So Mike Sorrentio, right? He's one of the cast members. And after the Jersey-based group UNICO says that Mtv's reality show "Jersey Shore" is racist Sorrentio tells MTV.com he doesn't see any Italian stereotypes in the show whatsoever:

I just happen to be 100 percent Italian, I happen to be in very good shape and my hair happens to be spiky... It's not necessarily a stereotype; it's just how it is... I know I didn't hold back and I'm not too worried about what people think. When I look in the mirror I feel good.

You got a problem with that? [MTV]

•Let's get ready to nitpick! Here is New Yorker film critic Richard Brody's list of the 10 best films of the decade. It includes—get this—"The Darjeeling Limited" at number 2. "Knocked Up" at number 8. Hey, Brody, my college roommate called: He wants his favorite movies back. [The New Yorker]

•According to Yahoo, more people searched for "Michael Jackson" than anything else on the Internet last year. (This contrasts with Google's results, which shows Twitter as the "fastest rising" search term.) Or maybe it was just one guy desperately searching for him 20,000 times. [THR]

•The Next Jackass film is going to be shot in 3D. File this under: Could be awesome or could make us want to throw up a lot. [Variety]

•Keith Arem, the guy who directed the blockbuster videogame "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" will be directing the action film "Frost Road," staring Cary Brokawy. "Modern Warfare 2" has totaled more than $3 billion in sales, so it's unclear if movies counts as a pro- or a demotion. [Variety]

•ABC's "Ugly Betty" is finally getting the recognition it deserves: The show is escaping its terrible Friday timeslot for a new spot, Wednesdays at 9pm. [Variety]

•Six cast members have been added to voice the new "Night of the Living Dead" CGI remake: Jesse Corti, Danielle Harris, Bill Moseley, Joe Pilato, Alona Tal and Cornell Womack. Who are any of these people? [THR]

• New Zealand shames Hollywood with living, breathing "Knocked Up" poster. [Copyranter]

Over all, American studios depend on foreign markets for roughly half of total revenue. But Apatow-produced films like the Will Ferrell vehicles Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, did more than 90 percent of their theatrical business domestically. And the Apatow-directed 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up had more than 60 percent of sales at home.

The numbers should give pause to Hollywood. When the summer selling season is over, studios will probably collect far less from international markets than they would have with a larger roster of high-budget fantasies like Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Last year, those two movies did very well at home, then fared even better around the world.

At least until Apatow deigns to an international slob-comedy diplomacy mission to shoot Superbad 2 on Michael Cera and Jonah Hill's study-abroad journey in Paris, the trick may be to just make the movies worse, hints The Times: What Happened in Vegas and Night at the Museum each outperformed their domestic grosses in international release. This could be as simple as outsourcing scripts or casting Ashton Kutcher, but in any case, we hope he does it soon; word on the street is that OPEC hates the trailer for Step Brothers.

• When a Film's Comedy is Lost in Translation [NYT]

Heigl, through her publicist, said of her decision:

''I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization. In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials.''

"She's a smart one. She saw what [happened with] Jennifer Aniston, who was crazy successful on TV, but can't seem to carry a film, and she tested the waters early."

But Heigl's chances of fleeing the yawnfest that is Grey's and continuing her journey towards becoming "the next Julia Roberts" don't look good:

After only three seasons on then-mega hit Grey's, Heigl did make an early attempt to break out as a "real" actress on the big screen, and whether it was a case of pure luck or actual talent, Knocked Up turned her into a bankable hot commodity overnight. Then came 27 Dresses, which managed to rack up an impressive $23mm its opening weekend, coming in second to the highly anticipated Cloverfield. Interestingly enough, 27 has racked up $76mm to date, trailing the J.J. Abrams shitshow by only $4mm as of May 1st. Next on her plate is a pantsless role in 2009's The Ugly Truth, which co-stars B.O. superstar Gerard Butler. The only hitch regarding Heigl's promising movie career? As a source told MSNBC, "Heigl might be locked into Grey's a bit longer. 'I don't think she'll be able to get out of it.'" But we're talking about a woman capable of curing ADD sans medical license! We're not worried about Heigl's manipulative methods when it comes to getting her way.

[Photo credit: Splash]

• HEIGL LOOKING TO HANG UP HER 'GREY'S' SCRUBS? [MSNBC]

On April 15, a pro-Apatow operative yanked the details:

On several occasions in his movies, there are loud, expletive-filled arguments and frequent sexual-related discussions, which are a trademark.

His male characters tend to be immature, lazy, misogynist, sex-crazed and drug-consuming slackers.

We guess that's not so bad; they're vague, and they do sort of violate Wikipedia's "neutral point of view" guidelines. But then someone dropped by Sunday night to cut some far less-arguable context:

New York Magazine noted that [former Apatow associate] Mike White ... was "disenchanted" by Judd Apatow's later films, "objecting to the treatment of women and gay men in Apatow's recent movies," saying of Knocked Up, "At some point it starts feeling like comedy of the bullies, rather than the bullied."

Apatow has claimed to strive to avoid marginalizing women in his work and to develop authentic female characters. Following many of these accusations, in a highly publicized Vanity Fair interview, lead actor Katherine Heigl admitted that though she enjoyed working with Apatow, she had a hard time enjoying [Knocked Up] itself, calling the movie, "a little sexist," claiming that the film "paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight." In response to accusations of sexism ... Apatow did not initially deny the validity of such accusations, saying flippantly, "I'm just shocked she [Heigl] used the word 'shrew.' I mean, what is this, the sixteen-hundreds?"

This isn't nearly as fun as the revision that had Apatow dying April 7 after "stealing a bucket of mythical walrus," but it seems a fair enough concession to the historical record. But you tell us: Should it stand?

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

• Judd Apatow [Wikipedia]

A tipster asks, "will the spawn have Kucz's real nose?" And we want to know: is Alex really incapable of carrying her own child to term or does she just not want to? An unfair question perhaps, especially to ask of a 40-year-old woman (is it also unfair to mention that? Pretty sure her birthday was a couple weeks ago!), but a look at the Kucz's work and public statements presents a character who might just not want some sort of fattening, nutrient-sucking monster gestating in her toned stomach.

Back in 2004, Alex presented us with one of her trademark anecdotal investigations into the things her rich friend talk about at lunch. The subject: Pregnancy Paranoia. Did you know that you have to give up certain of life's pleasures during the nine months of pregnancy? It's true! Rich women have read as much on the Internets!

''Well, you know you can't wear an underwire bra,'' one young mother announced.

''No thong underwear,'' said Cricket Burns, the style director of Quest magazine and a mother of two.

''Or Botox,'' chimed in another young mother.

Mushrooms, said Jessica Friedberg, a mother of two perfect ZIP-code-10021 children.

The warnings tumbled forth: Tanning spray. Hair dryers. Acrylic nails. The J. Sisters. Cellphones. Then the waiters delivered dessert, a gooey chocolate soufflé with a mousse center and a side of crème anglaise.

Ms. Burns looked down, and in a voice lowered to the tone a Norad officer might use to announce the approach of nuclear warheads, said: ''And . . . no . . . chocolate . . . mousse.''

And salmon! And sushi! Why on Earth would any person ever want to do this to themselves? Especially where there are fools out there willing to take that fetus off your hands until its ready to be cooed over and swaddled in diamond-encrusted imported silk blankets.

Congrats Alex and Charles!

Journo Awaits Stork [NYP]
The Nine Months of Living Anciously [NYT]

Angelina Jolie
Category: Best Actress, for A Mighty Heart's Mariane Pearl
Snub-O-Meter: 6 Nose-Thumbings (out of a possible 10)
Why They Deserved It: Jolie's widely heralded turn in the harrowing role of wife to real-life journalist Daniel Pearl had all the earmarks of an Oscar-worthy performance, including an accent and makeup-assisted physical transformation.
What Might Have Happened: Like the general public, voters dismissed Heart with the rest of this year's post-9-11 downer crop.
Unspoken Factor: Persisting Academy fears that she'd blow creepy kisses to her brother from the podium.

Sean Penn
Category: Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, for Into the Wild
Snub-O-Meter: 9 Nose-Thumbings
Why They Deserved It: Following in the path of Academy favorite Clint Eastwood, beloved actor Penn's transformation into a director and screenwriter of quintessentially American dramas seemed complete with Wild.
What Might Have Happened: An overcrowded and particularly outstanding director field, an unlikable protagonist, and an underlying sentiment that the movie really wasn't all that great.
Unspoken Factor: Period epics beat self-righteousness every time.

Judd Apatow
Category: Best Original Screenplay, for Knocked Up
Snub-O-Meter: 3 Nose-Thumbings
Why They Deserved It: His raunch-and-heart formula, of which Knocked Up is the perfect example, has conquered the hearts of critics and the masses alike, ushering in a crop of the most laugh-out-loud funny American comedies since the days of Caddyshack and Stripes.
What Might Have Happened: Academy members still skew old, and fail to find humor in crowning baby heads and freaking out over chairs in a hotel room while on mushrooms.
Unspoken Factor: La Heigl.

American Gangster
Category: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay
Snub-O-Meter: 8 Nose-Thumbings
Why They Deserved It: An epic crime drama directed with a sure hand by Hollywood giant Ridley Scott, set in a period not that long ago, but almost impossible to get right: The '70s.
What Might Have Happened: Start with Denzel sleepwalking through a role he never seemed quite sure how to play, and all the "enh"-factor dominoes seemed to tumble accordingly.
Unspoken Factor: Naked chicks filling bags of heroin, however tastefully shot, never really screams, "Oscar!"

Tim Burton
Category: Best Director, for Sweeney Todd
Snub-O-Meter: 10 Nose-Thumbings
Why They Deserved It: One of the most visually imaginative directors of our time, Burton proved he could chew precisely the amount he sought to bite off with his stylish, cohesive adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical masterpiece.
What Might Have Happened: The Academy doesn't get starry-eyed for Sondheim the way Tony voters might. Too much singing. Too much blood. Not enough meat.
Unspoken Factor: Sacha Baron Cohen's stuffed package.

Just kidding, Diablo! We don't blame you. We blame Judd Apatow. But then again, we don't really blame him, either. The truth of the matter is this: we haven't really fully formulated a hypothesis as to why this is happening. We have just noticed that it IS happening at a much-higher rate than it has during the entire time we've been blogging. Admittedly, as far as the Scientific Method is concerned, we're only on Step 2 of an eight-step process. Which means we have miles to go before we sleep. But just like the Katie Holmes Marathon Conspiracy, we WILL get to the bottom of this. Of this you can be assured.

Then they sit on the sidewalk and sulk and talk about how unfair it is that the dudes still get to have fun when they don't and the subtext is, of course, that it's impossible to enjoy life when you're consumed with the unfairness of how little you're enjoying it, just like it's hard to be funny when you're busy being pissed that someone else always gets to be the "funny one."

It's a moving scene, because Apatow doesn't rush to paper over the truth, or to imply that what Debbie says isn't the case...But the scene has none of the zany ingenuity of Pete and Ben's scene and lacks the verbal dexterity that peppers women's dialogue in screwball comedies.

If, as Heigl delicately put it, the movie is a "little sexist," that is because it is the natural product of a culture evidently sold on the notion that women are so focused on domestic mechanics that they simply don't know how to allow themselves the playful inner lives men do, whether they're free-associating brilliantly with their friends, or lazily absorbed in video games.

P.S. The women on 30 Rock don't get to be as funny as the men, either. Somehow I don't really think about that a lot while I'm watching it!


What Katherine Heigl Said About 'Knocked Up' [Slate]

"It's important to me to take a minute and clarify the quote about Knocked Up in Vanity Fair," Heigl tells Usmagazine.com. "I was responding to previous reviews about the movie the interviewer brought to my attention.

My motive was to encourage other women like myself to not take that element of the movie too seriously and to remember that it's a broad comedy."

Heigl adds, "Although I stand behind my opinion, I'm disheartened that it has become the focus of my experience with the movie. The truth is, it was the best filming experience of my career. Every person that was a part of making Knocked Up helped to encourage, support and inspire me. I never intended for anyone to think otherwise."

Heigl, of course, is hardly the first celebrity-profile to fall victim to time-tested, reptilian journalistic tactics, in which a reporter will relentlessly browbeat their subject, asking, "What do you say to all those strong, independent women out there who you personally let down the moment you let that internet-porn-addicted pot-fiend back into your life? Do you think he would have stuck around even one year after the credits rolled? Couldn't you hack motherhood alone, or are you one of those women who needs a man to feel fulfilled?" until the devastated actress collapses into a convulsing heap, mumbling through short breaths the money-quote sure to send magazines flying off newsstand shelves.

• Katherine Heigl: "I Stand Behind My Opinion" About Knocked Up Being "Sexist" [Us Magazine]

"I think the characters are sexist at times," he told us, "but it's really about immature people who are afraid of women and relationships and learn to grow up."

"If people say that the characters are sexist, I say, yeah, that's what I was going for in the first part of the movie, and then they change."

When we asked if he's had his feelings hurt, he blamed Vanity Fair for twisting poor Katherine Heigl's comments. "I've done a lot of interviews, and when you're promoting a movie, you talk for hours and hours and hours, and so it's very easy for something to be taken out of context. I'm just happy people are talking about Knocked Up six months after it came out."

Apatow in fact sees so much commercial benefit to the free publicity, a second DVD release, entitled Knocked Up: Deluxe Chauvinist Pig Edition, is being planned for release in second quarter of '08: a four-disc, bonus-packed extravaganza featuring commentary tracks in which Heigl and co-star/Mrs. Apatow Leslie Mann offer fascinating insights into what they were feeling during all those fantasy-baseball-league-crashing, overbearing-nag moments.

• Marketing Genius Judd Apatow Turns Katherine Heigl's 'Knocked Up' Slam Into a Sales Pitch [nymag.com]

"It was hard for me to love [Apatow's] movie" because it's "a little sexist..."

"[I]t paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as goofy, fun-loving guys."

Knowing now what was then going through the mind of the white-hot actress (one of Barbara Walters' 10 Most Fascinating!) explains much about her subsequent career choices, choosing for her Knocked follow-up woman-written and woman-directed romantic comedy 27 Dresses, the empowering story of some chick who's miserable because the prince from Enchanted proposes to her sister instead of her.

• Katherine Heigl is a Hypocrite [slashfilm]
• Heigl Voltage [Vanity Fair]

Kimberly Peirce: I just love when she's having that mood swing. That is hilarious.

Margaret Nagle: I totally believed her having sex with him to begin with.

Lynda Obst: Jesus, Margaret, that wasn't what I was looking for. [Laughter]

Nagle: I did! I did! He was furry and sweet.

Callie Khouri: I had a rough time with it.

Obst: Thank you, Callie.

Khouri: I mean, I've seen stranger things happen in this town. Fat, ugly guys get laid by beautiful women every day of the week. So based on that, I was able to go with it. But was it satisfying as a female moviegoer? It's not wish fulfillment, in a way. [...]

Donna Langley: [President of production for Universal, who produced the film]: The premise of the movie from Judd [Apatow]'s perspective, and I'm not being defensive, but for me the comedic premise was: What if this guy got this girl pregnant. And, to be honest, a lot of the attempt at heart and character —

Obst: Came from you. We knew it. [Laughter]

Langley: It wasn't there in the original inception. I'm not going to take anything from Judd; he deserves all the credit. But the original intention of the movie was not to make an observational gender comedy. It was, What if this goofball guy got this really hot piece of ass pregnant.

We're not completely surprised to learn that Apatow's winning formula of raunch-and-heart might have at first been a little heavy in the snips, snails, and puppy dog tails department. Luckily, with Langley on hand to inject a womanly touch, what was initially conceived as the hilarious story of an upwardly mobile TV anchor accidentally getting pregnant, then learning to enjoy her new life as a shared concubine among the father's group of ragtag, internet-sex-addicted friends, was eventually reshaped into a touching story of love, personal redemption, and crowning baby heads to which audiences of both sexes couldn't help but surrender.

• Chicks behind the flicks [Salon]

After all, menstrual blood is gooey, photogenic, and just the right place on the fetidness spectrum between "semen" and "barf" to make for hilarious — but not absolutely stomach-churningly putrid — physical humor. And you thought the point of the movie was the poignancy of the adolescent male bond! Go Seth Rogen! We think we can think of a certain comedic pregnancy sequel that could maybe give America its seminal (heh) comedic "period sex" scene!

The change has an unlikely origin: the Deficit Reduction Act signed by President Bush last year. The legislation aimed to pare $39 billion in spending on federal programs, from subsidized student loans to Medicaid. And among the changes was one that, through an arcane set of circumstances, created a disincentive for drug makers to offer school discounts.

College Students Face Rising Birth-Control Prices [WSJ]

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1. Ocean's Thirteen—$37.080 million
One might have expected that a movie featuring The King of Hollywood, Angelina Jolie's Pretty Boy Partner, and Al Pacino spray-tanned to the exact hue of an expertly basted turkey could have scared up $50 million during a season in which the much-unclamored-for Shrek the Third put up a nine-figure opening. Unfortunately, the moviegoing public chose to punish George Clooney and Brad Pitt for the entertainment industry's blockbuster-recycling sins, perhaps not realizing that withholding their box office dollars could negatively impact the do-gooding pair's ability to conduct their many charitable activities. If a Vietnamese orphan goes unapopted into a high-powered Hollywood family because of a shortfall in Pitt's profit participation, blame yourselves, America. You should have waited for the new Fantastic Four movie to send your message of frustration to the greedy studios.

2. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End—$21.316 million
Looking for a new and exciting way to support the Pirates franchise? Here you go.

3. Knocked Up—$20.017 million
The summer's runaway comedy hit enjoyed a healthy second-weekend take as moviegoers hungry for debate on the hot-button smashmortion issue returned to the theater, taking the opportunity of a second viewing to weigh more carefully the pro-"taking care of it" arguments presented by Ben's fat friend and the mom from Growing Pains.

4. Surf's Up—$18 million
Just when you thought Happy Feet exhausted the dramatic possibilities of March of the Penguins-inspired animated movies, Sony comes along and throws in some surfing, reinvigorating the entire genre.

5. Shrek the Third—$15.750 million
Right about now, someone in the DreamWorks Animation marketing department is making some calls to ascertain how quickly they can get a green 13" television with ogre horns onto the shelves at Toys R Us.

• WEEKEND BOX OFFICE June 8-10, 2007 [Box Office Mojo]