Larry vs Magic. Russell vs. Chamberlain. Pepsi vs. Coke. Burger King vs. McDonalds. Michigan vs. Ohio State. East Coast vs. West Coast. The Hatfields vs. The McCoys. Courtney Love vs. the world. It is fair to say that all of the names mentioned above would be remembered based solely on their own merits and achievements but, as a culture, we have a way of attaching greater signficance to all of the above when placed in context with their closest rival. One day, when children read about the rise and fall of whatevs.org in their McGraw-Hill history books, the teachers will be sure to note Mike Kegler's superb Glamorama-Online.com as the chief (and only) rival for web supremacy during the early `00s. All self-congratulatory pap aside, Glamorama continuously excels at bringing its readers a fresh, exciting and well thought out twist on what should matter in the world of pop culture. this week, for instance, mike posted his latest entry in his on-going series of Glamorama Classics, a sharp review of the Rob Lowe/James Spader classic "Bad Influence" (other Glamorama Classics include Tim O'Brien's "Tomcats In Love" and The Stone Roses' self-titled debut LP). props are deserved and will be shouted from the highest of hills.

looks like the "About Schmidt" look is going to be en vogue this fall. nick nolte was busting it in Malibu yesterday when he was snatched up on "drooling and droopy-eye" charges...

wild! N.Y. Lottery Draws 9-1-1 on 9/11.

--Triumph The Insult Comic Dog is apparently getting ready to release his debut LP, according to MTV.com. Why will Triumph succeed? "There's only room for one dog, my friend. Lil' Bow Wow, he can rap. I can rap, but I can lick myself, too" quoth Triumph. --Actor Nick Nolte was arrested in Malibu yesterday for driving under the influence. the arresting officer described the actor as "drooling (and) droopy-eyed". is this a case of life imitating art? in his latest movie, Neil Jordan's "The Good Thief" (which The Grizz and I saw while at the TIFF, more on that to follow), he plays a thief who is battling a mean addiction to booze and horse. nolte is obvs a guy who takes Method acting to the next level. --Reel.com's Sarah Chauncey posted her weekly column from the TIFF. her work has been very stellar up to this point, but today she crossed the line of "adequate" into "classic" territory, as she absolutely cracked me up with her "anonymous" report on attending a screening of "Max" sitting next to a prominent Midwestern film critic she refers to as "The Thumb". in light of yesterday's Ebert bashing here on whatevs.org, it's definitely worth a click-through.

Those beefs aside, let's look at these nominees and who's likely to get in this year. Obvs, you can immediately omit the no-name afterthoughts like The Dells and Chic, "prestige" artists whose influence on other groups outweighs their own contributions (Kraftwerk, Sex Pistols, Patti Smith Group, MC5), and the talents who are just plain marginal (at least compared to the other names on the list) like Steve Winwood and The Righteous Brothers. Then, if you really break it down, you have to knock off one nominee just for the hell of it. My choice for that boot has to go to The Police. I'm sure this is going to piss off a lot of loyal FOWs, but if it were just Sting getting nominated, i would wholeheartedly agree that he should get in because of his solo work AND his contributions with The Police, but since it's just The Police, I'm not sure their worthy of gaining entrance to those hallowed halls. That leaves you with ABBA (the biggest band of the `70s and currently as popular as ever with their smash Broadway hit "Mamma Mia"), The Clash (directly influenced by the Sex Pistols, but they were simply more talented and wrote better songs), and Elvis Costello (no explanation required) as this year's inductees. Thoughts? E-me.

while i won't get to it until Friday, some critics are already beginning to weigh in with their opinions of Sunday night's first public screening of "8 Mile". both Jeffrey Wells and Roger Ebert have given the movies mini-reviews in their columns. Wells calls the film "gritty, hard-edged...an admirable film will also translate into an uphill struggle for Universal", and Ebert describes it as "unflinching" and paints Eminem's performance as "grungy, sympathetic" (i think that's a good thing). further down in Ebert's column, however, he takes the time to publicly complain that he wasn't able to get into some screenings because the theatres were already filled to capacity. Variety's Todd McCarthy also apparently has enough time to bitch about this as well, and to both of them I must say "DEAL WITH IT". Ebert complains that he didn't get into a screening of Todd Haynes' "Far From Heaven" despite showing up a *whopping* 30 minutes before the film (i hope my sarcasm is duly noted). shit, i stood in line for two and a half hours to see "8 Mile" and i barely got in. festivals like this are all about choice -- preparation and planning go hand-in-hand with sacrifice. you have to face facts that there will be lines at every single showtime, and you have to decide if you want to see a film bad enough to make the commitment to get to a theatre extra early and possibly forego other screenings in the process. that's just part of the deal, even if you're a world famous journalist like Ebert. don't take valuable real estate in your column to attack the TIFF, the best run film festival in the world, just because you weren't able to get into a screening. that's wholly unfair and just plain inaccurate.

i am VERY pleased to announce that I have just released my my recap of Day One of this year's Toronto International Film Festival on this very website. i had offers and phone calls pouring in from "Sight and Sound", "Cahiers du Cinema", "Empire", and "Premiere" magazines trying to get the exclusive rights to these phenomenally tigs reviews, but I gave them all the same response: "The FOWs have earned this". And it is true, you have earned it. Thanks again for being such great fans of the site, I hope that you enjoy today's capsule. Recaplets of Day 2 and Day 3 will be posted on Thursday and Friday, respectively. included will be star encounters (dennis quaid, sydney pollock, roger ebert, etc.), exclusive photos shot with my very own digital camera, and of course advance movie reviews of hits such as "8 Mile", "White Oleander", "Bowling For Columbine" and many, many more. please be sure to e-mail me with your thoughts on this, i would love to hear your feedback (as always). tigs to one and all.

when it comes to revealing, nobody does it better than NME. this morning's NME reveals that The White Stripes and The Strokes are in talks to release a single together. according to the article, it wouldn't be a collaboration, rather it would be a "double A-side single". there is no official confirmation or release date set, but if this single ever makes it through the corporate powers-that-be and gets released, it is sure to be the best single since Oasis released "Wonderwall" back in `95.

apparently Ja Rule is in talks to star in the sequel to "Pitch Black" with Vin Diesel. ja rule in space? you have GOT to be shitting me.

more to follow as the day progresses...

holy shatters. i just got back (yes, at like 7:30am) from the Toronto International Film Festival. while i'm off to work in a few minutes and won't be able to do a complete write-up on the weekend until this evening, let me tell you that i have never EVER encountered this much buzz. not even at the 1992 Rochester Adams High School Prom. the grizz and i hit more movies (13) than we got hours of sleep (6). there were more celebrity encounters than reading an issue of People Magazine at Mann's Chinese Theater. some of the celebs encountered include the following: jennifer esposito, jeffrey wells, sam rockwell, sean penn, scott bairstow, dennis quaid, dennis quaid's bitch, michael moore, michael douglas, sydney pollock, dustin hoffman, terry gilliam, salma hayek, sharon stizz, curtis hanson, william h macy, b grazer, gus van sant, bruce campbell, mena suvari, selma blizz, mickey rourke, mike figgis, jessica alba, bai ling, patrick fugit, jason schwartzman, roger ebert, terry lawson and the director of phantasm. untz. but if you can't wait until tonight to read up on this weekend's film festival, the grizz filed a story late last night after we saw the world premiere of "8 Mile" that reveals a dose of this weekend's buzz laden hittins. "terrible" terry lawson also chipped in on last night's premiere in this morning's Freep.