I love spine-tingling scary books and movies, but no gore, serial killer or slasher movies. True to Leafy form, even when I was a kid I preferred scary movies with beautiful rooms in them--two of my favorites were "The Changeling" starring George C. Scott as a widower living alone in a creepy (but gorgeous) mansion, and "Audrey Rose" which featured the kind of NYC apartment I dreamed of when I was growing up in undistinguished suburbia. Think about it--nothing is scarier than thinking you might have to give up PRIME REAL ESTATE because of an unfortunate ghost/curse/reincarnation/demon possession. I loved the book Amityville Horror although it made it so that I was unable to go into Dutch capes, basements or attics for decades. And then to find out it wasn't true?! Heartbreak. I still remember the rooms from a movie I saw in the late 80's early 90's that was a murder mystery that somehow involved a pair of fancy German scissors, (?) also set in really beautiful rooms in a California mission style home--I want to remember the name so I can watch it again for the decor, but I can't! Anyone know what movie I mean?

I've gotten to the point of allowing myself to put down a book (and never pick it up again) if it just doesn't resonate with me fairly early on. There's not a set number of pages I'll read before making the call - I just kind of know it when I've reached the "not gonna work" point. I'll admit I feel slightly guilty when I stop reading a book, but am understanding (and trying to accept) the fact that it ain't all gonna gel. I can't think of a specific example right now, but I can say that I don't have a lot of patience for smarmy romance novels. I guess the same would hold true for rom-com, chick flicks as well. Most of them bore me senseless. (Katherine Heigl makes me want to run screaming from the room.) I prefer offbeat, quirky flicks. I adored Borat - can't remember laughing so hard at a movie in a long time, so maybe that says something about my crassness. ;-) The one movie I remember feeling physically ill while watching was Videodrome with James Woods. It came out in the early 80s and was one of the first movies I'd seen with gory special effects, and I just recall how it literally turned my stomach.

One of the many problems I had with this movie (Vanity Fair) was how they portrayed Becky Sharpe. In the book she was a complete shrew. In the movie they tried to make her look like she did what she did simply to survive. A few weeks ago I rented some movies and was lucky enough to find a few 'book based' ones. I saw The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and it was BEAUTIFUL! It started Toby Stephens and Tara Fitzgerald (both played in the new Jane Eyre too). I have yet to read the book, so I will not comment further. Did you think this movie was true to the book? I also saw Emma, with Gwenyth Paltrow. SIMPLY GASTLY! I did not launch anything at the screen this time, but I did find at the end of the show that I had been chewing on the corner of a magazine in agony. It was all wrong! The costumes, the dialogue, everything! And who did they get to decorate the scenes? Van Gogh? What was with all the bright colors? The characters were all horrible. The worst was Mr. Knightly. He looked 'Americanized'. A straw hat?!? He could have been one of Tom Sawyer's gang just floatin' along the Mississippi... The Emma movie with Cate Beckinsale is amazing! It actually made me appreciate the book more. I just posted a thread about a new book based movie. It is on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Strange Case of Benjamin Button'. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchette are starring in it. CMK

I missed this thread ... glad it came back up. My husband and I are avid fans. I tried out for Jeopardy! around the time granjan did -- at least ten years ago, when it was still being made in the Burbank area. I took the test and was one of the three selected that day for an interview. We played a mock game on a mock set and I did as well as the other two. They told us if we weren't contacted by August, that was it. We'd have to try out all over again for the following season. They also warned us that many teachers and students apply for the show, but the producers want contestants from as wide a variety of occupations as possible. I assume that worked against me, since I am a teacher. (Okay, maybe it was my personality.) They never got in touch. At any rate, I didn't try out again. I was so happy to get the interview, that was enough for me! My friend's mother was actually on Jeopardy! (senior tournament, she didn't win) and we all went to watch. That's where I learned more about the show. Alex was pleasant to everyone, even the go-fers. The audience has to be really quiet -- it's very hard to sit there and not shout out answers (like we do at home). As I recall they were taping 5 shows that day, so the contestants had to have changes of clothes, as mariannese mentioned. Besides literature, facts about Canada, U.S. presidents and state capitals are heavily featured.