Darth Vader

You can almost picture the advertising executives in a huddle, plotting their crucial play. The sponsor signals from the sidelines, the creative team snaps the ball and the agency runs with it. And after 30 seconds their time is up. Shocked, everyone asks: "THAT cost a million dollars?"Whether the mind-boggling barrage of mostly mundane Super Bowl commercials is worth what advertisers pay, they are, to many viewers, a spectator sport more interesting than the game. And, as always, it's not the most expensive ads people will be talking about today around the water cooler.

On weekday mornings, I'll post the most controversial, shocking and (of course) ridiculous stories for your reading pleasure. That way, when you walk into work, you'll be the master of witty conversation. Articles  • Why not? Everyone else got bailed out : $1 billion homeowner bailout offered. ( NASDAQ )  • The fun side of politics: Perry preps for smear campaign. ( Politico )  • Kind of like all his other positions? Obama's position on same-sex marriage 'evolving' ( Politico )

If a dorky looking guy with a bad perm and a "Vote for Pedro" T-shirt shows up at your door Monday night, don't be alarmed. Napoleon Dynamite costumes are among the most popular flying off the shelves as kids young and old get ready for Halloween. We checked with several stores in the area to see what else you can expect on your doorstep this year. Target in White Marsh Men: Napoleon Dynamite Women: Daisy Duke Children: Disney characters (especially Mickey, Minnie, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White)

FIGURE SKATING Ice Princess 7 P.M. [DISNEY]: A smart high school student tries to become a champion figure skater. Think Winter Olympics lite. Michelle Trachtenberg, formerly Buffy the Vampire Slayer's younger sister, takes on the lead role. Not sure if she did her own figure skating. GOOD VS. EVIL Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 9 P.M. [SPIKE]: If you need a break from the Olympics, try this out. Director George Lucas follows Anakin Skywalker as a youth before he becomes Darth Vader.

FIGURE SKATING Ice Princess 7 P.M. [DISNEY]: A smart high school student tries to become a champion figure skater. Think Winter Olympics lite. Michelle Trachtenberg, formerly Buffy the Vampire Slayer's younger sister, takes on the lead role. Not sure if she did her own figure skating. GOOD VS. EVIL Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 9 P.M. [SPIKE]: If you need a break from the Olympics, try this out. Director George Lucas follows Anakin Skywalker as a youth before he becomes Darth Vader.

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith [Fox] $30 Digital editions of the first five Star Wars films have been a cut above the ordinary thanks to George Lucas and his creative team. Fans won't be disappointed with the two-disc Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. An exemplary commentary track highlights the first disc. The second features several deleted scenes; a featurette on the stunt work; a short documentary in which Lucas traces the myth and legend of Darth Vader through all six episodes; and Within a Minute, a documentary that examines the complex production by concentrating on the final light-saber battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin.

SACRAMENTO - When it comes to Star Wars and toys, it's not just child's play. With Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith set to open in theaters May 19, fans are already feeling the force from a new batch of movie-related merchandise. But with everything from action figures to video games beckoning from the store shelf, where to begin? Since the 1977 release of the original Star Wars film, toys and other items have been hot property - for both kids and adult collectors. In fact, Star Wars toys are a rare when-worlds-collide example of a product line equally popular among mainstream shoppers and hobbyists, says James Bullock, who runs the Pasadena, Calif.

Fans of classical animation are hereby warned to steer clear of "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm," for it will put them in instant vapor-lock and there aren't enough ambulances available this time of year.The movie, released by Warner Bros., is achingly primitive. Don't think of the current generation of Disney sophistication or even earlier Disney efforts. Don't think Bugs and Porky. Don't even think Steamboat Willie or Oswald Rabbit. Think . . . cave paintings of Lascaux.Batman is an accumulation of vertically oriented trapezoids with the face of a smile button porked up on steroids.

Fourteen storm troopers, Darth Vader and a couple of droids greeted actress Gina Hernandez when she arrived Saturday night at the Senator Theatre. Inside, the lobby was packed with Star Wars fans - some dressed as Jedi knights, others, from as far away as Ontario, dressed more conventionally. All had descended upon the theater for the world premiere of Shane Felux's Star Wars fan film, Revelations. "How exciting is this!" exclaimed a beaming Hernandez, who played the role of Jedi knight, Taryn Anwar.

WASHINGTON -- Forget standing on line for eight hours or camping out overnight. Members of Congress and their aides got to see the re-release of "Return of the Jedi" the old-fashioned way.Free tickets.Dozens of lawmakers, Capitol Hill staffers and their families enjoyed a little intergalactic perk last night as they filed past the spotlights and into a free private screening at the Uptown Theater -- a preview of the "Jedi" re-release sponsored by Twentieth Century Fox.For the rest of the earthly population, the movie opens Friday.

Like many people, Daryl Penn liked to bring out games such as Scene It? or Family Feud during weekend get-togethers. But the fun started to fizzle as the 38-year-old business teacher at Old Mill High School realized that few of the questions tapped into the history or culture of African-Americans. After one family get-together last year, Penn went shopping for a game that featured African-American trivia. He couldn't find any on store shelves. So Penn, an entrepreneur from a family of educators in Anne Arundel County, decided to create one. He invested $25,000 to produce 1,000 copies of Are You Sure?

New York-- --Andy and Larry Wachowski summoned Natalie Portman to San Francisco from Israel to get inside her head. Then they wanted to inspect her head. The Matrix creators were casting V for Vendetta, the futuristic thriller that they wrote. Portman, a Star Wars star, read a few scenes as Evey, the waif pulled into a masked anarchist's plot to blow up the British Parliament. Evey gets her head shaved in prison, and the Wachowskis asked Portman to pull her hair back so they could imagine her with locks shorn.

Call him Prince of Darkness. Darth Vader. Or, if you want to get on his good side, the Angel Moroni. Just don't call him candidate for governor. Joe Steffen's not running. "I really have decided not to run," Steffen told me yesterday. "The main reason is, most people thought I was doing it just to be vindictive - to be a jerk or be vindictive. I have no personal animosity toward anybody. I didn't want it to come across looking like I did." Is this the same Joe Steffen who cultivated a foreboding image as an Ehrlich administration aide, one charged with rooting out slackers (Democrats, critics say)

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith [Fox] $30 Digital editions of the first five Star Wars films have been a cut above the ordinary thanks to George Lucas and his creative team. Fans won't be disappointed with the two-disc Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. An exemplary commentary track highlights the first disc. The second features several deleted scenes; a featurette on the stunt work; a short documentary in which Lucas traces the myth and legend of Darth Vader through all six episodes; and Within a Minute, a documentary that examines the complex production by concentrating on the final light-saber battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin.

If a dorky looking guy with a bad perm and a "Vote for Pedro" T-shirt shows up at your door Monday night, don't be alarmed. Napoleon Dynamite costumes are among the most popular flying off the shelves as kids young and old get ready for Halloween. We checked with several stores in the area to see what else you can expect on your doorstep this year. Target in White Marsh Men: Napoleon Dynamite Women: Daisy Duke Children: Disney characters (especially Mickey, Minnie, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White)

WASHINGTON - Politics gets into everything these days, even Star Wars. "George Lucas must be a Democrat," said my 15-year-old son when he arrived home from the opening day of the latest Star Wars movie, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Ah, the Force is strong in this one, I thought, echoing Darth Vader. For, without the benefit of any advance word or special Jedi abilities, my young Jedi easily detected the anti-Bush propaganda that some liberals, to their delight, and some conservatives, to their fuming outrage, allege is embedded in Mr. Lucas' new flick.

TO MANY SUBURBAN residents, developers are the 1990s equivalent of Darth Vader -- an evil farmland-gobbling, road-clogging, neighborhood-ruining, money-grubbing, politician-bribing force. In fact, developers are merely business people, out to make a profit by providing a product that meets a great private need and causes great public concerns.There are good developers and bad ones. Tied to their fate are thousands of people in the building trades and real estate industry, as well as money for the government services people desire.

WASHINGTON - Hollywood and Washington came together this weekend for two star-studded days that honored five performing arts legends, their careers and their contributions to American culture. The achievements of conductor James Levine, actress and dancer Chita Rivera, singer and songwriter Paul Simon, actress Elizabeth Taylor and actor James Earl Jones were celebrated at the 25th annual Kennedy Center Honors. "Each one of you is known to the American people in a way that runs deeper than fame," President Bush told the honorees at a White House reception Sunday.

SACRAMENTO - When it comes to Star Wars and toys, it's not just child's play. With Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith set to open in theaters May 19, fans are already feeling the force from a new batch of movie-related merchandise. But with everything from action figures to video games beckoning from the store shelf, where to begin? Since the 1977 release of the original Star Wars film, toys and other items have been hot property - for both kids and adult collectors. In fact, Star Wars toys are a rare when-worlds-collide example of a product line equally popular among mainstream shoppers and hobbyists, says James Bullock, who runs the Pasadena, Calif.

Fourteen storm troopers, Darth Vader and a couple of droids greeted actress Gina Hernandez when she arrived Saturday night at the Senator Theatre. Inside, the lobby was packed with Star Wars fans - some dressed as Jedi knights, others, from as far away as Ontario, dressed more conventionally. All had descended upon the theater for the world premiere of Shane Felux's Star Wars fan film, Revelations. "How exciting is this!" exclaimed a beaming Hernandez, who played the role of Jedi knight, Taryn Anwar.