"This is the man Hugh Grant dubbed 'Fang Lee' after making Sense and Sensibility with him," so says a new article in The Age about Ang Lee's apparent reputation for being a cruel taskmaster on his movie sets, although in Lee's defense the piece doesn't offer a great deal of examples to support its premise and comes across more like a hook to write up an otherwise boring piece about Lust, Caution. In fact, the closest it comes to naming names is offering the vague assertion that Heath Ledger once claimed Lee pushed him to the brink of physical endurance during the shooting of Brokeback Mountain, which doesn't sound like a damning accusation even if it's taken in context. But who cares about context? Lets have some more hyperbole: Lee is "the industry's Clark Kent," according to the piece. "Under that mild-mannered exterior -- consisting of a gentle-to-inaudible speaking voice, self-deprecating manner and an overall Zen calm -- lurks a driven obsessive, a Caligula among directors."

According to the article, Lee reportedly spent 100 hours to film a ten minute sex scene in Lust, Caution, but he defends his exactitude as a necessary part of the job. "None of us enjoys it," he's quoted as saying. "By nature it's very uncomfortable, draining and painful. We're just common people. It felt pretty harsh. But we used the pain. We enjoyed the pain." Okay, maybe that last line tags him as a bit of a weirdo, but I rarely believe stories about directors being unreasonable on the set, and if you want to know why, check out the making-of documentary on the DVD of The Shining. There's a great moment when Kubrick loses his cool at Shelley Duvall for not hitting her mark, and you can see how little moments like that can create a 'reputation,' but it still seems like something that's all in a day's work.

• Marit Allen (c.1941-2007) - Costume designer who worked often with Ang Lee (on Brokeback Mountain, Hulk and Ride with the Devil) and Nicholas Roeg (on The Witches, Eureka, Bad Timing and Don't Look Now). She also produced wardrobes for Eyes Wide Shut, Smilla's Sense of Snow, Dead Man, Mrs. Doubtfire, Mermaids, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and 2007's La Vie en Rose and Love in the Time of Cholera. She had recently been working on costumes for Justice League of America. She died of a brain aneurism November 26, in Sydney, Australia. (Variety)
• Jeanne Bates (1918-2007) - Actress who co-starred in the 1943 serial of The Phantom. Known for playing nurse characters in TV and film, she appears as such in Gus, The Strangler and Paula. She also appears in Eraserhead, Mulholland Dr., Die Hard 2 and Grand Canyon. She died November 28 in Woodland Hills, California. (FindaGrave.com)
• Fred Chichin (1954-2007) - French musician and songwriter who composed music for André Téchiné's latest, The Witnesses. He also appears as himself, with his band Les Rita Mitsouko, in Godard's Keep Your Right Up. He died of cancer November 28, in Paris. (France 24)
• Mali Finn (c.1938-2007) - Casting director who worked on many on many films by James Cameron, including Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Titanic and True Lies, and by Joel Schumacher, including Batman Forever, Batman & Robin and Tigerland. She also worked on The Untouchables, L.A. Confidential, The Matrix trilogy, Wonder Boys, All the Real Girls, Running with Scissors, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Shooter and the upcoming 10,000 B.C., among others. She died of melanoma November 28, in Sonoma, California. (Variety)
• James M. Hart (1943-2007) - Special effects coordinator who worked on Newsies, Apollo 13, The Vanishing and Witness. He died November 19. (IMDb)
• Evel Knievel (1938-2007) - Daredevil stunt motorcyclist who appears as himself in Viva Knievel! and Freebie and the Bean (as "motorcyclist"). He was portrayed by George Hamilton in 1971's Evel Knievel and by Sam Elliott and George Eads in separate TV movies of the same name. He died November 30 in Clearwater, Florida. (AP)
• Al Mancini (1932-2007) - Actor who plays a soldier "Tassos Bravos" in The Dirty Dozen. He also appears in Miller's Crossing, Falling Down, Big Business, Turk 182! and The Public Eye and voices a fish in Babe: Pig in the City. He died of Alzheimer's disease November 12, in London, Ohio. (FindaGrave.com)