Altman Retrospective

LEGEND Altman • Maverick till the end: Robert Altman, director of M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Player, and most recently, A Prairie Home Companion has died. He was 81. Stop Smiling magazine interviewed Altman for their Auteur Issue.

• Assassination: Lebanese cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel was killed near Beirut with an automatic weapon.

• Crash: Three motorcycles in a Bush presidential motorcade crashed in Hawaii. One officer is listed in critical condition, another serious, and the third had minor injuries.

• Liars! TMZ has reported that Britney Spears and Kevin Federline will release a statement denying the existence of a sex tape. But everyone knows where you can find it.

• Conventional wisdom watch: Will clips of O.J. Simpson's completely hypothetical confessional interview with Judith Regan wind up on YouTube? Sure. Whatever. It's a short week.