Wells Fargo Fraud Specialist: Hello, ma’am.

Me: Hi, how are you?

WFFS: There were some false charges on your card?

Me: Yes, that's right.

WFFS: Okay, I am going to go through the previous week of charges with you to make sure that everything is legitimate. I'll read off the charges and you just tell me yes if the charge was yours or no if it wasn’t.

Me: Okay… Well, I was on vacation the week before, so there are probably some weird charges.

WFFS: I’m showing a $750 dollar charge at a Hotel Tiz… ano in Rome on March 20th.

Me: Yes! Right. It’s a hotel in Rome [...]

Jami Attenberg: I have to preface this by saying I was 75% predisposed to like Eat, Pray, Love. I enjoyed the book version a great deal, I practice yoga and meditation and I love food porn in movies.

Jami: The other 25% was Julia Roberts.

Maura Johnston: Oh Julia.

Jami: She wearies me. She talks about her husband too much in interviews.

Maura: I like her, but I think 67% of my predisposition toward her is because of My Best Friend's Wedding.

Jami: She never ever has any girlfriends in any of her movies. She doesn't do well with women.

Jami: And yet she is America's sweetheart.

Today, two women look at summer lady-blockbuster 'Eat Pray Love' in the context of other current movies with strong female characters. Previously: Michelle Dean on 'I Am Love.'

Two movies currently in the theaters treat the subject of forgiveness-forgiveness of self, and of others. One offers a blissfully hopeful, "upbeat" message, and the other is on fire with truth and pain. But the first story turns out to be the cynical, destructive one, while the second is full of possibilities for liberation and even redemption. So it's unfortunate that millions and millions of people will see Eat, Pray, Love and only some thousands are likely to experience [...]

Adventures in perfumery: "I learned that Eat, Pray, Love starring Julia Roberts is based on a book about a woman's travels through three countries and that the movie is made by Sony. He also told me that each fragrance smells like a different country. He watched me expectantly as I smelled the fragrances and so I felt I had to offer some kind of opinions or maybe pretend I was having a hard time choosing between them. Probably this is the time to mention that I'd had some drinks."

Today, two women look at summer lady-blockbuster 'Eat Pray Love' in the context of other movies with strong female characters. After this: Maria Bustillos on 'Life During Wartime.'

If your experience is the same as mine, and you do not garner your cultural criticism solely from the pages of O: The Oprah Magazine, you've heard of Eat, Pray, Love largely through negative press coverage. A veritable battalion of sudden class warriors have emerged in recent weeks to bash Eat, Pray, Love for its portrayal of cluelessness in rich white yoga-lady form, a near-universal object of derision if ever there was one in this culture.

It's not that [...]