“Are you an angel?”

Trying to keep up, but my internet is still fond of taking long vacations and I have to go to work tomorrow. Work? In the middle of this? What was I thinking?

On starwars.com: another new commercial, and a blogging service for Hyperspace members.

ROTS is up and off at Cannes, and they loved it. Although possibly for political reasons, but you take what you can get. ( Lucas says differently.) TFN has more Cannes stuff, if you have an overwhelming urge to see what Natalie Portman looks like bald.

The movie is still riding high with 81% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes, bless their review-gathering hearts.

However, any review that starts with a paragraph about things coming out of nostrils is probably not going to be positive. Sure enough, The New Yorker was unimpressed with ROTS. I also have to wonder if the reviewer has ever seen A New Hope or his eyes ever registered the Millenium Falcon, with him going on about how ‘sterilized’ the GFFA is. And, horror of horrors, he quotes some Anakin/Padme dialouge that might make me retch more than the “angel” line from TPM. That’s about when I stopped reading. (Via kottke)

Luckily, I got to cleanse my brain with an article on Ian McDiarmid, a slideshow from Forbes on Star Wars flops , and for extra bitterness, IGN’s list of the lamest characters, half of which, if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably forgotten existed. If that’s a little too much bitterness, they also have a 10 best background character list. Corpsey the Ewok. Hehe.

The usual suspects…

Two new commercials: “Brothers” and “Celebration“. Alas, I am on a computer with no Quicktime, but I’m guessing they’re light on Palpy action. There’s also a “Science of Star Wars” special airing on Discovery.

Hayden Christensen is on the cover of tomorrow’s Entertainment Weekly. It appears that this time there may actually be a real article to go with it.

Crazy fans at Grauman’s refuse an offer from George himself to be escorted by Stormies to the ArcLight.

The Scotsman on why Star Wars has universal appeal.

CNN Money explores the financial impact of ROTS on Lucasfilm, theatres, and the toy industry.

From the Christian Science Monitor (via CBS), yet another George Lucas article.

Master Replicas! You want one. Hell, I want one. And it looks like they’ll be making costumes by Halloween…

Six to go…

Got my tickets for the 12:01 am show next week – they’re playing it in three theaters at my local multiplex. Three! So now I feel like a bit of an idiot for heading straight to the theater after work. But now I’m wondering – should I try to convince my friends to relive our high school days and get there early enough to be at the front of the line? (We did that for the Special Editions… yes, I’m just a youngling, I know.)

First off, another new commercial sporting more of the lovely Palpatine footage that makes us Sith get all giggly and excited… Note to Lucasfilm: Less of Padme. More of Palpy. Sell the evil.

The highlight of today’s articles – Anthony Daniels on what kind of wine to drink while watching Revenge of the Sith.

The BBC looks at why Star Wars still matters. Because, you know, all this media coverage apparently has people wondering. Includes testimonials from fans. Meanwhile, Reuters wonders if its good for cinema.

Would you pay $500 to see ROTS early?

And now for something completely different… a bit on Lucasfilm’s new Presidio headquarters. Pretty!