Just when you were finally getting used to scripted TV being back on the air and had settled into the blissful comfort of not having your weekend jaunts to the movie theater disrupted too much, news came in today that the talks between the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers and the Screen Actors Guild are not going well. According to The Hollywood Reporter, any chance of SAG and the AMPTP agreeing to a contract by Friday, which had been the fervent hope of industry insiders and casual entertainment consumers alike, are over.

Fans of the BBC series The Thick of It, a show that parodies the inner workings of U.S. and British government agencies, may be glad to hear that it's getting a re-working on the big screen. The Hollywood Reporter announced today that BBC Films is producing an unofficial adaptation titled In the Loop.

James Gandolfini has been cast as a US general in the film and will star along side Peter Capaldi, Chris Addison and other stars from the series who will reprise their rolls for the big screen adaptation.

I have always liked Robert Downey Jr., but Iron Man turned my like into a full-on fangirl crush. He plays the movie's title character, arms dealer Tony Stark, with the perfect blend of badass, hero, goof, and cad. The best part is that even when he starts to become heroic, he never stops being a bit of a cad. Even when he's kicking ass, he's still kind of a goof.

In most ways a comic book movie is like any other movie: If you have a good story with good acting and good direction, then the film will be good. But let's say your story is about Superman crusading for nuclear disarmament (in the '80s no less), or you've cast Ben Affleck in the lead, or, God forbid, Brett Ratner sits at the helm of it with his giant diamond encrusted megaphone...not good.

The essential part of making a good movie that is based on a comic book is, simply put, to get it right. Getting it right means you nail the hero, the costume and the story so well even Jeff Albertson can't complain. For the studio that means a movie supported by both the mainstream cool kids and comic book schlubs like me -- the multitude of multiple ticket-buying nerds who feed the hype machine and then clamor for more.

So I thought since there are so many new comic book movies on the horizon, and I have such a unique perspective being part nerd and part mainstream cool kid, I would bridge this demographic gap by judging new comic book movies according to my four touchstones of authenticity. Consider me the Obama-figure of unimportant difference, straddling the divide like the Colossus of Rhodes.

Heads are rolling down at TMZ headquarters this morning, I can almost guarantee you. Somehow, some way, at some point in history, Tom Cruise dated Cher and so far as I know, none of the tabloids broke the story. It took Tom Cruise's second stint of sofa sitting on Oprah's couch for that gem of news to pop out of the rough, and I end up reading about it on CNN of all places. All of me, from the responsible part that thinks CNN would do better using its resources sussing out facts and stories on the economy or the war, to the slightly louder part of my personality that is a proud check-out line reader of gossip rag filth, must say: That's not right.

With a big box office weekend looming (Paramount hopes) with the opening of Iron Man tomorrow, the stars of other superhero franchises are coming out of the woodwork to promote their own upcoming projects. Dark Horizons has both Hugh Jackman of the X-Men offshoot X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Brandon Routh of Bryan Singer's new Superman series out seeing who can out-superhero whom on the publicity circuit.