Todd Phillips has just about reached that “I can do whatever the f*ck I want” stage in his career [which, strangely, seems to involve banging lazy-eyed herp factory Paris Hilton -Vince], what with even his sequels raking in more than half a billion dollars, and now it looks like he’s found his next project in a Rolling Stone article. Phillips has optioned the rights to a Guy Lawson  article (“The Stoner Arms Dealers”), about two potheads who somehow became weapons traffickers, thanks the government’s love of dishing out big bucks to small contractors.

Who knew it was that easy?

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^{Birthday Dog just wants to fit in}

Rolling Stone is reporting that Body of Lies, the DiCaprio-Russell Crowe joint opening October 10th, will feature “If the World”, a song off decades-in-the-making Guns N Roses album Chinese Democracy.

The track features the guitar work of Gn’R guitarist Robin Finck, as well as Buckethead, who left the band in 2004. The song plays during the closing credits of the movie, but it won’t appear on the soundtrack album. It will be the second official release of a Chinese Democracy track, as “Shackler’s Revenge” is included in the new Rock Band 2 game. A source has told Rolling Stone that Guns n’ Roses has reserved a November 25th date for the possible release of the album, which will be a Best Buy exclusive.

Yeah, don’t hold your breath.  For his part, Axl Rose held a press conference saying, “I’m very proud of the new album, and I’m happy one of our songs could be included in Body of Lie ayayayayayayiees, k-k-kies, k-k-k-k-kies, oh yeeeaaaeaayeaah ah yeaaah ah yeeaah,” before diving into the crowd to punch out a woman who’d taken his picture.

The new Rolling Stone came out this week, with Peter Travers’ list of the 10 best movies of 2007 (one of many 10 best lists).  His list:

1. No Country For Old Men
2. Atonement
3. Into the Wild
4. Eastern Promises
5. Sweeney Todd
6. American Gangster
7. There Will Be Blood
8. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
9. I’m Not There
10. tie between Knocked Up and Juno

I haven’t seen all of these and some of them aren’t out yet, but a couple things jump out. Like, why isn’t Gone, Baby, Gone on anyone’s best of ’07 list? Yeah, it was an Affleck project; it was also better than the movie that won him an Oscar and at least deserving of a spot in the top ten. Knocked Up and Juno also deserve their own spots, and what about Superbad?  Even when it wasn’t hitting on all cylinders it still had that Tommy Boy-esque likability factor that most comedies these days are missing.  And Eastern Promises, really? Seems to be on everyone’s best of list, but I don’t get it. I like Cronenberg, but this ain’t his best movie. One of the few scenes with action (the naked fight scene) was laughably bad. I’m not saying every movie has to be Jackie Chan, but I would like to get the sense of how something could actually happen rather than just a montage of grunting and Viggo’s balls flopping around.

One thing we can agree on: Travers’ "Michael Bay Award For Worst Soul-Sucking, Dumb-Ass Bottom Feeder" that he gives to Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Amen. I actually forgot that came out in ’07 – I think I repressed it like the time I got molested.