Misdirection

Malone says Kobe stabbed him in back

So now Karl Malone won't go back to the Lakers because Kobe said something mean about him--specifically that it's not fair to hold his return over the heads of teammates who are working hard while living under the threat that Malone will come back and take their jobs. While that notion is debatable--the new-look Lakers can use a motivating factor other than Kobe's desire to outshine Shaq--what's more interesting, to me, is the phrasing Kobe used during his vent: "They are here giving me 110 percent. It’s really not fair for us to sit around and speculate how long this is going to go on. I mean, you can’t sit up here and speculate for the remainder of the season whether or not he is going to come back. I mean, that’s not fair to the guys that are working here."

That's right--the rest of the Lakers are giving Kobe 110 percent effort. Not coach Rudy Tomjanovich; not the fans; not themselves. Kobe. And we're worried about how some 41-year-old who should have retired by now feels? How do his teammates feel about hearing that all of their effort is being made for the greater glory of Kobe?

While Kobe is directing the Lakers toward an eight seed and an early playoff exit, another Hollywood director's chances of winning Oscar gold are being panned by Michael Ventre--who usually prefers to write about the latest Kobe shenanigans. His article, "'The Passion' doesn't have a prayer," makes the case that the film will be ignored by the Academy not because Hollywood doesn't like Christians or because of ill-will toward Mel Gibson, but because it simply isn't a very good movie (some of the reviews, he points out, were savage), faced serious charges of anti-Semitism, and hasn't been properly timed or promoted to compete. Of course, when the nominees are announced a month after Christmas, there will be groups that will denounce the Academy for its failure to recognize Gibson's snuff film, but Ventre is right: the film has neither been set up as a contender nor should it have been.

If that's not enough content for you today, check out a Wonkette post from yesterday. Highly funny.