New video of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones!

My good friends over at the official Indiana Jones website — who don’t know yet that we’re all friends, but I think we’d get along well if we all hung out — have posted this awesome video of Harrison Ford on the set as Indiana Jones.

And believe me when I tell you, folks, that the man is still Indiana Jones. All you need to do is compare how different his entire way of being is when he’s channeling Indy in the video with how he is when he’s just Harrison Ford sitting around the set.

And!

Near the end of the clip there’s a small bit of actual footage photographed on the monitor.

Life is good.

Indiana Jones is so courteous that you won’t even have to ask him to take his hat off when he sits in front of you at the theater near you on May 22, 2008!

I am the Count of Monte Cristo!

Last night Courtney and Bob and Oliver and Sarah and Melissa and Mike and I ate at Cheddars as part of our ongoing Tuesday Night Dinner series.

It was a massive success.

Appetizers of Homemade Onion Rings and Texas Cheese Fries — buried under melted cheese and chunky bacon with RANCH to dip them in — were followed by a fine smattering of meals.

I got the Monte Cristo, which Cheddar’s describes thusly:

“Roast turkey and hickory smoked ham with two cheeses on fresh bread, battered and lightly fried, with raspberry preserves.”

Interesting.

It wasn’t anything at all like what I had in my head.

The best way I can desribe it is that it’s what you’d get if you fried a hot, cheesy ham-and-turkey sandwich inside a friggin’ donut and then chopped it up into large pieces. (More like an Elephant Ear.) In fact, there was even powdered sugar on the battered/fried outside.

And as crazy as it sounds, it was delicious.

They didn’t skimp on the ham and turkey (nor did I expect them to, as Cheddar’s is always big on the large portions for cheap prices).

The hot, melty cheese oozed out with every bite, and the raspberry preserves provided as a dipping sauce gave it an additional sugary kick. Very flavorful.

I had everybody try it, because it was so strange and yet so delicious.

And every time someone took a bite, for that moment they became “the Count of Monte Cristo.”

Even little Oliver got to be the Count of Monte Cristo (and celebrated his turn at royalty with a preserves-induced sugar rush).

Bob thinks there’s a misprint on the menu and that it’s actually called the Monte Crisco.

Either way it was an odd — yet scrumptious — new experience courtesy of the good folks at Cheddar’s.

And speaking of the Count of Monte Cristo, one of my favorite movies is The Count of Monte Cristo with Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce and Dagmara Dominczyk (who, with her bright blue eyes and black curls and lips til Tuesday, is one of the most beautiful women ever captured on film).

Oh, Dagmara. I would share my Monte Cristo with you … forever.

Anyway, you can read a brief review of the DVD here, and if you love movies you really need to see it.

Where will the next Tuesday Night Dinner be? I can’t wait to find out. And last night was particularly good, because we went back to the Nevilles’ house to watch America’s Got Talent, The Singing Bee (which was fun but also way too picky in its gotta-be-word-for-word self-righteousness) and The World Series of Pop Culture on VH1. Thanks again to all involved for another fine, fine evening.

And tonight, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at the Great Escape 16! Review forthcoming.

In the meantime, if you want to become the Count of Monte Cristo, go to Cheddar’s and order a Monte Cristo, and tell ’em the Count of Monte Cristo sent you.

Maggie Gyllenhaal talks Batman

Katie Holmes played Bruce Wayne’s childhood friend (and voice of reason), Rachel Dawes, in Batman Begins. But Katie dropped out of its now-filming sequel, The Dark Knight, for reasons unknown.

Director Christopher Nolan moved quickly to find a new Rachel and hit the recasting jackpot by signing on Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Given my previous confession that it’s hard to find a hotter case of the hots than the hots I’ve got for Maggie Gyllenhaal, this made me very happy. (In fact, I’d long been hoping that Maggie might someday play Selina “Catwoman” Kyle in one of Nolan’s Batman movies, so there was a little bit of bittersweetness for me in the announcement. But I’m getting Maggie Gyllenhaal in a Batman movie, so I guess I’ll live.)

Maggie recently spoke to The Guardian and mentioned how much fun she’s having making The Dark Knight:

“Doing Batman has shocked me at every turn. When I started, I thought, ‘Well, it’s a huge movie, I’ll just do my best to put what I can into it.’ But, in fact, they’ve been really hungry for my ideas, for my views. It’s great! They’ve been asking for more!”

Coincidentally, I ask for more Maggie Gyllenhaal every day. So I’m glad I’ll be seeing her when The Dark Knight cleans up the crime behind the popcorn counter of the theater near you on July 18, 2008!