Cinematical

Following the trail trod by their successful in-store CD sales program, Starbucks has decided to move into the movie game. They've signed on to put their considerable vending muscle behind Akeelah and the Bee, a drama starring Angela Bassett, about a young girl from South Central trying to make it to the National Spelling Bee. Starbucks will offer sneak previews of the film to its customers before it opens in April. Later in the year, the coffee shiller will sell the DVD of the film at its registers. It's the first step in a major push by the Seattle based company to expand their retail offerings, the very concept of which seems to muck up its famed "third place" branding strategy – what good is having a separate space that is not work or home, if that place is trying to choke you with media? All Marxist misgivings aside, the CD program has worked incredibly well to raise the profile of its offering ... which only makes me wish that a certain other, quickly-forgotten spelling bee film had been chosen for the push.