He just wanted the beautiful, blond, cute, shiksa girls to be nice and shut the fuck up!

Apparently having "one foot in the grave and one on a banana peel" makes it okay to speak ill of the dead, and that's fine with me. Sydney Pollack did seem like a sexist pig. It's too bad that more women don't speak with the same candor that Teri Garr does in this interview. Then again, if more women working in Hollywood spoke up about the shabby writing and sexist treatment they receive at the hands of male "auteurs," someone might have to actually go to the trouble of making a movie where women play a role other than doormat or object of desire.

Tina Fey had high praise for Garr back before Baby Mama was released; maybe Fey could write a guest spot for her on 30 Rock this season? She had Carrie Fischer on; maybe she could start a Faerie Tale Theatre alumnae tradition.

Nickelback, a band so bad that the New York Times described it as "risible" not once but twice, got its own 360 deal. Jay-Z got $150 million, Madonna got $120 million, and Shakira somewhere between $70 and $100 million. I can only hope that the deal, scheduled to start after the terrible, awful, horrible, no-good band finishes its current recording contract, is not as lucrative as any of the ones that preceded it.

Clearly I must find a new band with which to torture my sister.

Catholics: Sometimes They're OK

I can't join Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo in lamenting the "loss of life" that resulted from a Catholic organization's employees helping a young immigrant woman get an abortion. I'm too glad that this poor, frightened, 16 year old mother of one was able to receive the care she needed. I'm sorry that four workers were fired because of their involvement, because I think they displayed the sort of compassion that I want to see in people of faith. I applaud the employee that signed the consent form, the ones who kept the Bishop from intervening, and especially the girl. The courage needed to seek an abortion in the face of the Catholic church and the US's intolerance of illegal immigrants is more than I can imagine.

Tomorrow, when I have to think of America and why I don't hate everything about it, this will be on the list of positives. We may treat women terribly in this country, but at least this happened without priests being called to the clinic.