Despite having starred in a series of spoofs that have together raked in over $400 million on the domestic front, it still doesn't feel like Anna Faris is quite the household name she deserves to be. All dollar signs aside, this comedienne has that endearing mix of whip-smart comic timing, goofy mugging, general hotness (what?), and a sense of self-awareness in even her ditziest roles. Time will only tell if tomorrow's release of The House Bunny will formally launch her into the ranks of, say, Reese Witherspoon after Legally Blonde, but even if she doesn't, here's at least seven reasons why she'll always be our funny bunny.

1. Cindy Campbell in Scary Movie 3 (2003)

Say what you will about this parody franchise, but it's been a minor blessing that Faris keeps coming back to ground these puppies from evaporating into pure irrelevance... although it's pure irrelevance that keeps me coming back to this one in particular. Call it a guilty pleasure if you must, but there are glorious non sequiturs a-plenty that help me cope with the slapdash plot and already dated pop culture riffs (oh, right, Simon Cowell, he's that guy...). Naturally, not the least of the credit goes to Faris, who, as the aloof reporter/single mom, is just as inept at either job as we'd like her to be.

"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)

All this writing about sex, and I'm going to need a cold shower ... or two. Nothing makes a movie more memorable than a fantastic sex scene. If Jim hadn't tried to stick his "down there pal" into a pie, would American Pie be the classic that it is today? Would Brokeback Mountain still have been a major Oscar contender had Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger not attacked one another like a couple of wild (and horny) animals? Heck, Halle Berry chose the right script and the right time to let her guard down and roll around on a couch with Billy Bob Thornton -- and what did it get her? Yup, her first Oscar. And I can't be the only one to immediately think of the film Wild Things when I hear the names Neve Campbell and Denise Richards.

Let's face it -- sex sells. And sex also helps a mediocre film become one that's talked about for years on end. That said, those devious folks over at Moviefone have compiled a list of what they feel are the 25 Best Sex Scenes of All Time. All of the above aforementioned films are included (although I would've placed Monster's Ball ahead of the puppet sex featured in Team America: World Police), as well as more of our most favorite (and most heated, steamy -- orgasmic?) scenes and films like Bound (lesbian sex), Secretary (work sex), Unfaithful (adulterous sex), Boogie Nights (porn star sex) and the always-enjoyable Y Tu Mama Tambien (foreign-language sex). So take a look at their list, then come (hehe) back here and let us know which ones flow and which, well, blow.

Posters for Ang Lee movies are typically unimaginative, so I was pretty shocked when I saw the new one-sheet for Lee's latest, Lust, Caution. It isn't exactly an innovative design, but it is a lot more interesting than his usual head-shot type of poster. I like it even better than the Brokeback Mountain look-away-in-shame artwork. And if we can base the quality of Lee's movies on their posters (just look at the awful designs for Hulk and Ride with the Devil to see how it works), then Lust, Caution could be his best film to date. This poster, with its browning tones and its shadows, make the film look like it's directed by Wong Kar Wai (whose films also didn't have good posters until recently). It could just be because Tony Leung stars, or because of that dress, but for me the poster evokes Wong's In the Mood for Love. I am surprised that Joan Chen isn't featured anywhere, but I guess they preferred to spotlight newcomer Tang Wei, who gets even better exposure here than Leung (though it must be said that Leung's profile is more recognizable than many other stars').

Lust, Caution is Lee's return to Chinese-language filmmaking again following Hulk and Brokeback, and it marks his first film after winning the Oscar for the latter film. He is again working with executive producer James Schamus of Focus Features and he has brought back Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon producer William Kong and screenwriter Wang Hui-Ling. Lee's longtime editor Tim Squyres also returns after not working on Brokeback. It seems the only collaborator that Lee is keeping from his Oscar darling is cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. Lust, Caution is set in WWII Shanghai and involves a plot to assassinate an intelligence chief in the Japanese-backed Chinese government. Leung plays the intelligence chief, Chen plays his wife and Tang is a student who seduces Leung's the character in order to set up the assassination. Focus will open the film in limited release September 28.

Check out the trailer after the jump.