On the off chance that people haven’t checked it out yet, here’s that “New Yorker” profile of Paul Haggis that’s ultimately the biggest-yet expose on the Church of Scientology. It’s LONG, but seriously worth reading through even if you do it in pieces – just fascinating, chilling, damning stuff.

What really makes it worthwhile is that it’s not at all just another “ha ha alien ghosts!” dressing-down, by now we all know about Xenu and Thetans and all the nutty business of the actual dogma – this is the REAL down n’ dirty stuff: Serial abuse, slave-labor, people vanishing, brainwashing, etc; and Haggis specifically comes off as a genuinely tragic figure in it.

Give it a read.

http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.5.swf

Intermission: “When In Rome.”

Here’s what’s going on over at the other blog:

http://v.giantrealm.com/saf/272828ab50091da6eb1ae85133def12ae9a44eb4

I think this might be my favorite “OverThinker” episode ever, honestly. Had a ball making this, and it came out really good as far as I’m concerned.

Can Matthew Vaughn restore what Brett Ratner destroyed?

Looks like it, yeah 😉 Cast looks good, action looks big… Cuban Missile Crisis? Nifty!

And yes, you saw that right: The new “girl Angel” is, essentially, a human-sized Faerie. Kickass. Also: No, that’s probably not Nightcrawler – but they probably want you to think so.

I love how “bright” this all is – not just in the “hooray for yellow spandex!” sense but how much of it seems to be set in the daytime and in tropical environments – about as clean a break as you can get from the urban/winter-forest locations of the first two movies (and that one that didn’t happen.)

Yes indeed. Let me add my voice to everyone else out there in agreeing that – if Marvel Films and Robert Downey Jr. really ARE seriously considering Shane Black, writer of some of your favorite tough-guy movies of the last few decades and writer/director of the AWESOME RDJ mini-comeback“Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” as a candidate to replace John Favreau as writer/director of “Iron Man 3 – then HELL YES that should happen!

Normally I’d be given to dismiss the web-wide geekgasm over this sort of thing – sure, great idea, but no use getting worked up since our enthusiasm or worry can’t really effect a hiring decision. But for better or worse, Marvel Films does things differently than other studios – not only would hiring an out-of-left-field “huh?” choice be in keeping with their practices up to this point, but don’t forget that Marvel is widely believed to have picked Chris Evans for Captain America after “floating” his name made the geek-o-sphere go wild. So yeah, might as well get loud and try to get this awesomeness happening.

Pictured right, Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady.”

The Academy’s most favoritest actress ever? Doing an accent? Doing a BRITISH accent? In a period piece? About a tough-yet-dignified woman making strides in a tradtionally-masculine political role? Ye Gods! Why even hold a vote at this point?

Director is Phyllida Lloyd, who previously worked with Streep on the insipid “Mama Mia!”

http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.5.swf

Hat-tip, BAD

Someone tweeted the Mayor of Detroit, Michigan a wacky idea: Erect a statue of RoboCop, arguably the most famous fictional character to be associated specifically with the city. The Mayor, naturally, said no.

Y’know what, though? I think it’s actually a brilliant idea. Detroit should totally do this.

Anyone who knows anything about Detroit knows the place is in trouble – the collapse of the U.S. Auto Industry has brutalized that whole area, and it’s in serious need of new revenue streams. Lots of economically-shaky regions have successfully rebuilt themselves as tourist destinations, but thus far most attempts at turning nostalgia for the Golden Age of American manufacturing into landmarks have fallen short… y’know what DOES sell, though? Kitchsy, semi-ironic pop-culture relics.

I live a short drive from Salem, MA, a city that relies on tourism for the overwhelming majority of it’s revenue. A few years back, TV Land lobbied for and bankrolled the construction and installation of a statue of Samantha from “Bewitched” downtown (on the rather shaky premise that the show had done an episode there once), and it’s become a very popular site in a city that lives and dies by it’s landmarks. This is the best-known one, but TV Land has actually done this for other icons like Andy Griffith and Ralph Kramden, too.

I bring that up less as precedent and more as a suggestion of how something like this ought to get done: Whoever owns the rights to “RoboCop” (whatever’s left of MGM, I believe) isn’t really doing anything with them that this point – it wouldn’t cost much, in “Hollywood dollars,” to buy a piece of property in Detroit and stick a statue on it, and you have to imagine the city would be more amenable to it if it weren’t costing THEM anything. It’d be a HUGE publicity-coup for the rights-holders, and a net-positive for the city in terms of press coverage, tourism and image-building.

There’s actually some pretty solid precedent for this, too: Remember those monuments of the Ten Commandments that caused so much trouble in the U.S. recently? A LOT of those weren’t put there for specifically religious purposes – they were publicity-stunts to promote Cecil B. DeMille’s “Ten Commandments” movie in 1956.

Seriously, someone needs to get a letter-writing or facebook/twitter campaign going to both Detroit and the owners of the Robocop character. There’s no reason for this NOT to happen.

I do sort-of wish the first look at this was a proper, more deliberately-paced “story trailer” as opposed to a frenetic action/action/joke/action/joke/joke/action/joke Superbowl spot; but otherwise FUCK YEAH, looks good. Suit looks great in motion, overall palette looks much more Raiders than Ryan (good call) and Chris Evans looks 100% believable.

Two things to look out for: That looks like The Howling Commandos flanking Cap going through the door, and it looks like (at least at some point) Hugo Weaving is actually wearing a human mask over his (100% source-faithful) Red Skull face; which is a fun twist considering it’s usually the reverse.

UPDATE! The listing has been pulled from eBay. As of this writing, the Kotaku link still has the image in question posted for those seeking some context. I maintain my earlier position that the whole thing is creepy as hell and raises all kinds of “call Child Services” flags, to me anyway.

Hat-tip: Kotaku

Some guy in Georgia wants YOU to help him punish his kids… and he seems to be getting a real kick out of it. Kinda uneasy-feeling details after the jump:

The story: Allegedly, this guy’s two kids busted up the bath tub by using it as an “arena” for their Beyblade toys (a spinning-top game based on an Anime series); so to punish them, he’s selling-off said toys on eBay to pay for the damage. Yes, it’s real, here’s the eBay page… though the numbers may look a little shocking, as “Anon” – alias the web-vigilantes from 4chan – have apparently been screwing with the auction via fake bids all day.

Okay, so… sounds a little harsh, but also sounds like a sensible “cause and effect” type of punishment i.e. a kill-two-birds mix of “actions have consequences” and “use it properly or lose it.” Probably wouldn’t be my approach… but okay, he’s got kids, I don’t, etc.

Here’s where this tips over into “red flag” territory for me: Instead of posting a good photo of the actual items up for sale, he posted a picture of the two kids holding them up. I don’t want to put the image here, go look at the auction to see it. For those who didn’t: Two boys, one looking about six or seven, the other older, holding up the offending playthings in a ziplock baggie. The older one is bawling like E.T. just flatlined, the younger one is staring down the camera like Vincent D’Onofrio’s last day at Boot Camp. It’s pretty striking.

This is where my head is at on this: What exactly is he REALLY selling here? There’s no specific detail on what the items are for anyone who wants to buy them, and no image you can see from, so he’s pretty-much selling “bag of random toys.” But the picture of the two kids, both of them clearly captured in a moment of very real (deservedly or not) trauma… I’m sorry, but what this says to me is that his (apparently sincere) sales pitch isn’t the bag of Beyblades so much as “Hey, y’see this sobbing child? Bid NOW for the privilige of being part of making that happen!”

For those who’ll offer that “context is everything,” he doesn’t describe the items in the text-description, either – instead, he relates the story of the punishment, plus the exact dollar amount of what he’s already confiscated from their piggy-banks. Oh, and it’s capped-off with a rather gleeful exclamation of “and then it’s on to their other toys!” And let’s not forget: He’s showing-off a picture of his visibly-shaken post-punishment children on the internet, for all the world to “enjoy.” Folks, I’ve been punished in my life – often severely and quite deservedly… but my parents NEVER took a photo of my anguished expression and plastered flyers of it reading “look what Bob did!!!” all over the neighbor, to say nothing of THE PLANET. And if they had, I imagine Child Services would be knocking on the door for that sort of thing.

So… am I NUTS, or does this just scream abuse? I don’t mean the initial punishment – fine, sell the damn toys, whatever – but proudly showing it off for The Internet like some demented cross between the dad from “This Boy’s Life” and that Tiger Mother sociopath… wouldn’t “subjecting child to public humiliation” constitute abuse in and of itself? And if not, wouldn’t it at least be probable cause for Child Services to maybe show up and check these kids for bruises or whatever else could cause the younger-looking one to have a goddamn thousand-yard-stare at that age? I’m NOT “accusing” the guy, I’m just saying… if I was a cop in Georgia, and I saw this, I’d be inclined to follow-up on this.