· You know how to tell when the world's coming to an end? How about this: The AFP and the Weekly World News run essentially the same story about accused racism in the casting of Hobbit extras. The film's casting director was reportedly fired after running an ad seeking female actors with "light skin tones" and telling a Pakistani Briton that she was too dark to be considered. If I could sleep, I'd so be going back to bed right now. [AFP, Weekly World News]
· As previously reported, Jackass 3.5 is a thing and will be streaming online beginning in March. It runs 83 minutes and will comprise footage discarded from the recent 3-D theatrical smash as well as new material. [Variety]
· Speaking of which, John Waters has Jackass 3D -- "[a] scatological, gay, s/m, borderline snuff movie amazingly embraced by a wide, American blue-collar family audience" -- in sixth place on his annual Top 10 list. [ArtForum]
· More white-people casting news: DreamWorks needs a boy aged 11-13 for Welcome to People, the directing debut of A-list screenwriter Alex Kurtzman. Must be Caucasian and "able to memorize lots of dialogue." Oh! Oh! So ADD patients and amnesiacs are out? Outrage! Excuse me, BRB, I need to start a Facebook page for this. [Deadline]
· Does the annual Bad Sex in Fiction prize just reward British snobbery and prudishness? "Their attitude is: 'Next time you think of writing about sex, don't,'" said erotica guru Susie Bright. "I can't think of any other fundamental human experience that writers would be encouraged to keep to themselves." I dunno! I think there's something to be said for rejecting the conflation of lepidoptery and intercourse, right? What's next? Ichthyology and intercourse? Taxidermy and intercourse? Whatever -- I am an admitted prude; I have no animal in this hunt. You tell me. [Salon]
· Here's an interesting discussion about the nature vs. necessity of Internet trolls -- that bottom-feeding, single-cell organism I'd sooner suffocate and carve to ribbons than entitle to another breath on this site or any other. Oops! Sorry, not bitter. Troll away, assholes! [Atlantic Wire]
· Say what you will about the ethics and consequences of the ongoing WikiLeaks drama, but without it, we wouldn't have a US diplomat's account of attending a Dagestani wedding where the "gangsterish president of Chechnya [...] danced clumsily 'with his gold-plated automatic stuck down the back of his jeans.'" World history in the making, folks. [The Guardian]
· Hey, what's shakin' in North Korea? Oh, so they don't have the bomb? Well, then! Party in Pyongyang tonight! South Korean military get in free, BYOB. [38North]