You know exactly what we're talking about: well-meaning, fragile, cerebral, maladjusted boys with an anemic sexual persona and child-like notions about women. It was cute for a while! And we certainly needed someone besides Matthew McConaughey to fill our wasted nights. But now ladies in their twenties are stuck with these infants in Morissey onesies as our leading men. No wonder tweens and mommies are swooning for the pasty boys in Twilight, at least those guys will leave a couple of marks on you after a romp!

It's not just an aesthetic thing. It's a (lady) boner killer for a any woman who has a dark streak —and really, what self-respecting woman doesn't? These awkward young men are so soft, so emotionally naive that it's clear that any one woman with a penchant for a couple cocktails and hair pulling would shatter these precious, cutesywutesy little boys. Bring back the angry young men who could at least make you feel like a woman instead of a girl.

Examples! Run the clips please:

Jesse Eisenberg in Adventureland. Sad, smug, virgin who tries to save a slutty K. Stew.

John Krasinski in Away We Go. Cheerful, smug, bookish Dave Eggers stand in who tries to shield his unborn child from the ills of normal people who lead unmeaningful lives.

Demetri Martin in Taking Woodstock. He even has the haircut of an 8 year old (actual age: 36).

Joseph Gorden-Levitt in 500 Days of Summer. Morrisey loving nerd tries to pin down his manic pixie girl.

Micheal Cera in Paper Heart. I like Michael Cera a lot. But I'm pretty sure he doesn't have genitals — just a fleshy, rainbow colored patch that rests under his corduroy pants.

Hugh Dancy in Adam. Maybe Hollywood is getting the point? Adam is the same kind of nerdy, quirky, sort of hunky outsider. Except this movie blames all of his quirky awkwardness on Asperberger's syndrome. Fine! That's it! No more! Jokes over.

Rumors have been swirling since Variety first reported last week that Soderbergh's vision for the film differed dramatically from the vision studio executives had for the film, but up to this point no one associated with the project has been willing to speak on the record about it.

But yesterday Sony's Amy Pascal, the studio executive in charge of the film, spoke to the LA Times' Patrick Goldstein. According to Pascal, what it all boiled down to was essentially simple—The studio loved screenwriter Steven Zaillian's original adaptation of Lewis' book, while Soderbergh felt the script lacked authenticity and rewrote it himself, making radical changes that Pascal and the studio weren't willing to gamble on, fearful that Soderbergh would turn it into an "artsy" film like Solaris or Schizopolis, especially when baseball movies traditionally don't do well at the box office outside of the United States. Soderbergh was insistent that everything in the movie had to have happened in real life.

Reports Goldstein:

Some changes to Zaillian's script were subtle, others were dramatic. At one point, Beane signs Scott Hatteberg, a journeyman catcher with a bad arm whom Bean can get for peanuts and turn into a first baseman. Beane loves Hatteberg's ability to get on base, but his staff is appalled — he just can't turn anyone into a slick-fielding first baseman overnight. In Zaillian's script, one of the coaches watches Hatteberg taking ground balls at a Little League field, his wife armed with a plastic laundry basket full of baseballs. She hits the balls to her husband off a tee, with their 4-year-old daughter backing him up down the line. One ball takes a bad hop and goes between Hatteberg's legs. When his daughter scoops it up, the coach quips: "Maybe we should sign her."

Soderbergh cut out the joke because it was the screenwriter's invention — the coach had never actually said it. He also cut out a scene where Beane gives a tongue-lashing to Jason Giambi, one of his departing free agents, again because it didn't actually happen. Zaillian's script was anchored by on-screen monologues by Bill James, the oddball guru of modern-day baseball statistics (who today works in the Boston Red Sox front office). James functioned as a Greek chorus for the film, offering wry, Yoda-like explanations about the complexity of the game.

Zaillian's deft renditions of James' maxims were funny and always to the point, allowing the audience the opportunity to see inside the game. In one monologue, James says: "If you score three runs and the other team scores four, you can be inspired as all hell but you still lost. The numbers represent the ineluctable sum of victories and defeats, and that cannot be made one iota larger or smaller than it is by PR campaigns, personal animosities or any of the greater and lesser forms of B.S." But in Soderbergh's draft, the James material had all vanished, presumably to be replaced by interviews with Beane's real-life associates.

At a "summit" held after Soderbergh turned in his draft of the script, he reportedly pleaded "trust me" to the Sony executives, who were obviously unwilling to do so. Besides Pitt, the film was also set to star comedian Demetri Martin as well as former ballplayers Darryl Strawberry, Mookie Wilson, David Justice and Lenny Dykstra, but Soderbergh's unrelenting zeal for authenticity proved to be the project's demise.

Bob Costas would be proud.

As for Michael Lewis, he seems unfazed by the developments with the film version of his book, telling MSNBC recently, "I don't understand why they bought it for a movie in the first place."

Sony's Amy Pascal Speaks Out About Moneyball [LA Times]
Image via Vulture

A month later, you're informed that you'll appear in every single scene of Ang Lee's new movie, Taking Woodstock. That's pretty much how it happened to Demetri Martin, who'll play the film's hero, Elliot Tiber—a young, Jewish gay from upstate New York who found himself, by sheer happenstance, mounting the generation-defining cultural event of its time.

Martin described the experience to AfterElton:

"James Schamus, the head of Focus Features, called my agents and said, ‘Hey, I want to meet with Demetri, just a general meeting.' Okay. So I went in to Focus, and I just met with the guy. He was really nice. He just asked me questions about what I was working on. Great, well, good to meet you. We just talked about music and plans, just writing things."

[One month later] Schamus wanted to meet with him again – only this time with Ang Lee and about a specific role.

"I went into the Ang Lee meeting and I had read the book and they're like, ‘I don't know how much you know, but we want to do this movie. We're kind of interested in you as a character. We're not going into as much of the like underground New York gay scene and that stuff. We're focusing more on the family relationship and this guy's personal journey, as a gay person who is in the closet in 1969 as that relates to making Woodstock happen and finding yourself as a generation is finding itself.'"

A week later Schamus asked Martin to come back and read for Lee.

"I did four scenes [and] I was like, this is a long shot, but this is for real now. And then two days later, they were like, ‘Okay. We'll do this with you.' Wow! I'm in every scene in that movie! It's crazy! I'd been in like two or three movies before and did like two scenes, tops. Now I'm in every scene, and I'm working with Ang Lee?"

We're dying to see this, even though we fear this particular casting may become the un-bendy straw that finally breaks the gay camel's back with regards to straight actors winning juicy gay roles. How ironic it would be if Taking Woodstock incited its own Stonewall riot, with hundreds of angry, out-of-work gay actors storming out the doors of Starbucks WeHo, chanting, "What do we want? Parts! When do we want them? Now! What will settle for? Featured extra! When we settle for it? Also now!"

• Exclusive: Demetri Martin takes on "Taking Woodstock" [AfterElton]

• Demetri Martin heads to 'Woodstock' [Variety.com]

• What do all these kids have in common? They're being exploited by a Murdoch-owned paper to boost sales in the wake of that whole racist "Big Brother" episode. [Guardian]
  
• Yet another editor leaves Louise McBain's LTB Media. [WWD]
  
• Jack Shafer wants to know why the Journal won't say that Todd Thomson did it to Maria Bartiromo. [Slate]
  
• Meanwhile, Maria's planning a "Charlie Rose style" Q&A show. We can think of a couple of questions already. [NYP]
  
• Here's how the Warren St. John soccer story sold. [WSJ]

• Mark Green's brother buys Air America; Al Franken departs. [NYT]
  
• Demetri Martin, John Hodgman: the latest in geek chic. [NYT
  
• Someone really hurt Gary Kamiya's feelings. [Salon]
  
• David Puttnam, who produced our all-time favorite movie, may become the new chairman of the BBC. [Independent]
  

^{Ian Wilhelm of The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Later he got in a drunken shoving match with some loser from The Annals of Generosity.}

[Warning: The following write-up, often devoid of the s-word — hint: it ends in "k" — and, towards the end, rather kind-hearted and non-judgmental, in no way, shape, or form reflects the views and opinions of the rest of the Gawker editorial staff, nor is it indicative of any change in said staff's sensibility. Send all complaints to Jessica Coen. Thank you.]

So, Good: Gawker's callous dismissal of one young man's quest to pull an anti-Hilton and do his family legacy proud. Putting aside snips about the magazine's content (which content we actually enjoyed) and concerns about the seeming absence of a viable business plan (more on that later), the staff of Good took some time away from saving the world on recycled stock paper to throw an official launch party in Chelsea. And you know what? It was Good! (That's the first and only time we'll use that joke. Promise.)

^{Gary Shteyngart, shocked and pleased that he actually got into print.}

^{Why, who's this attractive couple? Don't you know this is a media party? It's designer spawn David Lauren and model Lauren Bush. Yes, his name is her name, too.}

Despite the unintended irony of bartenders dolling out drinks in little plastic cups, thereby creating Lord knows how many pounds of trash (c'mon guys! Practice what you preach!)*, the party was exactly what it claimed it would be: an open bar till 2 a.m., with DJ sets that people actually danced to. Not well, mind you — the types of people who subscribe to Good are not the types of people you'd expect to move with any semblance of grace and fluidity—but they danced nonetheless.

^{A certain individual reacts ambivalently to a bicep squeeze from HuffPo's Rachel Sklar.}

^{Matthew Modine needs a shave. Al Gore needs a pulse.}

Except Al Gore. We'd always thought that the guy was just sort of misunderstood — someone who is probably engaging and charismatic in person, but who happens to get unfortunately tense on camera, and thus comes off as wooden. Nope! He's just as droll in the flesh. We badgered him for a solid two minutes in a fruitless attempt to get him to say something entertaining, to no avail. To our standard, open-ended question of the evening, "What do you think is Good?," the best we got was, "Sustainability." Trade in the glass of icewater for a vodka tonic, Al. No one will know the difference.

^{Albert Gore, son of Al, hangs with his junior Secret Service detail.}

^{Michael Calderone (New York Observer) and David Hirschman (Editor & Publisher), strapped in with messenger bags and ready to dominate.}

<sup>You want to front with the manpurse, yo? Radar's Jeff Bercovici is strapped.



David Greenbaum (Miramax) and Demetri Martin. Apparently Greenbaum is the youngest executive at Miramax. He just turned 30. One of these boys is hot. The other's shirt is open far too much.</sup>

Comedian and The Daily Show correspondent Demetri Martin was, not surprisingly, funnier: "It's God with an extra 'o.'" Vice contributor Terry Richardson, less so: "Not bad." We didn't get around to Google boys Larry Page and Sergi Brin, Matthew Modine, or Elizabeth Berkeley, though we're really only disappointed by Berkeley. Our quest to figure out what exactly she was thinking during the epic waterfall sex scene d nouement in Showgirls will have to wait.

<sup>Dodgeball mogul Dennis Crowley. And Friend.



Amanda Congdon with FishBowlNY's Dylan Stableford, explaining her appeal.</sup>

To Amanda Congdon! Oh hello, how's the cross-country road trip going, cool, excellent, TV gigs lined up, swell, nice to hear you're moving beyond your feud with Rocketboom dude, so what do you think is good, oh, "living your life responsibly, spontaneously responsibly," great, yada yada yada, let's get to the good stuff: your tits: "I'm comfortable with my own sexuality but that's not what I'm all about," Congdon says. "I'm not going to deny that my looks have helped me, but it's not what I'm all about."

^{"Oh, wait, you know, I just realized that, uh, I have to go put my ferret to bed, so I gotta go, nice talking with you, buh-bye."}

But Amanda, what about all the critics who dismiss you as nothing more than a set of mammaries? "I would say that you need two things to be successful — looks and talent. There are a lot of pretty girls who are unsuccessful." Yes, Amanda. We certainly agree you have two things going for you.

^{Good managing editor Zach Frechette, who wears this color quite well, so you don't have to. As if you could.}

On to the men of the hour, Ben Goldhirsh and the rest of Good staff, all enthusiastic and funny and charming and, yes, earnest, but in a way that actually makes you want to see them succeed if for no reason other than that they're putting a lot of hard work and effort and soul into something they're passionate about, which admittedly sounds cheesy and trite but which is nonetheless true (exhale). "When it comes down to it, this isn't some philanthropic endeavor — we're doing this as a business, to make money, and we're serious about it," says managing editor Zach Frechette, adding that they've already doubled ad pages in their second issue (granted, there weren't many in the first, but baby steps). "We just really want to do something that speaks to the sensibilities of our generation, which we don't really see elsewhere." Amen, brotha, can't hate on that.

^{Neel yuks it up with Zach Frechette and Good associate editor Morgan Clendaniel. So jovial!}

So, what's good to you, men of Good? "It's like the Earth swallowed Radar and heaven shat out Good," says Associate Editor Morgan Clendaniel. Huh? Does that even make sense? Who knows. Everyone was drunk. Wish 'em well. As for us, a couple final bonus shots, and we're out. Good night!

<sup>Neel and Rachel Sklar suddenly realize they can actually feel DJ Grandmaster Flash inside their brains. And he feels very, very good.



Amanda Congdon not apparently fooled by Neel's ruse of always glancing down at his notepad while speaking with her.</sup>

_{* Re: the cups, Associate Editor Morgan Clendaniel, the next morning: "I am going to go out on a limb and say that right now, people from that building are carefully washing each little plastic cup, to be used again at their next event. Or maybe they're going to make another installation with them." Phew!}

In part the second of our efforts to flood the zone known as last night's Good magazine launch party, enjoy this more comprehensive clip documenting a little bit of Al Gore boogie, a smidge of Matthew Modine, a wodge of Demetri Martin, and a good bit of "Hey" almost immediately followed by the requisite "Ho." Early party prospects did not look promising, but the abundance of liquor and absence of food soon put the people into the right frame of mind. Munch on this while staying tuned for our full-bore but scrupulously kind party report, wherein we atone for past sins.

40 Under 40 [Crain's New York Business]

Video: Huge Blaze in the West Village [WCBS]