I figured this story would get mostly snarky comments, as it has so far.

But Bristol Palin is a victim here. Teenaged girls/women are often attracted to the bad boy, but she got pregnant, and she's going to be raising that child herself, in a, well, complicated family.

She herself knows she regrets having a baby this young. She said so in the poignant TV interview.

I think she's much better off not marrying Levi, but she'd be much, much better off if she'd had birth control info rather than abstinence education.

"Knocked up" is hardly ever really a humorous situation, nor one deserving scorn.

For our first Jewish President to have a seder, it seems exactly right, or left.

Every day he does something that makes me proud to be an American.

I've read "Cheri" and "End of Cheri" often, and it sounds like the movie doesn't get it--i. e., Colette's story.

Colette's Cheri is enraptured by Lea, a bountifully gorgeous woman who introduces him to being an adult man and a lover. In the second book, he's married the young woman he's supposed to, but yearns for Lea. He goes to see her and discovers she's become really fat, and jolly with her "pal" (the Kathy Bates character, I assume). Lea at 49 is perfectly contented with being past the trials of courtesan life--but Cheri can't stand the loss of the Lea he loved and desired.

Lea should be played by someone bountifully gorgeous and curvy, and I don't know if there are major actresses today with that physique. She should be like Sophia Loren in her heyday, maybe, or Liv Ullmann. Bountiful and overflowing, not skinny. I plan to see the movie, but it doesn't sound like the filmmakers got it.

I'm not the one who confused, or even mentioned, "waddle" and "wattle," though some seem to attribute that nonsense to me.

Re "Cheri" and "Last of Cheri": What Christopher88 says about Cheri is very smart, about the way that Cheri fits the standard woman's playtoy/trophy/pretty person role. He also can't grow up out of that.

One of the things Colette shows in those stories, and so many others, is how her women grow up and learn about relationships and nuances, and men often don't. Men don't need to; women have to, for survival in her world. Colette is a very sophisticated writer, and women, especially, should read and reread her at different ages in their lives.

The movie doesn't sound like it does justice to Colette's subtlety. That's too bad. I think maybe a French director, or at least French performers, might have done better. Michelle Pfeiffer is an excellent actor, but she doesn't look right for the role of Lea. If the story were transferred to the U. S., I could see Queen Latifah in that role.

It may be because I'm a million years old, but I am bored to death by these controversies about celebrities "baring all" or "baring half" or having "wardrobe malfunctions."

Who really cares? And if people do care passionately, they need to get lives.

They probably also need to get jobs.

And all celebrities should either perform totally naked or in burkhas.

There's something genuinely original.

"The Ugly Truth" sounds boring, utterly predictable and kind of unpleasant.

The old romantic comedies featuring clever banter, such as Tracy/Hepburn or "His Girl Friday," may be beyond the scope of today's screenwriters and studios. But . . .

There are romantic comedies that are different. For instance, "Hairspray" and "Mamma Mia" both show romances, but of unconventional characters who look more like real people. Woody Allen's "Whatever Works" has grownup conversations and thoughts. "Sex and the City" (the movie) is unpredictable, funny, and full of well-developed characters who genuinely like and respect each other.

All these movies have smart, snappy scene endings, which are a necessity for good comedy.

The genre isn't dead, but it seems there are only one or two movies a year that have a spark. I'm hoping "Julie and Julia" will be one.

I still don't get why it's OK for a man to be a rapist of men, in these instances mentioned, and yet not be considered gay.

Doesn't a man have to be at least somewhat turned on (O.K., aroused) (O.K, hard) in order to penetrate anyone?

So if Man A is turned on enough to be able to penetrate Man B, then why isn't Man A considered gay, because he got excited enough to do it to a man?

All these stories make me crazy with horror, whoever the victim.

I have been waiting all summer for this movie. Now I'll see it within the next 12 hours. Bliss is mine!

I've seen the movie, and I love it. There's such zest for life in Streep's performance, and Tucci's as her husband. There's sheer joy in the food, and the Julie story shows a young woman trying to become an expert cook and a zestful person. But she's young, anxious, without the self-confidence that Julia Child always seems to show.

There's also a marvelous orange cat. And maybe the best scene is Julia Child with her sister.

I want to see it again and again, and I will.