Expect to hear a lot of Moby in independent films from now on. According to Variety, the recording artist has decided to offer 79 different tracks, most of them unreleased, to independent, nonprofit and student productions at no cost to filmmakers. Only if the film becomes distributed for profit does Moby demand a small fee. But that money will go towards charity. The songs include 11 instrumentals off the album "Hotel", six tracks from "Play: B Sides" and three tracks from "18". If you're interested in using one of the songs, even for your home video (I wonder if video blogs or online shows count), you can find them at the website Mobygratis.com. Moby said the reason he set up the service was because of indie filmmaker friends complaining about the difficulty and high expense of acquiring music licenses. Moby should definitely know about the price of licensing music for movies; he's contributed to enough films and commercials that he could probably live off that money alone. I bet he could buy a house just with the fees made off the Bourne trilogy theme.

Suddenly I have a whole lot more respect for Moby, who also scored the new movie Southland Tales. This reminds me of a five minute high school project I made that was possibly going to be shown on public access. It was the first and only time I attempted to contact record companies about using their songs for no cost since I wouldn't be making any money off the project. I only heard back from one company, which told me I couldn't use AC/DC's "Back in Black" under any circumstance, even a school production, without paying for it (I wonder how much The Daily Show pays every time Lewis Black comes on). I didn't understand what the deal was. Many bands would kill to have the exposure of being on a film's soundtrack -- indie or mainstream. So, I think Moby wins out in the end with this decision. He gets to appear the charitable guy, and he gets some free exposure, whether he needs more or not. He probably prefers to have more than enough fans than more than enough cash. He's like the Mr. Deeds of music licensing.

• The internets are alive with the undeniable fact rumor that Leonardo DiCaprio and Lindsay Lohan (she's out of the hospital, by the way, but Leo might have visited her!) are a couple. Dare we hope? If this turns out to be true, I'm convinced that the tabloids will spontaneously combust from the gossip potential alone.
• I'm sure that, just like all the other really cool kids, you've already laid down your $190,000 for reservations on a Virgin Galactic trip to space. Seated by your side and you put your life in Richard Branson hands will reportedly be such cutting edge celebs as William Shatner (too...many...Trek...jokes), Moby and, yes, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. I wonder if her kids will be his kids by that point. Why, maybe they could get some sort of bulk space discount!
  
• Speaking of Brad Pitt, he shaved! Good lord, the man looks about 20 years old. When was the last time we saw him without scruff of some kind, anyway? 1984?
• In today's breakup news, Hilary Swank and hubby Chad Lowe are separating after eight years together. Don't fret, though - they're going to try to work things out. I will control myself and not write anything snide here about her career outshining his, or her being able to utterly kick his ass. Instead, I'll just say that it's always sad to hear about the death of love. Sigh.
• Finally, it just came out that Steven Spielberg was totally pissed when Kathy Griffin made a funny about Dakota Fanning being in rehab. Sadly, his threat to put Griffin on a scary-sounding Dreamworks "list" did nothing but win him a brutal mocking. Well hey, Spielberg's new to the biz. Maybe someday he'll learn just how wild and crazy these comics can get.