The remake of The Italian Job (heresy!) is previewing today. Seth Green is in it, billed below the title. There was an interview with Michael Caine about coming to the U.S. to promote the movie, seeing a poster with a naked woman sitting on the lap of a man with a tommygun, saying "There are no naked women or tommyguns in this movie", and flying right back home again.

Emlah, I think that might have been me.

Thank you Holli. Would it bother you if I quoted you in an essay I'm writing about author ownership versus reader ownership (who, if anyone, 'owns' the ultimate meaning of a text etc.)?

Pity Caine didn't do the same thing for the risible remake of Get Carter.

A pic of Seth in the movie.

Would it bother you if I quoted you in an essay I'm writing about author ownership versus reader ownership (who, if anyone, 'owns' the ultimate meaning of a text etc.)?

Um. Sure, I guess, although I wasn't thinking much beyond the geekiness of us when I said it.

Anyone else catch The Eurovision Song Contest?

Some classic entries, from what I could see - I missed the first 12, sadly, but the Israeli entry was pretty damn funny, and Romania was very much in the spirit of Eurovision. Bless 'em. Our entry sucked like the proverbial convention of whores, and I'm glad we didn't get any votes. We didn't deserve any votes. But it was also a great relief when Latvia finally got some. Phew. I was quite happy with Turkey winning, although I was kind of hoping for Belgium. Still, not to worry. Wish I'd seen German and Austria in full, though, because their entries looked hilarious.

Um. Sure, I guess, although I wasn't thinking much beyond the geekiness of us when I said it.

Oh, I wasn't going to analyse it in a serious, academic way or anything. But it would make a great, light-hearted epigraph.

Anyone else catch The Eurovision Song Contest?

We saw teensy little bits, Fay, it was about all I could stomach. Saw the end of the Austrian entry, and then a run through the last six or so, including that Luke-Skywalker-lookalike fey Norwegian chap with the designer mussed-up hairdo. Missed Turkey.

Tell me, is Terry Wogan still hosting in Britain? Only Terry could inject the right note of friendly cynicism that made the whole thing bearable. The German commentary was a triumph of platitudes and pointing out the obvious.

I'm a bit sad that I was so tired and had to go to bed that I missed "Royaume Uni - null pointes", though.

[Edited because my French spelling has deteriorated. I shamefully confess that I still don't know if it's right.]

Terry was indeed hosting. I watched it with my mum and dad, in a rare and random act of communal telly viewing. We laughed like drains. Terry was particularly endearing, chipping in when the hosts screwed up with cheery remarks like "No problem. You're sacked" and heckling the judges who rambled on for a bit before cutting to the point giving. And, naturally, commenting upon the, ah, original outfits and tunes on display. Heh.

Wow, I completely forgot the Eurovision was last night. I didn't even hear the Isreali song once.

Also, welcome, Emlah! May I ask from which part of the UnAmerican world you are?

[Edit: x-post with Fay. t waves When are you leaving for the USA?]

Heading to the States on Wednesday. Yay!!!!

Israel's entry was highly amusing - it was the first one I saw when I happened across the show. You guys had a cheesy male singer with five backing singer/dancer types. The girls were dressed in tiny pleated schoolgirlish skirts and white schoolgirlish shirts with ties. At a suitably dramatic moment they all ripped their tops off, to reveal little black corsety type tops (still retaining the collar and cuffs, iirc, and the skirts) with the word for 'love' inscribed on each girl's top ina different language. A little later, as I was still getting over the giggles, they all simultaneously grabbed their little corsety tops and pulled them down in such a way as to alter what was inscribed upon them - there was some kind of secret panel affair, so that each girl suddenly had a single letter on her bosom. The spelled out L O V E U. You could quite possibly hear my laughter all the way to Israel.

The UK entry, meanwhile, was the only one to get Nil Points, and everyone in my household wholeheartedly agreed that this was deserved. It was a truly wretched entry in every conceivable way. Lousy song, Lousy execution of song, Lousy sub-Steps group. breathtakingly lousy costumes which seemed to be the bastard offspring of Gina G's "Ooh Ah Just a Little Bit" microfrock and the black minidresses sported by those Robert Palmer video ladies back in the 80s. Only much nastier. And with pimp chains. Oh, we were dreadful. As Terry pointed out, the voting demonstrated how very unpopular we are in Europe right now - but, also, how utterly shit our entry was. Sigh.