1.

"The FBI Files on Being and Nothingness." Prospect's Andy Martin unearths a less-discussed candidate on the FBI list of potential Kennedy assassins: Jean-Paul Sartre. Related: NPR's "Marking Kennedy Assassination, Dallas Still On Eggshells." Also related: "'The Parallax View': A JFK Conspiracy Film That Gets It Right" by Alex Cox for The Guardian. 

"The irony that emerges from the FBI files on Camus and Sartre, spanning several decades (and which, still partly redacted, I accessed thanks to the open-sesame of the Freedom of Information Act) is that the G-men, initially so anti-philosophical, find themselves reluctantly philosophizing. They become (in GK Chesterton’s phrase) philosophical policemen. Hoover needed to know if Existentialism and Absurdism were some kind of front for Communism. To him, everything was potentially a coded re-write of the Communist Manifesto. That was the thing about the Manifesto—it was not manifest: more often it was, as Freud would say, latent. Thus FBI agents were forced to become psychoanalysts and hermeneuts—drawn into what the historian Carlo Ginzburg neatly called the “cynegetic paradigm” (a brotherhood of clue-hunting detectives in which he includes Freud and Sherlock Holmes). Thus we find intelligence agents studying scholarly works and attending lectures. But the FBI were “philosophical policemen” in a second sense: in tracking Camus and Sartre (surveillance, eavesdropping, wiretapping, theft) they give expression to their own brand of philosophical investigations."

2.

"One of the leading contenders for Original Screenplay is Ryan Coogler’s heart-tugging Fruitvale Station with Michael B. Jordan and Octavia Spencer.  Under the categories section, they have the film listed for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay)….A few weeks ago, Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter reported that a mailer that went out listed Octavia Spencer in Lead Actress instead of Supporting Actress where she is being campaigned.  The Weinstein Company corrected their mistake and sent out corrected mailers for voting members. In the screener packed that I received, and that was sent out to all BFCA members, Coogler is listed in Original Screenplay for our consideration.If the listing is in fact true, did Ryan Coogler just land himself a nomination in Adapted Screenplay to face off against Jeff Pope and Steve Coogan‘s Philomena script, another Weinstein film?  Could Coogler upset presumed frontrunner John Ridley for 12 Years a Slave? My initial guess is that it’s a typo and will likely be corrected in the coming days (or even hours following this story).  Fruitvale Station is currently predicted in the top-tier contenders of Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Original Screenplay on the official Oscar Prediction pages."

3.

"Amanda Marcotte, Slate: It's easy to be mad at Lowry for his condescending nonsense, but I'm actually in awe of his ability to hit nearly every major trope of the misogynist blowhard in a mere 500-word piece. 

Bob Powers*, Happy Place: Here's the bottom line, Brian Lowry: you are a TV critic, not a comedy critic. I have no idea if you know anything about TV, but I am certain you know nothing about comedy. That's evident by the fact that you have to Xerox old reviews any time you write up something new from a female comedian. The fact that you don't know "proving she can be just as filthy as the boys" is an outdated, ridiculously condescending cliche proves you should let other people write about comedy.