Most of you have probably already heard about this by now, but there's a movie-loving blogger who has decided to anonymously put up a new blog chronicling her last 90 days on Earth. Terminal disease? Nope -- she's committing suicide, she says. The lady is already down to Day 84 and every blog post she puts up elicits hundreds of comments from the fascinated, the concerned, the sarcastic, and the sadistic who are urging her on. No one knows if this lady is in the business of blogging or movies professionally, but movies appear to be a primary preoccupation of hers and she recently blogged about suicide attempts in movies such as The Royal Tenenbaums and Empire Records. She also gives a perfunctory reason for her suicide that, many have already noticed, is suspicious -- it's cribbed directly from Fight Club, and says that "our generation has no great depression, no great war." Her great depression is her life, I guess?

My sense is that the whole thing is a total put-on, even to the point that I don't feel bad about throwing attention to the site, since I don't feel like there's a real person at risk here. I could be totally wrong, but we're talking about a lady who just blogged about a guy who asked her out for Valentine's Day and quipped -- "I just hope he's not looking for anything long-term." Come on, give me a break. People on the verge of suicide are rarely so cogent or so full of humor. She also put up a nice pic of the Hollywood sign, near her anonymous location, and wrote "On my way back from Starbucks. I can say with absolute certainty that caffeine is probably the one thing that is keeping me going for the remaining 87 days." Uh-huh. That, and the book deal she's hoping to turn this into. And that's not an original thought on my part -- it's the conclusion at least one colleague has already reached.

It became as clear as day to me after watching American History X that Edward Norton was a real actor that I needed to pay attention to. I wasn't the only one who felt that way. It's not that The People vs. Larry Flynt or Rounders weren't on the top of my cinematic appreciation list, but his portrayal as a reforming skinhead -- the pure humanity that he exposed through the character -- remains unforgotten. His careful consideration of the roles he plays leaves him with a resume flowing with fulfilling roles both for himself and for his audiences. In a recent interview with the Guardian Unlimited the actor talked about everything from the digital revolution in filmmaking, to working with David Fincher, to the freedom that acting gives a person to experience their full range of emotional expression. Norton appears to be fearless ... he is not afraid that the accessibility of filmmaking materials will kill the art of creating cinema.

He's certainly not afraid of vulnerable roles that show the ugliness inside a person. Acting to him is "in some ways, a free pass to exorcise all kinds of emotional stuff without the consequences." In preparing for a role, Norton has no go-to method. In fact, he relies on no methodology but instead approaches each role with a new way of creating. "So in the beginning, I always feel like I'm fumbling for an entry point." It should be a relief to any actor that someone of Norton's stature still feels like a fraud the minute a new project comes to fruition.

He is also not afraid of choosing films because they are poignant to him at the time. In fact, that is the number one reason he has chosen to work on Fight Club, 25th Hour and The Illusionist. "Most of the films that I've ever really responded to are ones that I feel were really involved in their times. They were documents of a moment, or an exploration of what was dysfunctional, fucked up or painful about that moment in time." Those films spoke to him directly as reflections on what was happening around him. They also happened to be great scripts made by talented artists. This is what is responsible for the variety and range of the roles that he chooses. "I like a lot of things, I just like them well done."