggested Thursday that the House Ethics Committee is targeting non-white members of Congress following a decision by the committee to open an investigation into the California Democrat's conduct.
The committee voted unanimously Thursday to create an investigative subcommittee to probe complaints that Richardson threatened to dismiss members of her congressional staff if they did not work on her 2010 re-election campaign, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Times also reported that the subcommittee, expected to announce its plans Friday, will examine whether Richards' campaign used congressional resources for political purposes.
Richardson said in a statement that the ethics panel has "unjustly" targeted her and other members for using House resources while the committee remains quiet on lawmakers who sleep in their congressional offices.
And Richardson, who is black, accused the committee of discrimination.
Rep. Laura Richardson
Quits As Big Bet Fails
Jon Corzine
Jon Corzine, one of Wall Street's best-known stars, stepped down as MF Global Holdings Ltd's chairman and chief executive after his bets on European debt drove the futures brokerage into bankruptcy.
The departure was announced on Friday, hours before conflicting reports surfaced about the whereabouts of $633 million of missing customer money, whose disappearance derailed MF Global's effort this week to quickly sell a variety of assets.
JPMorgan Chase & Co said late on Friday it had no information about whether balances in MF Global accounts at the bank contained any of the missing customer funds. It also declined to disclose the balances of those funds.
Earlier in the day, Bloomberg News had said customer funds had been found in a JPMorgan custodial account holding $658.8 million, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.
Corzine, a former chief of Goldman Sachs & Co, characterized his abrupt departure from a company he once joked as "too small to care about" as "difficult" but voluntary.
Jon Corzine
Compensation Plan For Hacking Victims
Rupert
Rupert Murdoch's News International said Friday it had launched a new compensation plan for victims of phone hacking by the media mogul's now-defunct Sunday tabloid.
The company said Friday it has set up the scheme as "a speedy, cost-effective alternative to litigation" for people who had been spied upon by the News of the World. But victims' lawyers suggested News International was trying to save on attorney's fees.
"That's a commercial decision - they're saving a lot of money on legal costs with this procedure," said Tamsin Allen, who is coordinating the litigation for the 60 people suing News International over phone hacking.
Such compensation could be useful for some victims, but there are some questions which "will only be answered if they're pushed through the courts with the power of disclosure," she said.
Rupert
Arrest In Hacking Scandal
Rupert
A journalist at Rupert Murdoch's The Sun tabloid has been arrested on suspicion of police corruption, British media reported Friday, a development that spreads the taint of scandal to the country's biggest-selling newspaper.
U.K. broadcasters and newspapers identified the journalist as award-winning editor Jamie Pyatt, whose name appeared on one of The Sun's most sensational scoops - a story with a photograph showing Prince Harry attending a costume party dressed in Nazi garb.
The Associated Press could not immediately confirm whether Pyatt had been arrested, although the Sun's publisher, News International, confirmed that one of its current employees had been detained. Police said only they had apprehended a 48-year-old man "outside of London" and had brought him to the capital for questioning. Public records show that Pyatt lives in Windsor, just outside of London.
Word of Pyatt's arrest first broke on Twitter, where photographer Alison Webster, who has worked for the Sun, said Pyatt had been arrested. Contacted by the AP, Webster said she was only repeating something she'd heard from a colleague.
The Sun is Britain's highest-circulation daily, putting out more than 2.7 million copies a day, according to Britain's Audit Bureau of Circulation. It was once one of Murdoch's most profitable papers and until recently wielded considerable political influence - the paper famously claimed to have swung the 1992 election in favor of Britain's right-leaning Conservatives.
Rupert
Guy Fawkes Day
Breaks With PR Firm Over Chechnya Flap
Hilary Swank
The fallout from Hilary Swank's birthday visit to Chechen president and alleged human rights abuser Ramzan Kadyrov continues.
The two-time Oscar winning actress has parted ways with her public relations firm, 42West, TheWrap has confirmed. A spokesperson for 42 West declined to comment.
In the weeks that followed the public relations debacle, Swank has fired her longtime manager Jason Weinberg and her two CAA agents.
Swank was slammed by human-rights groups for attending a 35th birthday celebration for Kadyrov in Chechnya on October 2. Kadyrov is widely accused of torturing dissidents and killing political opponents.
Hilary Swank
'Benevolent Monster'
Sun
After years of quiet, the sun is coming alive with solar storms in a big way.
The sun shot off a flare Thursday afternoon from a region that scientists are calling a "benevolent monster."
Scientists at the federal Space Weather Prediction Center say that area is the most active part of the sun since 2005. It has dozens of sunspots, including one that is the size of 17 Earths. Sunspots are kinks or knots in the sun's magnetic field.
Thursday's flare wasn't aimed at Earth. However, this active region is now slowly turning toward Earth, and scientists say it will be directly facing Earth in about five days.
Sun
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