At this point I’m thinking that it’s somewhat irrelevant that Sacha Baron Cohen decided to name his movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.  It serves the larger "Is this real?" set up the movie perpetrates. But pretty much everyone else is going to call it simply "Borat."

Curious that 20th Century Fox would dial back the opening weekend run from 2,000 to 800 for fears that audiences wouldn’t "get" the anti-Semitic roving reporter from the central Asian country. What’s not to get? It’s a fish-out-of-water story. One of the cornerstones of comedy. I think Fox is hedging their bets that Borat won’t play in the Red States as (if the trailers ring true) seem to make fun of some of the finer points of Southern values – rodeoes, Pentacostal conversion, et al. It’s either fear that it won’t play or the tracking just doesn’t support it. Maybe a little from Column A and a little from Column B.

I wonder if the marketing machine behind Borat didn’t blow their wad a little early. I know when I saw the trailer for Borat in front of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby , I was excited to see it. I understood it wouldn’t be out until November, but it made sense that a summer release would promote something coming out in the winter. Especially when both films featured Cohen.

But in the handful of weeks before this Friday, a little bit of confusion set in. When Borat was on the cover of Entertainment Weekly a few weeks back, I started questioning if it was coming out in the last few weeks of October, early November or what. And I’m wondering if that might have thrown a monkey wrench into how Borat was tracking.

Cohen did a little damage control last weekend by securing the opening sketch to Saturday Night Live. It was actually very clever and ratcheted up my anticipation of the film again. Both Cami and I are very excited to see it this weekend.

I just want to put a reminder out there that copies of "Theater Hopper: Year Two" were delivered to our house last week and we’re working on getting those sent out to those of you who pre-ordered as soon as possible.

I also got the invoice for the books this week and… well, it was a little more steep than I anticipated. I didn’t factor in the taxes, I guess. So if you guys want to help us out, feel free to order a copy for yourself today!

Hey, wait a second! Aren’t the holidays coming up soon? Have someone on your list who is difficult to buy for? I’m just sayin’…

And don’t forget that t-shirts are $7.99 and baby doll tees are $9.99. An excellent deal.

I’m taking all this schwag with me to Wizard World Texas next week, so get while the getting is good!

Quick question: How many of you are planning on going to Wizard World Texas? I’m just kind of curious because Texas is kind of a big state and I’m wondering if only Texans are going to make it or if more people from around the region are going to make the trip. It’ll be my first convention anywhere in the South and I’m excited to meet as many of you as possible!

Send me an e-mail if you plan on attending! I want to hear from you!