Sally Menke, Arthur Penn, Tony Curtis, and now Deep Focus. After today, this blog will no longer be updated. It’s been a good run and I shall miss it. Heartfelt thanks to all involved. A valediction, in the form of a clip, after the jump.

It can be difficult to know exactly what to make of MC Extra Cheese. The title of his latest effort sardonically proclaims him The 40-Year-Old-Rapper, but the album’s no joke. The apotheosis of smart-ass, weed-addicted man-children, MCEC is just as likely to rap about his financial woes (“don’t own a home, my car is mad old!”) and unrealistic sexual fantasies (“I’d love to get cozy, with Parker Posey”) as he is the usual rigmarole of self-aggrandizing bombast (“Oh shit! I shit another hit!”). It’s the latter category, of course, that should register as a gag—only it’s sufficiently alloyed by an older white guy’s self-consciousness that it doesn’t. Even when he’s inventorying all the indie actresses he’d like to seduce, Extra Cheese apologizes by way of a chorus that insists: “I’m just playin.” It’s this kind of touch that makes his material more interesting than the usual homeboy schtick. Recently, I got a chance to talk with Cheese about his new record, television show, and various side-projects. For an artist who raps about being fueled by “the power of weed,” he’s an uncanny dervish of activity.

Yesterday a list went up on Ranker touting “The 7 Most Annoying Kids in Action Movie History,” and I was not, in the main, surprised by the choices. Edward Furlong in Terminator 2, Jake Lloyd in Star Wars Episode I, and Dakota Fanning in War of the Worlds are all deserving of fan contempt. But there’s one name on the list that I cannot get behind, not at all.

The next time you spot somebody famous on the streets of New York, don't make any sudden moves. The Daily News is reporting that while the overall number of handgun permits in the city is going down, the number of celebrities applying for them is going up. “They can get their own security, but with the Internet, it is much easier to find people,” said John Skylar Chambers, a lawyer who specializes in the coveted permits. “They don't want to find someone on their lawn at 5 in the morning.” So who’s already packing?

Yesterday at the Soho Apple Store, The Social Network director David Fincher and star Jesse Eisenberg sat for a Q&A. Given that there’s already been significant flap over the film’s accuracy, especially with respect to its portrayal of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, it came as no surprise that someone asked the pair about possible misrepresentation. Just how fast and loose are they playing with the lives of Zuckerberg et al? Fincher spoke for both of them, saying, “I don’t think it would be responsible for either of us to enter into an endeavor that was simply a million dollar hatchet job.”

If you saw 2007’s Shia Leboeuf starrer Disturbia, you probably noticed the debt that film owes to Alfred Hithcock’s Rear Window. Although many details were different, both share the same bedrock narrative: a bored shut-in takes to spying on his neighbors, one of whom he comes to believe is a murderer. The similarity was so obvious that no one was surprised when the owners of the short story on which Rear Window was based decided to sue Dreamworks over the film. It sounded like an open and shut case. Only it wasn’t.

Twenty years after its release, Goodfellas is still a high-water mark for Martin Scorsese, mob pictures, and, dare I say, American cinema itself. To commemorate the anniversary, GQ has assembled an oral history of the film’s making that reveals, among other juicy morsels, some dubious casting choices that were considered early on in pre-production. A certain pop star was at least briefly in the running, as was a certain well-known (and at that time still sane-seeming) leading man.

With Get Low already skedaddling out of the theaters and Passion Play getting such bad reviews at Toronto that one wonders if it’ll be properly released at all, it may be some time before we get another Bill Murray fix on the big screen. His only other forthcoming credit on imdb is for Ghostbusters 3, which may or may not—depending on who you believe—be coming to a theater near you in 2012. In the meantime, if you need a little tide-me-over, LA’s R&R Gallery opened a show last weekend entirely devoted to the beloved comedian. “Mr. Bill Murray: A Tribute to the Legend” consists of 50 original portraits representing all manner of Murrays at all stages of his career. Highlights after the jump.

That an Amanda Knox biopic would be made was inevitable. The ingredients are just too good. In 2007, the 20-year-old, all-American gamine (pictured) was studying abroad in Perugia, Italy when she was accused of violently murdering her roommate in the wake of a drug-fueled orgy. After an eleventh month trial and no end of did she? didn’t she? media speculation about “Foxy Noxy,” an Italian court found her guilty and sentenced her to 26 years in prison. She’s currently trying to appeal the verdict, but Lifetime isn't holding its breath. The Amanda Knox Story has been greenlit for production and should air sometime next year. See who’ll play her after the jump.

You may not know the name Shelley Malil offhand, but you probably remember him from The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Malil played the acerbic Haziz, one of Steve Carell’s overbearing co-workers, and funny though he was, you aren’t likely to see him again on the big screen anytime soon. A San Diego County Superior Court has found him guilty of stabbing his girlfriend twenty times with a kitchen knife.