In an effort to provide the shadowy cabal known as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences with some much-needed transparency, AMPAS executive director Bruce Davis agreed to be questioned under hot interrogation lights about his organization's mysterious recruiting methods by the New York Times. Facing waning ratings for the cash cow that is their annual Oscar telecast — last year's broadcast was famously their lowest rated of all time — AMPAS has gone on the defensive to combat the perception that its voting branch is too old and too conservative. In fact, the opposite seems to be true; the Academy instituted a new, stricter admissions policy way back in 2004 with the intent of making the membership younger, hipper, and more culturally diverse (more Benetton, less Brooks Brothers). However, it seems that they may have gone too far, as rumblings have begun that the "new" criteria is too strict. No longer is an Oscar nomination sufficient enough to earn you an AMPAS bid (case in point: sexually ambiguous buzz magnet Ellen Page); nowadays, potential AMPAS nominees must take to brownnosing current members in order to gain admittance. Namely, The Lives of Others director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's composed this gratuitously treacly ode to the Academy: "Every time I walk through the doors of the academy building, I experience what I would imagine a pious Catholic could feel as he walks through the portal of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome" (ew). However, the fact of the matter is that Vulture doesn't care who they do or don't let in at this point, so long as they nominate Wall-E for Best Picture!

Honor Just to Be Asked In, as Film Academy Tightens Its Ranks [NYT]

Terrible news for fans of Adam Brody and Armie Hammer! The long-gestating Justice League of America movie — which has previously suffered writers'-strike-related delays, awful casting, and the denial of a crucial $80 million Australian tax rebate — may finally be dead. Dark Horizons reports that George Miller, the hapless director linked to the ensemble superhero project for the past year, is officially off the film. In an appearance on Sydney-based morning show Sunrise today, Miller confirmed that he's no longer involved "in any capacity." Also, he says that if Warner Bros. does eventually decide to shoot a JLA movie, it will likely be recast since "the studios seem to want bigger stars in their superhero movies now."

Miller Officially Off "Justice League" [Dark Horizons via /Film]

Quick! Put the soap in!

While it’s not the Pogues' “Fairy Tale of New York,” the brash and boozy “A Christmas Duel” can rightly take its place alongside Shane McGowan’s story of doomed gutter romance on hip Christmas playlists. Cyndi Lauper and Hives singer Pelle Almqvist are a surprisingly good fit, but if the two make something like beautiful music together, the characters they inhabit definitely do not: All manner of atrocious indiscretions are confessed (we won't spoil who delivers the line “I wrecked your daddy's car and went down on your mother”). Leave it to garage-rock revivalists and an eighties icon to bring a bittersweet dose of holiday nostalgia.

Download “A Christmas Duel”: Letters Have No Arms!

Rafael Perez's Checking the Safety (2008).

Rafael Perez uses oil and watercolors to render whimsical women with dangerous curiosities. Here, a pantless woman inspects her kinda dainty rifle with care. Is it too late to make a Sarah Palin joke? Anyway, see her and other tender psychos at DFN Gallery through Friday.

Can you see the acting?

We can't say we're loving this season, what with its predictable plotlines (this week Dexter finally concludes that he has to kill Miguel, an outcome which seemed obvious from the second time they met), familiar twists (Deb is making bad relationship decisions! Again!) and soporific overdose of Rita's wedding preparations (with all the dress fittings and catering talk, sometimes we have to double-check to make sure we're not watching WEtv). But ho boy, are we ever being treated to some tasty, grade-A acting.

In this week's issue of New York: Are we suffering from Quality Show Fatigue? Adam Sternbergh investigates. Need a primer on indie culture? Here's one! David Browne drops in on Golden Animals. David Edelstein reviews Frost/Nixon and Cadillac Records. Stephanie Zacharek reviews Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate. Dan Kois reviews Blasted. Jesse Oxfeld raps with Pal Joey's Stockard Channing and Martha Plimpton. Also, is Soderbergh's Che a hit job or hagiography? New York lets charts decide.

“It's funny when I get recognized on the train. People either say ‘I love your show, dude’ or ‘Hey, where do you buy good weed?’” —Hunter Parrish [Page Six Mag]

"A month after [director] Gus [Van Sant] asked me to do it, they sent me another script, and on Page 5 there was a full-on love scene. And I was like, 'Gus, what the heck?' He says, 'Well, it was Sean's idea.'" —James Franco [Elle via NYP]

"What happened on November 23 was a complete fiasco. In what could only be characterized as reckless indifference or complete stupidity, Dr Pepper was completely unprepared for the traffic to its site. Most visitors were greeted with error messages. Some people who got through to Dr Pepper's servers were told to call a toll free number, few of whom got through. Many walked away angry as Dr Pepper … soured the momentous music event that was Chinese Democracy's release." —Guns N' Roses lawyer Alan S. Gutman [Pop & Hiss/LAT]

“In Utero” finds nineties-era Hank and Karen contemplating their then-burgeoning relationship; contemporary Hank worrying over a lump on his groin; and Charlie rethinking his marriage.

1994
You can easily recognize the flashbacks: There are streak of Manic Panic in Karen's hair, an already-haggard Hank has a goatee, and news of Kurt Cobain's suicide is unfolding on television. Karen is crying, and not just over Kurt: She's pregnant. If this glimpse into the couple's rocky early days (when they were both cheating on other people) is revealing, it's also a little frustrating: Fourteen years later, not much has changed. Karen says in ten years she'd just be another woman he got tired of; he counters that in ten years she may be the love of his life. They agree she'll have an abortion.

Typically, when a studio releases a Nazi-related film in the final weeks of December, Oscars are at least a small consideration (especially since Holocaust movies practically never make any money) — but with Tom Cruise's forthcoming WWII send-up, Valkyrie, due on December 26, awards are the furthest thing from anyone's mind! And now, MGM has decided not to hold an official critics' screening for the film until December 12, a move that makes it ineligible for prizes from the New York Film Critics Circle or National Board of Review, both of whom vote on nominations before then.

After Tina Fey's world-changing Sarah Palin impression successfully managed to persuade 52 percent of the American electorate to vote for Obama (and 0.03 percent of the American electorate to watch her television show), could a backlash have possibly been avoided? Probably not, but that doesn't make Nancy Franklin's review of 30 Rock in today's New Yorker any less unexpected. Under the headline "Sketchy Comedy," Franklin calls Fey's performance on the show "not-so-great" ("I sense that part of her is keeping her distance from the fray"), faults Rock for its constant digressions ("Its roots are in sketch comedy and in improv, with their set pieces and their eagerness to keep you entertained every second without worrying too much about the story"), and stops just short of proposing marriage to Alec Baldwin, who she cites as the cast's "one spectacular member" flanked by just "a couple of really good ones." Additionally, in her rage, Franklin claims that Fey won two Emmys in a row for Best Actress in a Comedy Series (she won only once) — how did that make it past New Yorker fact-checkers?

Sketchy Comedy [NYer]

"Pretty Boy" Buscemi: Steve Buscemi is in talks to star in Martin Scorsese's HBO pilot Boardwalk Empire. Written by Terrence Winter, the pilot is based on a book chronicling the origins of Atlantic City. Buscemi would play Nucky Johnson, a sly twenties businessman who runs a liquor-distribution ring during Prohibition. Kelly Macdonald is in talks to play Margaret, an Irish immigrant who married the wrong guy to get out of her parents' house. But it's the casting of the raspy-voiced, twenties-style-tracksuit-wearing, Atlantic City tourists that we're most looking forward to. [HR]

Scorsese's Falcon: Scorsese is also set to direct a new movie called Falcon's Tale. Scorsese will work alongside Departed screenwriter William Monahan to tell the story of James Keene, a convict serving ten years to life on drug charges when the FBI offers him a chance at freedom. All he has to do is enter a high-security prison for the criminally insane and squeeze information out of a suspected serial killer awaiting retrial. Should be easy! [Production Weekly via /Film]

Molders of Minds: The Fame remake's New York City High School of Performing Arts just picked up a slew of teachers, including Megan Mullally, Kelsey Grammer, Charles S. Dutton, and Bebe Neuwirth. Mullally will play a voice instructor, Grammer an orchestra conductor, Dutton an acting teacher, and Neuwirth a dance teacher. Given his grace on the stage, we were hoping Grammer would play the dance teacher. Alas. [HR]

"Oh, that? It's just my Hopemonger Hypno-Lamp."

The Boss performed “Working on a Dream” while campaigning for Barack Obama, and the song's lyrics, appropriately enough for an unresolved race, are inspirational and vague: “Though sometimes it feels so far away / I'm working on a dream / I know it will be mine someday.” But even if that dream has come to pass, the freely downloadable title track from his album due in January is probably better for not being about Obama's Cabinet choices and search for a hypoallergenic dog. It's not “Born to Run” or even “The Rising,” but Springsteen delivers some of his sweetest vocals in the uplifting chorus, and he even whistles.

Download "Working on a Dream": Pigeons and Planes