Validation

Though my jaw was still scraping the floor following the Lost season finale last week, I was able to post a brief theory on the thrilling notion that love and Mr. Desmond David Hume were the true center of the vast Lost world.

And, lo, someone at Entertainment Weekly seems to agree with me:

Call it corny, but I'm nutty for the idea. And I think I'm right. With its season finale, Lost revealed its true identity: It's actually a gloriously old-fashioned, ridiculously idealistic romantic epic. But the Romeo and Juliet of this love story aren't Jack and Kate (but I did love their non-verbal Han/Leia ''I love you''/''I know'' nod-and-blink exchange — a
fittingly coy way to end the show's bad-guy-triumphant Empire Strikes Back season), or Charlie and Claire (that kiss — an abrupt turnabout in their relationship, don't you think?), or Jin and Sun (even though their relationship is Lost's main source of human grounding).

No: The star-crossed lovers of Lost are Desmond and Penelope Widmore, the English heiress whose powerful and possibly Dharma Initiative-connected father Arthur Widmore...seems determined to make sure that his daughter and the lovelorn hatchman will never, ever be together.

I don't know which is more exciting: that someone whose job it is to theorize about Lost has developed a similar view on the subject or that, for the sake of the story's narrative arc (not my own ego), my Desmond-centric theory might actually be true. Like Fox Mulder, I want to believe. I want it to be true that the love between Desmond and Penelope is the show's reason for being.

So if such a theory has enough merit to appear within the hallowed pages of EW, well, hell, my little romantic heart is aflutter.

See you in another life, brother

I am absolutely in love with the fact that Lost seems to have made Desmond the prime mover within the show's fantastically woven web of existential, six-degrees-of-separation drama. It is an utter stroke of genius that a character who didn't even appear until the series' second season -- and only had a part in a few episodes, at that -- has been revealed as the potential cause of both the fall and redemption of our flawed band of protagonists. (That is, if Desmond's failed button-pushing indeed caused flight 815 to crash, and if his turning the electromagnetic key indeed sent a signal to the outside world that will save them all.)

And how brilliant and simple the whole of Desmond's motivation: love. Astounding. Just when you think Lost is trapped under the weight of the elaborate Dharma Initiative mythology and the us vs. them conflict and the mysterious sicknesses/vaccines/smoke monsters -- boom: L O V E. It really is about human relationships after all.

(My awe is aided by the indisputable truth that clean-cut, post-prison, pre-race-around-the-world Desmond is smokin'. I just think it needs to be said.)

It is going to be a long, painful summer.

What I need, indeed

This is from some shady newspaper in Singapore, but the mere thought of it is so exciting that I can't not blog about it:

Producers of a Michael Hutchence big-screen biopic are trying to convince sexy Hollywood star Johnny Depp to play the late INXS frontman, according to MovieHole.net.

The film, tentatively titled Slide Away, is being fast-tracked. Most of the production will take place in Hutchence's native Sydney, Australia.

It will be helmed by long-time INXS music video director Michael Egan and Hutchence's brother Rhett, with Sienna Miller, Naomi Watts and Rachel Griffiths rumoured to be in the cast.

Among the other actors Egan is considering for the role of Hutchence are Hayden Christensen, Eric Bana and a little-known singer-actor from Australia called Michael Piccirilli.

I mean, who doesn't trust MovieHole.net? OK, I don't. So I did a little more research and found a reference to the film on news.com.au, which is a legitimate source.

I'm sorry to be so shallow, but if favorite Sith lord Hayden Christensen appears on screen as favorite rock sex god Michael Hutchence, my head will officially explode.

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.

In September, George Lucas will release DVDs of the Star Wars trilogy in its original theatrical form. This release will mark the official and highly anticipated un-pussification of Han Solo, as Lucas will once again permit him to kill Greedo without being fired upon first.

Like Han, you'll have to act quickly: the release will only be available from September 12 through December 31.

On a dreary day that began rather crappily -- when I spilled a piping hot grande caramel macchiato all over myself -- such Lucasnews is very exciting and much appreciated.

Looks like Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros will have a lot of time on their hands to collect DUIs

Lost. Wow.

I cannot recall the last television show I watched where so much jaw-dropping action happened during each and every episode. The X-Files wasn't even this good.

And that Hanso Foundation ad? More references to Bad Twin? Yes, Lost creators, please keep allowing this fictional world to encroach on our own. More evidence, if you ask me, that all the action in this series is unreal -- that human psychic activity is what's moving the plot forward, not polar bears and smoke monsters and menacing islanders.

Is Claire Jack's half-sister, the one Jack's dad was searching for in Sydney? [yes] Is Michael the Others' leader, the one Henry Gale describes as great but not merciful? [don't know, but he is looking rather messianic in the clips for next week] Is the actor who plays Henry Gale the single creepiest human on the planet? [absolutely] Did Michael's brief remorseful look following his shooting Libby signal that she is, indeed, an Other, and that he had made a mistake? [friggin' yes] Do Josh Holloway's abs ripple like a pebble dropped into a flat calm? [so much so it almost makes me uncomfortable]

All I can say is, thank goodness for May sweeps. And curses for the barren, lonely, Lostless summer to follow. Here's hoping Fox brings back Gordon Ramsay for another edition of Hell's Kitchen to attempt to fill the void.