The Self-Defenestrating Director, and 6 Other Stories You'll Be Talking About Today

Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: Ben Affleck editorializes... @Vincent_Gallo wants a fake (?) word with you... You'll probably never see Leslie Nielsen's final movie... David Simon is optimistic so not optimistic about the future... Picassos found... and more...

· Italian director Mario Monicelli died Monday in Rome after reportedly plunging from the window of a fifth-floor hospital room. He was 95, and, at the time, was being treated for terminal pancreatic cancer. Authorities presume suicide. Best known for his class-mashing comedies, Monicelli earned five Oscar nominations in a career spanning more than 50 years, including three Best Foreign-Language Film nods (for Big Deal on Madonna Street, The Great War, and Girl With a Pistol) and sharing two Original Screenplay nominations. [AP]

· "Ask many Americans to name the bloodiest war since World War II and chances are that most would not know the answer. If you told them it was in Africa, they might guess Rwanda or the ongoing conflict in Sudan. They'd be wrong." Ben Affleck has the right answer for you, though, today at The Washington Post. Cue the right-wing reaction -- "Affleck: Many Americans Wrong" -- in 3... 2... 1... [WP]

· The person behind the Twitter feed @Vincent_Gallo probably isn't really the notoriously stroppy actor/filmmaker/musician: He's too funny. And now there's back story! Enjoy. [The Awl]

· Leslie Nielsen's final movie -- an apparently untitled indie animation effort -- has spent the better part of the last year raising money to finish "a great deal" of production. The director says it's not looking promising. [TMZ]

· Today in great corrections: "According to [The Wire creator David] Simon and the Baltimore Sun, he responded to a student's question about hopeful signs for her generation by saying, 'There is nothing that makes me optimistic about the future of the country.' The Names & Faces item incorrectly included the word 'more' before 'optimistic.'" Perfect. [Gawker]

· A retired handyman in France turned up with 271 Pablo Picasso works he said were given to him by the artist himself. Needless to say, he's got a lawyer now. [Telegraph]

· What's shakin' in North Korea? Oh, not a whole lot, just trying to figure out if last week's attack on the South was an act of purposely suicidal aggression or military calculation or otherwise. And where's China in all this anyway? It's one big diplomatic circus, and the clowns have nukes. Help! [38North]