CAUGHT UP IN MADNESS

Springfield police are looking for a teen who's reportedly tagging downtown businesses.

From the cops:

The damage is the result of a suspect(s) tagging businesses with the words KEY, BOBE or KSB. The suspect(s) is using either black spray paint, or white shoe polish or marker, to tag the outside of businesses. Investigators do not believe that the tagging represents any gang affiliation. Investigators believe the suspect(s) have been involved in 22 incidents of property damage. Most of the incidents occurred in January and February.

At least he's not painting "CUIM" on buildings. Caught Up In Madness, indeed.

Police say the tagger is a teen, between 5'-8" and 5'-11", weighing 135-150 pounds. Got a clue? Call the cops at (417) 869-TIPS.

A FILM LIKE NO OTHER

The latest add to the CHATTER Wish List: Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, the closest thing to an acid trip without gnawing on blotter paper. No tinny aftertaste, and Helen Mirren is sensual.

We remember seeing it during a trip to D.C. and wishing, in vain, for the film to hit Springfield. Time to track down a DVD and add it to the library.

SYDNEY POLLACK, 73

Director, actor, producer. "Out of Africa" and "Tootsie" immediately come to mind. They were his.

Pollack died of cancer Monday at his home in Los Angeles. According to The New York Times:

Mr. Pollack’s career defined an era in which big stars (Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, Warren Beatty) and the filmmakers who knew how to wrangle them (Barry Levinson, Mike Nichols) retooled the Hollywood system. Savvy operators, they played studio against studio, staking their fortunes on pictures that served commerce without wholly abandoning art.

Hollywood honored Mr. Pollack in return. His movies received multiple Academy Award nominations, and as a director he won an Oscar for his work on the 1985 film “Out of Africa” as well as nominations for directing “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” (1969) and “Tootsie” (1982).

“Michael Clayton,” of which Mr. Pollack was a producer and a member of the cast, was nominated for a best picture Oscar earlier this year. He delivered a trademark performance as an old-bull lawyer who demands dark deeds from a subordinate, played by George Clooney. (“This is news? This case has reeked from Day 1!” snaps Mr. Pollack’s Marty Bach.) Most recently, Mr. Pollack portrayed the father of Patrick Dempsey’s character in “Made of Honor.”

An Indiana boy, reared in South Bend. "Absence of Malice" and "Three Days of the Condor" were among his best works.

ANTHONY MINGHELLA, 54

Film director. Enormous talent. The Associated Press reports:

Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella, who turned such literary works as "The English Patient," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain" into acclaimed movies, has died. He was 54.

Minghella's death was confirmed Tuesday by his agent, Judy Daish. No other details were immediately available.

"The English Patient," the 1996 World War II drama, won nine Academy Awards, including best director for Minghella, best picture and best supporting actress for Juliette Binoche.

Great vision, now gone.

TO CRIB, OR NOT TO CRIB?

You don't pass off someone else's words as your own. You attribute the source.

Just the way it is.

Original writing is rare and an art. Rewrites are common. Nut grafs almost always outlive the original story.

Just the way it is.

So when Sen. Barack Obama was hit with a charge of plagiarism for using a passage from a 2006 speech by Deval Patrick, the current Massachusetts governor (and longtime pol bud of Obama), we saw it as a dicey call.

What Patrick said in 2006:

"'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.' Just words. Just words. 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself.' Just words. 'Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.' Just words. 'I have a dream.' Just words."

What Obama said this month:

"'I have a dream.' Just words. 'We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.' Just words. 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself.' Just words."

No, Obama didn't plagiarize, because this is a rewrite, a tumble-dry of previous facts already in common use. A sloppy copy, not a firing offense.

Yes, Obama did plagiarize, because all three "famous words" cites are exact copies of the ones Patrick used. Most suspicious is Obama's lift of a misquote from that famous Franklin D. Roosevelt address. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. So sayeth FDR, so say we all. Except for copycats.

No, Obama didn't plagiarize, because his remarks in Wisconsin were off-the-cuff and might be nothing more than a recall of a conversation he'd had with Patrick. Smart politicians often share riffs and slogans, especially when they're friends.

Dicey, but benefit of the doubt to Obama, mostly because he was off the beaten text when he said what he did. Cadence and anaphora rule the land of memorable hooks and ad-libs.

But now Politico reports on another instance where Obama used a Patrick passage -- this one scripted, not ad-libbed. In June 2006, Patrick said:

"I am not asking anybody to take a chance on me. I'm asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations."

Obama read the same lines from the text of a speech he gave last November in South Carolina. The Republican National Committee is peddling the new evidence. So much for the line that Obama would bridge the bitter divide. Forget Hillary Clinton. Did anyone sane ever believe the GOP would give up the White House without a nasty fight?

Spring, soon. All sorts of buried muck will rise with the tulips.

ANYTHING FOR YOUR CRAFT

Joaquin Phoenix, actor, explains how he vomits while playing pretend:

"You take a lot of cereal, you drink a lot of milk and you pound down two waters in a row and you jump up and down and you put your hand down your throat and you wiggle it all around until you vomit."

Thanks for that.

COVER LOVING

The American Society of Magazine Editors is out with its list of finalists for best mag cover of the year.

This one's our pick, but we're partial to The New Yorker. Other cool covers include this action shot for Skiing, and this pic of a baby in full chow-down mode.

Your favorites?

IT'S A BURNING MAN THING

"Radical self expression" is the Burning Man way, and one guy has taken it to new heights. As SF Gate's culture blog explains:

A Burning Man participant was found dead this morning, hanging from the inside of a two-story high tent, according to Mark Pirtle, special agent in charge for the Bureau of Land Management.

The apparent suicide would be the festival's first in its 21 year history, Pirtle said.

Pershing County coroners are investigating the scene and preparing to remove the body. Pirtle said the man was hanging for two hours before anyone in the large tent thought to bring him down. "His friends thought he was doing an art piece," Pirtle said.

Put 36,000-plus free thinkers on an ancient lake bed and someone, or thing, is bound to get burnt.

WORST MOVIE ACCENT EVER

Sean Penn is brilliant in All The King's Men, but the movie is ruined by bad accents from co-stars Jude Law and Kate Winslet. That said, at least they tried to sound like they were from Louisiana. Anthony Hopkins doesn't even bother to try. For us, his is the worst movie accent in film history.

The bloggas at Deputy Dog have their own list of 13 godawful accents that have rolled off the lips of alleged actors. Kevin Costner in Robin Hood. Brad Pitt in The Devil's Own. Julia Roberts in Mary Reilly. Delightfully bad, all.

Your picks? No fair targeting Tony Curtis in Spartacus. Some things are sacred.

THE FRUIT OF THY WOMB

The artist Kate Kretz will be in Kansas City next month, showing her one-person exhibition, "Undressed," at the Belger Art Center (June 1-Sept. 7).

Sadly, the exhibition isn't likely to include Kretz's fab piece, Blessed Art Thou. A click shows you why this work rocks.

Hail Angelina, fulla grace.