Julia Roberts Goes to Oscar War For Javier Bardem, and 5 Other Stories You'll Be Talking About Today

Also in today's edition of The Broadsheet: A low-budget winner gets a big-budget break... George Clooney may get to work from home again... A Catholics vs. Doritos TV commercial holy war... and more...

· I know you're probably sick of hearing it from me, so here's Julia Roberts on Javier Bardem transcendent -- yet increasingly likely to be Oscar-snubbed -- performance in Biutiful: "It's incredibly agonizing in its subtleties. I just have a great appreciation for what he went through to show us all this. I know it had to hurt. [...] I think the movie hasn't gotten the exposure. You don't know where it is. It's like this hidden little jewel. Especially in this particular season, people don't hunt for things. They just take what you throw in their face. [...] If there's not hope for talent, then we're f*cked." [EW]

· Congrats to director Gareth Edwards, whose microbudget CGI escapade Monsters has given way to the plum job (well, sort of plum) of directing Warner Bros.' remake of Godzilla. [THR]

· Fox 2000 has optioned the nonfiction murder mystery The Monster of Florence, about a pair of writers attempting the crack a 30-year-old serial-killing case in Italy. George Clooney, who conveniently lives in the neighborhood, is attached to star. [Deadline]

· What we really need in 2011 is more controversies pitting snack foods versus centuries-old religious monoliths. And right on cue, here's Doritos vs. the Catholic Church. Or at least one Catholic, anyway, insulted by a new commercial substituting the icky corn chip and Pepsi for a communion wafer and wine. He's got a point! I'm not transubstantiating with anything less than Cheez-Its and Budweiser. [Mediaite]

· Eventually I presume someone will find a clever, darkly satirical means of adapting the tale of Saddam Hussein's media-abetted statue toppling in Baghdad in 2003. Utterly fascinating. [The New Yorker]

· What's shakin' in North Korea? Oh, nothing much, the government is just expanding the chain of state-run restaurants known as Okryu-Gwan: "Dishes are approved by the Dear Leader but guaranteed not to make you Il." Ha. [Fast Company via Gawker]