How Baron Cohen Might Follow Brüno

Salon offers up a mid-year list

(NEWSER) - Now that we're more than halfway through 2011, the Salon staff compiled the best books, movies, music, and TV of the year so far. Among its recommendations:

• Film: Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life is quite good—but Lee Chang-dong's Poetry, about a 66-year-old woman who may have Alzheimer's, is a masterpiece. Another surprising inclusion: Matthew McConaughey-vehicle The Lincoln Lawyer, directed by Brad Furman.
• Books: You'd never know The Pale King, David Foster Wallace's third and last novel, was actually unfinished at the time of his death and pieced together by his longtime editor. Also worth checking out: novelist Andre Dubus III's memoir, Townie.

With the goal, oddly, of getting revenge on Borat

(NEWSER) - Seems like everyone loved Sacha Baron Cohen’s fictional Kazakh character Borat … except the actual people of Kazakhstan, whom the Borat movie made into a punchline. Four years after Cohen’s film, Kazakhstan is getting its revenge—via an unauthorized sequel. My Brother, Borat is about an American who is taken on a sure-to-be-flattering tour of Kazakhstan by Borat’s brother, Bilo, Cinema Blend reports. More»

Prince, Julie Andrews, Francis Ford Coppola deserve another chance

(NEWSER) - Whether they're clearly taking anything just for the money or out-and-out slumming, numerous pop culture icons are mired in a rut of underachievement. The Onion A.V. Club staff fields a question from a Sylvester Stallone loyalist and lists more artists deserving of a second chance:

• Sam Adams can't quit Nicolas Cage: "The near-unremitting river of shit that is his recent output would be disheartening even if it weren’t clear that the main source of his troubles is Cage himself."

Dakota Fanning-Kristen Stewart vehicle divides critics

(NEWSER) - Critics praise the performances in The Runaways, about Joan Jett's seminal '70s band, but whether the flick succeeds is up for debate. Some takes:

• "Say what you will about the Runaways," Peter Travers writes in Rolling Stone , but "they never played it safe. The movie does." He wants more out of the verboten relationship between Dakota Fanning's Cherie Currie and Kristen Stewart's Jett. Still, "Fanning scores a knockout."

Actor's Golden Globes reactions + Gwen Stefani song = Genius

(NEWSER) - Brendan Fraser seems to have a good sense of humor about the world watching an endless loop of his awkward laughing and clapping at the Golden Globes, which is good—it will probably spin out into increasingly involved viral video mashups. Here's one, flagged by Videogum , that sets Fraser's spasmodic appreciation to Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl." More»