Word: pseudo
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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There's a wonderful scene in "Annie Hall" when Woody Allen's character, Alvy, is standing in line with Annie (played by Diane Keaton) to see a film. Behind the couple is an obnoxious pseudo-intellectual (who we later find out is a professor at Columbia) mindlessly nattering on and on about every topic imaginable. The professor's knowledge knows no bounds: we are subjected first to criticism of Federico Fellini's oeuvre, then to a savage diatribe against Samuel Beckett. Names are dropped with impunity, including that of media theorist Marshall McLuhan...
...there no place where sex remains safe from lawyers? No sooner had the pseudo salaciously titled Sex with CINDY CRAWFORD aired on ABC last week than news came of a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed against Crawford by London-based producer Peter Stuart. Stuart claims he was instrumental in developing the show but was left out of final negotiations with the network. He may yet regret claiming any association with the finished product, which features the unattainably gorgeous, world-traveled Crawford probing sexual attitudes in Middle America. It seems the ratings proved significantly less stimulating than anything produced...
...Jensen (Cameron Diaz) just cannot get away from stalkers. However, when Ted Stromman (Ben Stiller) wants to track her down 13 years after their dismal senior prom date, he is doing so because he still carries a torch for her, not from an unhealthy obsession. Add to the mixture pseudo private eye Matt Healy (the wonderful Matt Dillon who nearly steals the movie), the bizarre Dom (Chris Elliott) and a slew of other comedic characters--and, voila, a hit is born...
...addition, while all of the living objects in the castle don exquisite costumes, their exaggerated gestures and facial expressions worth of Jim Carrey start out cute but quickly degenerate into irritating. They deserve props for being able to perform at all in such rigid costume designs, particularly the suave pseudo-French "gentleman" candelabra Lumiere (David De Vries), who has to sing and dance with flames coming out of his hands. A note to all the younger male viewers (and the older critical ones): he does not set anyone else on fire, so don't hold your breath waiting...
...most of all, I wince when I hear the politicians and pseudo-educators--Cellucci, Finneran and Silber chief among them--decry the test takers, the professors and the veteran teachers in a sad attempt to divert blame from a history of too-low education budgets and little attention to the decline of the public schools onto an easy target. Yes, I'm sad to find out that teachers are easy targets. Everyone's been to school, and many of us might not have liked some of the teachers we met there. On the other hand, none of us would...