This is a point that bears repeating...

I think it depends on where you are. I live in NYC and 20% is definitely the minimum, but in Portland, OR where I'm from, 15% is minimum and 20% is exceptional.

I blocked that movie from my memory, and just relived it thanks to your Wiki link. What the fuck, indeed.

I agree—but then, why bring it up at all? Why did he think it was an appropriate anecdote to share? That's what I find strange about it.

Yeah, fair enough. In that case, it doesn't reflect badly on him at all—but I still think it makes her sound really racist and paranoid. I'm just saying that, with this particular example, it's hard for me to tell (and I'm also trying to give the anti-BC crowd the benefit of the doubt).

I think the bit (from the 2007 interview) quoted above by The Cap'n reflects very badly on his mother—like she has this paranoid fantasy that Blacks everywhere are out to get her and her son because of the legacy of their last name. I think it reflects badly on BC because he so casually shared this story about his…

It's cool. I have Viking and Viking-victim ancestors, so I guess that makes me masochistic or self-hating or something.

I love everything about this comment.

...Ahem:

Being held accountable for sheer awesome is a trying thing, it's true.

Nit-pick: his mother isn't a Cumberbatch by birth, so it's not a question of "her" ancestors but her husband's.

Dermalogica, all the way.

Not my favorite, but I really love The Black Riders, a series of poems by Stephen Crane. Here's a well-known one:

He is certainly ripe for mocking. (Full disclosure: I thought the same thing for years!)

I meant more along the lines of his many excuses, back-tracks, and overall penchant for lying (badly).

That's what Shia implied in an interview. I can't actually find the internet online, just other blogs/articles that mention it, so it's even more dubious. But the idea is pretty absurd, I agree.

Noo, it doesn't mean this! Sorry to be pedantic, but his name is "LaBeouf", and cow/beef in French is le bœuf. I found some weird interview wherein he claims his grandmother changed the family surname and accidentally misspelled it, but if you Google "LaBeouf" it does appear to be a French surname, so who knows. He…

Not just California—the whole West Coast, I'd argue (I'm an Oregonian who now lives in NYC, and I experience this all the time).

Ebert's review of North is a thing of beauty.

Seriously. "Spokane" is the only salient term in this entire article. There's no need to read further.