Chopard Jewelers express concern over Bling Ring brand-building partnership
Matthew Lickona 2:57 p.m., May 17
Legally Blonde
A wish-fulfillment fairy tale, more voguishly known as an empowerment myth, concerning a So-Cal sorority sister, Fashion Merchandising major, and Miss Hawaiian Tropic runner-up (Reese Witherspoon, in her mile-wide vein of mockery) who gets herself admitted into Harvard Law School to chase after her ex-boyfriend -- and oh by the way, outrun him to the head of the class. Some of the details, if you allow maybe a hundred yards of slack for knowledge of how the world works, are giddily inventive: the admissions-application "video essay" (directed by an unspecified Coppola) delivered in an assortment of swimming pools and bikinis, or the pet Chihuahua named Bruiser, or the pink pompom at the top of her classroom pen. Ready as we may be, however, to applaud the discovery and cultivation of a human brain, willing as we may be to believe that this can occur in the airiest of heads, we might balk nonetheless at the two-faced assumption that it's as simple as turning on a faucet. The idea of growth without change goes against nature. Like the idea of satire without teeth. Luke Wilson, Matthew Davis, Selma Blair, Jennifer Coolidge, Raquel Welch; directed by Robert Luketic. 2001.
— Duncan Shepherd
- Rated PG-13
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billjnz Nov. 16, 2008 @ 3:59 p.m.
Legally Blonde
A chirpy Bel Air sorority president (Reese Witherspoon) applies for Harvard Law School with the intention of winning back an ex-boyfriend in the comedy confection Legally Blonde. Once accepted ("What, like it's hard?"), she lands on campus, pet Chihuahua in tow, only to discover it's not quite what she expected. Shunned, everyone is, like, totally mean to her. Then too her first class does not go well when, unprepared, she's asked to leave (cf. The Paper Chase). Our blond Barbie, however, isn't one to shrink in the face of adversity. While occasionally amusing, this "empowerment myth" is awfully hard to swallow, although you're free to try. Given the possibility that a first-year law student could assume the role of an attorney in a bona fide criminal trial, are we also to believe, for example, open seating would exist at such a venue? Given what we know about high-profile celebrity trials? What are the odds?
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