Will Ferrell has made his Truman Show.  For those who don't know what I mean because you haven't seen Jim Carey's 2nd best film of all time — why?  Rent it now, this instant.  Then come back here and we'll continue.

After years of coming up with bizarre situations to catch the audience off-guard and make them fall out of their seats laughing, there comes a point when the limits of talent are being pushed and the territory of repetitiveness expands.

And the Comi-tragedy is the perfect vehicle of choice for a middle-aged comic looking to stay fresh. A tricky genre to master, the payoff is great when done right.  Who better to tug at our hearts than a really nice guy in despair?  He's someone we can relate to, someone who makes us laugh and with whom we've perhaps shared a few embarrassing moments.

Harold Crick is one such man and between Ferrell's acting, the writing of Zach Helm and Marc Forster's directing he has had life breathed into him on the silver screen.  You will laugh, you will cry — it's not a promise, it's a threat.  This movie works hard to earn the chuckles and tears, it deserves them so pony up.  There are none of the cheap tear-jerking moments you may have come to expect from other films, nor is the humor entirely infantile.  It is, in the words of Harold, pretty straightforward.

Dustin Hoffman, as usual, does his job well although beyond that there isn't much to say.  Conversely, both Maggie Gyllenhaal and Emma Thompson give brilliant performances.  Ms. Thompson in particular has really run the gamut through her very diverse roles these past few years and although Harry Potter fans may disagree, the character of Karen Eiffel is a lot more three-dimensional than Rowling's Trelawney and allows Thompson to really show her stuff.

All-in-all, this is the must-see movie of the year.  It's not controversial, it's not the best comedy, the best drama or even the best story.  It's simply the best all-around.  There is something in it for everyone and it is an instant classic.  A far cry from yet-another comedy or action movie, Stranger Than Fiction has earned a place in my DVD collection when it's released because it's the kind of movie you'll want to see again and again.

- one 

Well, Kevin Federline has finally done away with the farce and thrown his good-husband costume in the trash. First he demands large alimony payments from former wife and superstar singer Britney Spears, then he demands custody of the couple's two children.  Right.  The only way that will happen is if he has a four-hour sex tape to blackmail Britney with.   Oh, snap!  He does?

While many speculate whether or not such a tape exists, I think it's safe to say that despite K-Fed's unconscionable level of stupidity that he understands the threat doesn't have a chance of scaring Britney into giving him what he wants unless she actually believes him, so it would be a rather poor negotiating tactic if she knew she'd never done any such thing.

On the other hand, perhaps it's actually a clever ruse to stir up media attention around himself.  Personally, I think this is unlikely because frankly he's had plenty of media attention and he's still got no money.  Even Kevin Federline is smart enought to figure out the math there.

Whether he is smart enough to understand the pre-nup he signed is likely a much more pertinent question.  Britney's lawyers reportedly put together a pretty hefty pre-nuptial agreement and normally issues like privacy receive extensive coverage — which would legally prevent poor K-Fed from ever releasing said tape and making money from it.

Of course, this isn't to say that the tape might become "stolen" and at least he could have a bit of revenge on the evil ex-wife who wouldn't give him millions of dollars he didn't earn or remotely deserve. If his brilliant plot to do a gender-reversed divorce coal-raking backfires, as seems likely, "Someone else" could release the sex tape on the internet, an act which Mr. Federline would have no control over.

Sadly, in this case I feel compelled to back Ms. Spears fully because Federline is just really such a pathetic loser who needs to be put in his place.  However little respect I have for Britney, at least she earned her money and  if there is one thing I dislike more than stupid people it's people who think their "entitled" to special treatment, extra rights, or other people's money.

Mr. Federline, go earn an honest living. Please.

- one 

Got-Zip.com is attempting a wholly-odd way to attract investors.  I mean affiliates.  Frankly, I'm not sure what they are.  They call it GeoAffiliate Marketing and in a nutshell they pay commissions by zip code and territory.  Territories which affiliates are required to pay rent on to maintain their claim and interests, essentially making them something between a speculator and an investor.

Commissions are paid on sales made through their custom homepage and web portal, Pagellan.com and other partnered eStores on their network.  Any commissions that are not trackable by location are divided up among the group as a whole.  In some ways it sounds very cool, but like any new idea I'm a bit wary.  "Wait and see" sounds like a good idea, but by the time the results are in, opportunity is gone.  On the other hand, there is not a lot of technical information for a savvy investor to really make an informed decision.  There's a lot of general info but pretty much signing up looks like a leap of faith to me.  

Their basic concept is that their affiliates can generate sales through word-of-mouth and get people in their area to switch their homepage over to Pagellan.  Since there are no affiliate codes to track, entire new worlds of opportunities would seem to be opening.  Of course, while this breaks new ground in that way, it simultaneously is breaking new ground by actually charging affiliates for the right to collect commissions.

Although that caveat could be likened to a dividend system for corporate shareholders, with the primary difference being that shareholders pay once and own part of the company.  Got-Zip affiliates rent their territories, but the owner (who comes across as very sincere) insists upon making sure none of his affiliates lose money.  He's got a money-back guarantee where if someone cancels their account their territory will be auctioned off, and if no one buys the spot after 60 days the affiliate will just get a plain old refund.

It's certainly an interesting idea, essentially keeping the company's marketing and sales functions entirely centralized and capitalizing on the capital of their affiliates rather than their ingenuity, as more traditional (read: ever other) affiliate programs do.   I guess it all comes down to whether or not they've got a solid business plan.  There simply is not a lot of information on their site regarding specifics.

The owner explains the general idea of his business by likening it to Yahoo! — he does make it clear he's not claiming to be the next Yahoo!, but follows up that clarification with a tease about "what if we were?"

I dunno.  Weird is weird but while I don't know if I'd jump on board that ship I do think it is very cool in concept.  These days everyone is blathering on about Web 2.0 and that's cool too but on sheer innovation I've got to give the trophy to this guy.  Now where did I put my Pets.com stock certificates?

- one