News of the Day -- Wednesday, June 4

Back from a whirlwind trip to New York that included a wonderful wedding, kangaroos in Prospect Park (okay, the Prospect Park Zoo), an actual argument about "Transformers" and a multi-hour traffic jam convoluted enough to make Rube Goldberg cry. But enough about me. On with the news...

+ There's all sorts of wonkiness going on with BBC's Torchwood and its schedule for the coming year. Five episodes shown over five days. Huh. Color me confused....

+ Jenna Fischer was interviewed on NPR's "Fresh Air" yesterday. If you're wondering if you should spend 37 minutes listening or not, just know that "Fischer talks to Fresh Air about her abortive career as a member of an all-girl singing group (which turned out to be a front for a high-priced call-girl ring), and about her very first screen role — in a sex-education film made especially for just-released mental-health patients."

+ Two reviewers at Ain't It Cool have given some enthusiastic thumbs up to Pixar's upcoming, "Wall-E," a film my cranky curmudgeon side is having trouble getting ramped up for. I love robots as much as the next girl, but I feel like something's missing. Probably dinosaurs or monkeys. I'm just demanding that way.

Blades of Glory: figure skating and naked Ferrell

While not as wonderfully ridiculous as Talladega Nights, Will Ferrell's new movie Blades of Glory is still pretty damn funny, especially if you like to see Olympic-style mascots catch fire. The movie's premise -- Will Ferrell and Jon Heder as figure skating's first all-male pair -- accounts for half the goofiness with the other half coming from a nearly non-stop barrage of quirky, little moments. Most of those moments come from Ferrell: watching him stroke his naked, hirsute torso and proclaiming it as the ideal skater's body, watching him make sweet, verbal love to his $12,000 hairbrush and watching him try very, very hard to overcome his sex addiction despite a lingerie-clad Jenna Fischer is all worth the price of admission.

Special mention should go to Will Arnett and Amy Poehler as Ferrell and Heder's villainous skating competitors. Personally, I think Arnett should always lay provocatively on a polar bear skin rug. It's something the world needs in these dark times. The same can be said of Will Ferrell movies. I'm looking forward to his next one where he plays a basketball player. And the one after that where he plays a championship sailor. And the one after that where he plays a jockey convicted of steroid use. Keep 'em coming!