Word: demonizes
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...very first page of Shalimar the Clown, Salman Rushdie's new novel, the reader has a horrible presentiment that a literary disaster is in the making. Rushdie is trying to describe a woman speaking in her sleep: she is "like Sigourney Weaver channeling a demon in Ghostbusters." This is the kind of bathos?the desperation to prove his hipness by making asinine references to pop culture?that helped sink Rushdie's last novel, Fury, generally acknowledged to be the worst he has written. After a first-page blunder like this, it requires a leap of faith simply to turn...
...that guy--the repentant, demon-chased Oedipal wretch Bret--the real Ellis? There's certainly a strong family resemblance. Ellis had a difficult, angry, alcoholic father. He dates both men and women. He has lost some of his lust for fame (although the real Ellis still lives in Manhattan, not Connecticut). "There's a heavy dose of self-loathing about celebrity," he sighs. So what does he not loathe? "Um." Long silence. "Ah, I like to write. I love to read. I like to go to movies. I like to go to museums." He's trying for a straight answer...
...Grimm Brothers, Will (Matt Damon) and Jacob (Heath Ledger), have built a nice reputation as the ghostbusters of rural Germany circa 1812. Visiting a town that thinks itself in the thrall of some evil creature, the Grimms exorcise the demon, take the money and run. Their supernal powers are all trickery, of course--trapdoors and specters on a stick--but it's a good show. Then they come to a village where the mysteries can't be so easily explained away. Little girls vanish in the forest; trees tiptoe like goblins; a horse devours a child; a wolf...
...desperate urgencies. She sasses her angry mom, cruises the mall with her girlfriends and dreams of a boy who will hold her close and sing to her. Enter Arnold Friend (Treat Williams), an older man whose silky threats mesmerize the girl into taking his dare. Arnold is Connie's demon lover, a nightmare image of every male she has ever vamped, and the price he exacts is her realization that 15 is too young to grow...
...speed world has a new demon. At this year's Indianapolis 500, Danica Patrick, 23, became the first woman to hold a lead in the race. Winner Dan Wheldon passed her with six laps to go, and she ended up placing fourth. But TV ratings soared, and she has injected new life into the struggling IndyCar circuit. Patrick spoke to TIME'S Sean Gregory from her Phoenix, Ariz., home...