There was a moment, early on filming day for the pivotal scene in Barney's Version, when Paul Giamatti looked to me like an athlete preparing for a big game. As nattily dressed extras milled around the ballroom of Montreal’s Ritz-Carlton hotel, Giamatti, freshly planted in your father’s powder-blue tux, stood by the breakfast table around the corner. The producer, Robert Lantos, greeted him, and the two chatted a bit about the day ahead. Then Lantos, an imposing Hungarian-Canadian, abruptly gripped Giamatti’s shoulders, straightened him up, and gave him what looked like a Knute Rockne–style pep talk. Win one for the Richler, kid.

With that, Giamatti strode to the ballroom, [...]

1. At the Toronto International Film Festival the other night, the woman directly in front of me in the rush line said she was an aspiring filmmaker. She was wearing a striped button up shirt, pleated khakis, and a blue nylon shell. She carried a thermos. If I had to guess her age, I would probably end up somewhere around 65. She wanted a free ticket, she told the volunteer wrangler. To anything. The wrangler, who was at the lower end of middle-age and clearly relished the authority she'd been temporarily granted, fiddled constantly with her headset to signal her importance as she listened to this.

"You have to [...]

Left: Peter Orlovsky and his lover Alan Ginsberg, 1957. Right: Aaron Tveit and James Franco, as Orlovsky and Ginsberg, 2009.

Small world. I have this nightmare about James Franco regularly.

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.

Haha, dude. They are so baked, right? (There's more, if you're up for that.) Also: Shit My Writing Teacher Says, coming soon to CBS. I would totally watch this at 2 a.m. on public access.

"I was recently treated to an early prototype of a dessert that Marina Abramović, the 'grandmother of performance art,' created with the pastry chef Dominique Ansel." -James Franco, in the Wall Street Journal.