· Jon Stewart's Christmas present from the New York Times involved the conflation of his devastating 9/11-responder segment -- which may or may not have helped influence the passage of health legislation once thought doomed -- with the "advocacy journalism" of Edward R. Murrow. "Jon shining such a big, bright spotlight on Washington's potentially tragic failure to put aside differences and get this done for America was, without a doubt, one of the biggest factors that led to the final agreement,"said New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Stewart, meanwhile, declined comment. Your call. [NYT]
· Kitty Kelley's "unauthorized" biograpy of Oprah Winfrey didn't necessarily kill at the bookstore, but don't blame the genre, writes Kelley: "I do not relish living in a world where information is authorized, sanitized, and homogenized. I read banned books, I applaud whistleblowers, and I reject any suppression by church or state. To me, the unauthorized biography, which requires a combination of scholarly research and investigative reporting, is best directed at those figures, still alive and able to defend themselves, who exercise power over our lives. So I only pursue the kings (and queens) of the jungle." The more gossipy the better, of course, but still. [American Scholar]
· We all know that Hollywood is screwed in the long run, but when projected out in epic scale to the lilting meter of The Night Before Christmas, it somehow feels a little less apocalyptic. [The Hot Blog]
· Alas, True Grit did not become a best-seller in 1968 merely because people liked it, thus stoking word-of-mouth demand for the first film adaptation starring John Wayne. Instead, Paramount rigged it. [NYT]
· Inveterate Olympic documentarian Bud Greenspan -- who spent six decades trailing athletes in inspirational epics like 16 Days of Glory and The Olympiad -- died Christmas Day from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 84. [THR]
· Now polling: What's the most overrated film of 2010? (It's gotta be The Kids Are All Right... right?) [LAT]
· The MPAA ratings board went back to its inflexible ways regarding David Schwimmer's online-teen-predator drama Trust, declining an appeal to soften an R-rating for six "F"-bombs. Producer Avi Lerner was characteristically philosophical: "Most of the time I don't give a shit about what a movie gets rated. But this particular movie has a message -- a message to parents and children." Ah. [Variety]
· What's shakin' in North Korea? Oh, not a whole lot, just trying to figure out if the South won a recent game of chicken with the North, or if that whole drama was another kind of game altogether. Geopolitical semantics follow! [38 North]