Louis Theroux Under The Knife

The BBC have announced Louis Theroux's latest documentary, and for once he didn't wimp out and run away when things started to get good. Nope - this time, he actually underwent liposuction as part of his show on the cosmetic surgery industry in California,

According to the BBC's press release, Theroux agreed to the procedure so that he would better understand 'the obsessive world of plastic surgery'. Cynics may say that Louis isn't toughening up at all, but that he just wanted liposuction and didn't want to pay - but bad news, cynics: Theroux actually shelled out 5000 dollars of his own for the operation.

The show airs in the Autumn on BBC2 here in the UK, when we'll get to see how Theroux feels about the procedure and his new figure.

Hateful Homophobe Shirley Phelps Comments On Kevin Smith's Next Film

Kevin Smith has revealed that Red State, his upcoming horror film, has been informed by his feelings towards the Westoboro Baptist Church and their deeply uncharismatic leader, Fred Phelps. Fred's daugheter Shirley Phelps, their lead spokeswoman, hateful homophobe, and highly delusional star player in Louis Theroux's recent Most Hated Family in America documentary, has reacted to the news.

No surprises that she doesn't really know what's going on, and neither does she seem to care. She does take the opportunity to spout the same-old, same-old however.

Thankfully, the reach of the Westboro ranters is rather short. They hurt a lot of people, but not as many as they might if they really tried and weren't happy to just hurt a few. I suppose I'm thankful their little bubble of self-delusion is quite small. Some of these crackpots won't rest until they're reaching, and hurting, a whole lot more.

Louis Theroux Pre-Empts Kevin Smith's Horror Film

Last weekend, BBC2 showed a new Louis Theroux episode in which he spent time with the family of Topeka, Kansas Minister Fred Phelps. It was really quite horrifying. These people were shockingly hateful.

Now, Kevin Smith has revealed to Rotten Tomatoes UK that a Phelps-like monster is the focus of his upcoming horror film. What's more, he's given the name away: Red State.

For background on Phelps' Westboro Church, courtesy of Louis Theroux and countless pirates, check out the relevant clips on YouTube.

Thanks to AICN for the pointer.

Actual Pornography To Appear On Eventual Borat DVD

During the filming of Borat, the titular character - and by extension, Sacha Baron Cohen - was filmed taking part in an actual scene from an actual shoot for an actual porn film. Little wonder it was cut from the theatrical release.

According to Dan Mazer, talking to Fantasy Moguls, the scene is now most likely to be included on an unrated release of the film on DVD - as an extra feature, rather than reincorporated scene. I would be very surprised to see Cohen take on any more involvement in the pornography than, say, Louis Theroux did for his Weird Weekends TV show, but I also wouldn't be surprised to see other people acting in quite an unfettered, uncensored, explicit and, to many, shocking way. How much were Cohen and co. simply trying to shock, I wonder?

So, what do you reckon: did the film suffer because this scene was deleted? If not, then was there any reason to film it at all? I guess the argument comes down to how much like sculpting you see moviemaking, and how much clay you believe needs to be gathered every bit as much it does your attitudes to the content and where you draw the lines of good and bad taste.