(To be entirely fair, the Moviefone poll asked "Which actress gave the worst performance?," so for all we know, America en masse may think Fox is a very talented actress who just had a series of really bad days.)

Fox's dual wins were reflected in the movie she won for, as well; Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen managed to win both Best Action Movie of 2009 and Worst Movie of 2009. Well, at least one of those is right.

Year-End Movies Poll Results [Moviefone] (Via)

Transformers 3:

Megan Fox doesn't die in the third giant robot epic, says Michael Bay, who pooh-poohs the whole "Megan Fox compared Michael Bay to Hitler" thing and says it's all been blown out of proportion. "She's got a great part in Transformers 3," says Bay, who's working on the script now. [USA Today]

Star Trek:

Roberto Orci says he and co-writer Alex Kurtzman are preparing to write the next Trek movie by re-watching the original series — but also by reading classic SF, including works by Arthur C. Clarke. Rendezvous with Rama, anyone? [TrekMovie]

And J.J. Abrams says he's determined to get Greg Grunberg in the next movie — maybe as a red-shirt. [Newsarama]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

A few pictures of Xeno Lovegood have surfaced. [Cinemablend]

Resident Evil 4:

Will Jill Valentine be back? Producer Don Carmody won't say for sure. But he says "It's going to be surprising, and it's going to make people think what's going to happen next."[ShockTillYouDrop]

Lost:

There's been a ton of new filming, for episode 6x08, which appears to be all about Sawyer. There were some scenes involving Sawyer and Charles Widmore, aboard that submarine that we've seen so much of in the past. They went down the hatch and the crew filmed some scenes on board, then filmed them coming out of it together.

And then Sawyer had some scenes with Miles — and it looked like the two were partners in law enforcement. Sawyer had a badge on his belt, Miles had a gun on his hip. Sawyer is sitting in a nondescript Mercury parked outside La Brea Property Management in Pacific Tower. Sawyer beckons to Miles, who tries to blow him off and walk away, but Sawyer yells out and stops him, and then opens the passenger door. So Miles gets in the car, and Sawyer gives him one of two cups of coffee, then shows him a folder full of photographs. Miles looks through them, and then pauses to look at one of them in more detail. (If Sawyer really is a cop, it's odd that they were filming a scene where he "cons" Charlotte earlier.)

And then a woman driving a blue car crashes into Sawyer's cop car, and then the woman gets out and runs away — and it's Kate, wearing a hoodie to hide her face. She runs down an alley, knocking over a pile of boxes. Here's a bit of set video:

And then there's a scene where Sawyer grabs Kate by the collar and pushes her up against a doorway. Here are some set pics. More at the links. [Hawaii Weblog and Hawaii Weblog]

Also, this won't be much of a surprise to those of you who've been paying attention, but Rebecca Mader is indeed back as Charlotte, as a producer confirmed on his Twitter feed. [Sci Fi Wire]

Here's a German promo for season six, which as far as I can tell gives absolutely nothing away.

Doctor Who:

Here's a trailer for the animated adventure "Dreamland," which may actually be watchable in spite of the horrendous CG graphics.

And David Tennant speaks:

Dollhouse:

We have actual descriptions for the next two episodes, featuring Summer Glau:

Part 1 of 2. Echo's assignment: prevent Sen. Daniel Perrin from exposing the Dollhouse secrets. Meanwhile, at the D.C. Dollhouse, Adelle and Topher meet Topher's counterpart (Summer Glau), who has a link to Echo.

Conclusion. Echo and Bennett (Summar Glau) have a shocking reunion; Adelle squares off against the D.C. Dollhouse's leader (Ray Wise); Topher recruits Victor for his espionage; Perrin discovers a surprising witness in his crusade against the Rossum Corporation.

[TV Guide and TV Guide]

Fringe:

Jasika Nicole explains what's coming next for Astrid, on her excursions with Walter. [BuddyTV]

V:

Here are a couple of new videos of the final episode of 2009, tomorrow night's "It's Only The Beginning."

Supernatural:

It's unlikely that Jeffrey Dean Morgan will ever return to this show, but God is much more likely to show up — but not immediately. However, Sera Gamble says she'd "do backflips" if JDM did turn out to be available. Also, Michael will show up even though his vessel, Dean, isn't cooperating — but Michael will only be in "borrowed" bodies, of no consequence or permanence. The show will be "creative" in how it introduces Michael.

Also, in the first episode of January, the Winchesters are contacted by a hunter who worked a case that was so traumatic, he went crazy. He's checked himself into an insane asylum and something is awry there, so he asks the Winchesters to help — so they check in there, too. The episode explores the idea that "You don't have to be crazy to be a hunter, but it helps."

Also, we'll be seeing a lot more of Lucifer — we'll find out how he chose Nick, his current vessel. And we'll understand way more of Michael's perspective. There will be a "dark and twisted" Valentine's Day episode. [E! Online and TV Guide Magazine]

And here's a casting call for episode 14: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid:

[SHERIFF MILLS] In her mid 30s to mid 40s, tough and no-nonsense while on the job, but tender and loving toward her family, she's the Sheriff in a small town, she's calm under pressure even when things turn very personal...please submit all ethnicities...GUEST STAR

[KAREN SINGER] In her late 20s to 30s. Blonde, young and attractive, she's wise, direct, a straight shooter and nobody's fool...GUEST STAR

[SpoilerTV]

FlashForward:

Could this show be looking to duplicate The Prisoner or X-Men? A new casting call for episode 13 is looking for a new Number 2:

[PHILLIP] Late 60s. Caucasian, Ian McKellen-esque. A bit eccentric and unrepentantly set in his ways, his intellect is unmatched. Enjoys a good academic tussle...Guest Star

[LORRAINE] – 53, Caucasian, Brenda Blethyn type. British, sassy, working class. A widow and mother of four mostly grown children, she dotes on them when she's not telling them what to do. Must speak with an authentic Manchester accent. Guest star.

[CHRIS] - 30's.. Any Ethnicity. A former radio on-air dj, now working in a dead end job. Concealing a secret to his co-workers, he is ultimately forced to reveal his true identity...Co-Star

[ANDREW] – 22, Caucasian. An athletic, burly, blue-collar blockhead. A typical 20-something guy, he and his brothers like to prank each other. Must speak with a subtle Canadian accent. Co-Star.

[GRAHAM] – 20, Caucasian. An athletic, burly, blue-collar blockhead. A typical 20-something guy, he and his brothers like to prank each other. Must speak with a subtle Canadian accent. Co-Star.

[ANNABELLE] – 14.. Caucasian, Blonde. Sweet, vulnerable, almost ethereal. Fair and slight, she is the baby of the family but her good nature has helped her avoid becoming bratty. Must speak with a subtle Canadian accent. Co-Star/Possible Guest Star. Potentially recurring.

[DAISY - 18, ANY ETHNICITY. A VERY SMART AND CUNNI] - 18, Any Ethnicity. A very smart and cunning young woman who can play mental games with the best of them. If crossed, Daisy has the ability to bring great harm to all those around her. Co-Star.

[SpoilerTV andSpoilerTV]

Smallville:

Some screencaps from the JSA teaser give our first look at Justice Society members Doctor Fate, Sandman... and is that Green Lantern? [Forces Of Geek]

Also, Metallo (Brian Austin Green) will be back in episode 9x18, producers confirm. [TV Guide]

Chuck:

Here's a preview clip where Zachary Levi thanks the fans for watching. [Den Of Geek]

Stargate Universe:

In episode 10, "Justice," a member of the crew is killed, and the murder weapon is found in Col. Young's quarters. He cedes command to Camille Wray. And here's a sneak peek.

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

In these clips from next week's DVD release, we get a peek at trying to film in Egypt, blowing up a college campus and the enduring mythology of the Transformers in their 25th anniversary year.

Best part? Megan Fox sharing that Michael Bay is about as fun-loving as we'd expect.

"There's no, like, 'Oh, he would like for us to try (a scene) at least.' That's not it, - we weren't giving the option.
"You do it, or something bad is gonna happen to you."

InTouch Magazine is reporting that after Megan Fox talked smack about the Transformers crew, and vice versa, the director Michael Bay has decided to put an end to this silly squabble once and for all.

"Michael's pretty much discovered Megan and now he's very quietly looking for her replacement," said the insider. "He hasn't decided if he's going to kill her off in the next movie, but he just wants to be prepared."

Some sources are even claiming Fox's character, Mikayla, will be killed off towards the start of the next movie, just to set a cheery tone.

Granted this is a tabloid, so grain of salt people. But then again, she did kind of blow off an entire crew, so I can see why'd they'd all want her head before wreaking destruction on yet another robot heaven set. Plus isn't it time for a human to die, what with the murdering of Jazz and a few others? Time for human blood.

If you somehow managed to exist within the American mediascape and miss the ads for Jennifer's Body, count yourself lucky. Nearly all of them featured Megan Fox (and her title-inspiring body) in a sexy pose, as if we were about to watch a teen sex comedy where boys slaver after the unapproachable cheerleader. Tease campaigns about the movie emphasized that there would be a sexy lesbian kiss between Fox and Amanda Seyfried, the film's nerdy, point-of-view character. In short, the ad campaigns were aimed at straight young men, who are the core audience for most movies starring Megan Fox.

But the problem is that Jennifer's Body is not an ejaculatory explosion movie like Transformers 2. It is a horror movie, which means its built-in audience is already predominantly female (stats show that horror movie-goers are often over 60 percent women). Megan Fox is also not the main character; and she's not the boy hero's plucky sidekick (there are no boy heroes in this movie). Instead, she's the toothy, gory, puke-soaked object of repulsion and disgust. In short, she is the monster.

And she's a very specific kind of monster, too. She embodies one of the scariest demons who haunts girls' dreams: The popular, pretty girl who pretends to be your friend while secretly trying to steal your boyfriend, your pride, and your life. Written and directed by women, Jennifer's Body is a film made in a women's genre about women's problems. It's a movie about why women want to stab Megan Fox in the tit with scissors.

Marketing Jennifer's Body like it was another version of The Hangover or American Pie, with sexy ladies and dick jokes, meant it was doomed to fail. Women saw posters that emphasized Megan Fox as slick sex object, and thought: I hate that chick - why would I want to see a movie about her? And men who saw the movie said: What the fuck? I thought this was going to be tits and lesbian kissing, and instead it's about dysfunctional teen girl relationships? Why do I want to see Amanda Seyfried talking about her feelings for 90 minutes?

Reviews of the film seem to bear this interpretation out. Women and Hollywood's Melissa Silverstein points to a quick survey that Screen Rant did of critical responses to the film:

There were many more reviews by men (77) than women (26). The majority of these were culled from the Rotten Tomatoes site . . . Here's the breakdown: Male movie reviewers: 39% liked it, 61% disliked it; Female movie reviewers: 54% liked it, 46% disliked it.

Director Karyn Kusama told MTV.com:

I don't know if selling the film as a straight horror film and selling it primarily to boys is really going to do any of us any favors, frankly.

And indeed it didn't. Marketing attracted primarily men to the movie (including male reviewers), and a majority disliked it. Fewer women saw it, but of those who did, a majority (including myself) liked it.

I think it's clear that misguided marketing was a huge factor in what destroyed Jennifer's Body. As I said, the movie isn't Criterion Collection material, but it's a damn good genre picture. It's better than most other horror movies out there, with an original premise and a smart, fresh take on a very old monster story. If the marketing droids at Fox had just been smart enough to realize that the movie was aimed at women - not unlike most horror movies - they might have had a cult hit on their hands.

Posting to his blog, Bay revealed that work is already underway for the third in the Giant Robots In Disguise series:

Well its official: We have a great Transformers 3 story. The release date is now July 1st 2011. Not 2012.

Today is Day One. This morning started with an ILM meeting for five hours in San Francisco. Currently I'm flying with writer Ehren Kruger to Rhode Island to talk to Hasbro about new characters.

P.S. Megan Fox, welcome back. I promise no alien robots will harm you in any way during the production of this motion picture. Please consult your Physician when working under my direction because some side effects can occur, such as mild dizziness, intense nausea, suicidal tendencies, depression, minor chest hair growth, random internal hemorrhaging and inability to sleep. As some directors may be hazardous to your health, please consult your Doctor to determine if this is right for you.

For fans of large scale explosions that render things like "coherent plot" worthless, this can only be a good thing. Guess Bay realized that he liked that whole "getting paid a lot of money" thing after all.

Transformers 3: July 1st, 2011 [Shoot For The Edit]

I'm usually a huge fan of the digital shorts, and sass others who say they're lame or simply not funny, but I was one of the others last night, and it stung. That is, until Brian Austin Green showed up.

Jennifer's Body is as simple as chocolate-spiked spit and as complicated as you want it to be. I like that in a movie.

Here's the simple part: Nice, nerdy Needy (the awesome Amanda Seyfried from Big Love) is BFFs with the bitchy hottie Jennifer (Megan Fox). They live in a small, Minnesota town where such an unlikely pairing is possible. There are so few kids in their town that two little girls who played in the sandbox together can stay friends as teens. But there's a problem. Jennifer is always pushing Needy around.

That's how the two wind up at a show for some lame indie rock band called Low Shoulder. A band whose lead singer Jennifer is scheming to hook up with. It turns out that Low Shoulder has a scheme, too: They want to sacrifice a virgin to Satan so that their band will achieve some success without having to do something "lame" like go on Letterman. Because they're in such a backwoods town, they assume Jennifer is a virgin. But as she says later, "I'm not even a backdoor virgin." Turns out when you sacrifice a non-virgin to Satan, it causes the sacrifice to go all undead demon on your ass.

And that's when things get sick. Jennifer has to drink blood to survive, and she's not satisfied just eating dumbass members of the football team. So she starts going after people Needy likes, including Needy's floppy-haired, cute boyfriend Chip. There's an amazing awkward/cute/horrifying scene where Chip and Needy are losing their virginity together, intercut with Jennifer sipping blood out of the ripped-open torso of another guy Needy has an unacknowledged crush on.

Once Needy figures out Jennifer is a demon, she sets out to stop her. Of course everything culminates in a Needy vs. Jennifer vs. Chip showdown at the prom, an event that is hellish for girls even if they don't have best frenemies who are monsters.

Sure it's a cliched structure; you've seen it a thousand times before. That's the way horror movies work, though. They offer up a generic story and the good parts, the original parts, come in the little tweaks and fucked-up details that offer you a glimpse of the real-life horrors that lurk beneath the CG fantasy. And that's why Jennifer's Body is so rewarding as a movie: Things get really complicated the more you think about how this movie overturns your expectations.

So now for the complicated part. Let's begin with how this flick breaks one of the cardinal rules of small-scale horror. Here you have a female monster menacing a female character. Usually female monsters - especially sexy ones like Jennifer - are out to get men. Female vampires chomp on men; Grendel's mom tries to smack down Beowulf; the Species chick murders guys who are boning her. There are exceptions, like the woman vs. woman fights in Aliens or Friday the 13th (the very first movie). But those movies are quite memorable because they fly in the face of our expectations.

Jennifer eats men, but she does it to get at Needy. She eats the men Needy loves. As director Karyn Kusama has said, Jennifer's Body is a movie about toxic friendships between women. By placing this story in the context of a monster movie, it also does something interesting. First, it acknowledges that women are horribly dangerous, which you already knew if you watched The Sarah Connor Chronicles. More importantly, it acknowledges that women are dangerous to other women. Not just in a mean girls way, but in an "I will rip your lungs out" way.

Although we've seen countless movies where men are dangerous to women, and to each other, you can probably count the number of stories that acknowledge female/female violence on one hand (please count all women-in-prison movies as one finger only). This is a topic we don't like to think about because it fundamentally undermines cultural stereotypes of women as bitchy but harmless. Here we see bitchiness treated the way male aggressiveness is treated in pretty much every single action movie you've ever seen. It's deadly, important, and potentially civilization-destroying.

At the same time, Jennifer's Body also plays with the pervasiveness of male/female violence in the real world. Jennifer returns to Needy's house after her proverbial ride in Low Shoulder's van looking like a rape victim, vacant-eyed and covered in blood. She vomits up a horrific stream of black, ferromagnetic fluid, then runs out the door. In that puddle of black goo, which Needy spends all night cleaning up, we see the first signs that this ain't no girly rape revenge movie.

When Jennifer is given superhuman power by a bunch of douchey guys, she doesn't go after the guys for vengeance. Hell, she's psyched to be a god. Instead she goes after the real source of all her agony: Her best friend, who manages to have a nice boyfriend and an interesting future as a "narrative nonfiction writer" despite being a total meganerd. She's not as pretty as Jennifer, and yet Jennifer suspects that Needy is somehow, sneakily, better than she is.

This is a movie about female wrath. And it's not the clean, sympathetic wrath we saw in Thelma and Louise; it's not the trampy blankness we wanked over in Species. It's ugly, wrong, powerful wrath. The kind that builds empires and destroys towns. And men are irrelevant to this wrath, in the same way Jennifer's life was irrelevant to the guys in Low Shoulder who murdered her.

There's something deeply subversive about a movie that says women are angry, but not at men. Women have enough power now that men are hardly the issue. Now, we've got something to work out among ourselves.

I'm not sure what people are expecting when they go to see a movie like Jennifer's Body, but based on early negative reviews I'm pretty sure it wasn't this. All I can assume is that they expected something really highbrow, based on the fact that it was penned by "I have a vocab" writer Diablo Cody. Or maybe they thought it would just be long scenes of Megan Fox's tits, which would also be a letdown, since there are no tits.

Actually, that's not true. When Needy stabs Jennifer in the chest with a box cutter, Jennifer screams, "My tit!" and Needy corrects her: "No, your heart."

Jennifer's Body is in many ways just a horror trashfest, but there's also a raw, gaping wound of truth in its heart. Anyone who can take their eyes off Megan Fox's tits and look at the rage in her face will see just that.

io9: What's new about this horror film, why did it stand out to you?

Karyn Kusama: The humor comes from Diablo's vision of the world and I felt like the horror came out of the relationship. Which I thought was a really interesting idea, the idea that this toxic friendship could be the emotional foundation of the horror. A lot of times I think we watch horror movies that by default have a female character. But this movie - it's interesting to see that the so-called monster Jennifer is female, as is the heroine.

I really liked this relationship between the two girls, it's something many people experience. Was this always the foundation of the movie?

It was always supposed to be a relationship rooted in the past, rooted in childhood. And the toxic element of it developed between them as a sort of emotional codependence and role playing in which Jennifer always played the Alpha female in control and Needy was always willing to be her tagalong or sidekick and was subservient to her. I think there have been comedies and teen movies that explore that idea. But in this case that relationship is sort of realized into something pretty dark.

I really can't imagine anyone else playing that Alpha character - was Megan Fox always in mind?

She was an element to the movie very very early. Even before the producers came on.

She's pretty perfect for the role, how did you help her find her inner bitch for this character?

Well I'm sure all of us would love it if we could all find our inner bitchiness. She just relished the opportunity to have fun with that, she was very, very funny with that. But I really enjoyed working with her. She was very thoughtful, smart, very prepared. She brought a lot of humor to the role that I wouldn't have necessarily known she could do because that was something she hadn't done in Transformers.

There's been this new study out that says women watch more horror movies than men. Do you think that's accurate? What do you think about that?

I think actually women were probably always going to horror movies, we just weren't measuring it as religiously as we do now. I think it's a human condition to identify with being scared. There is something about the narrative of flight and survival that I think is very compelling for women. I find it very compelling. I don't watch all of the horror that's out there, because one, there's so much of it and two some of it is a little less emotionally engaging for me than others. I think there is something about watching women, well women and men, but often times young people fighting for their lives - it's a very compelling story. It's a way to deposit all of our anxieties about our own life. Particularly if those anxieties are more mundane but they feel like life and death. It's a way to articulate those anxieties in a safe place like a theater.

And this movie's focus on female relationships will probably bring out more female horror fans.

I feel like there have been plenty of horror movies where the main character is female. A lot of them that I really love. But this is one of those movies where the movie and the horror grows out of the female relationships. And I think that's pretty interesting.

And that relationship is pretty toxic. These two are friends but Jennifer, Megan, really goes after her friend. Can we talk about why you wanted this kind of a dynamic? Why is Jenny so angry with her best friend?

It's funny I was just talking about this with Megan the other day in another interview. And she had always approached this character as someone who was jealous of her best friend, Needy. Jealous of the attachments and the relationships that Needy has in her life. And that somehow there was some subconscious desire to take that away from her.

They dress very different as well. Small spoiler, at the formal Needy looks very 80s in a big pink dress with bad hair and make up while Jennifer has a lovely gown. Whose idea was this and why?

Diablo had always written that it was a really bad dress. By the time I was working with the costume designer I had shown her a lot of reference material, a lot of pretty terrible 80s prom dresses. The worse they got the better the look became. I always wanted her hair to be big and poofy and her makeup to be a little over-applied. I think our costume designer nailed it.

But why make them so different on the outside too?

I think the whole point with Needy was that she was an expression of some more 80s sensibility and that everyone else had been more attuned to the fashions of the times. Needy is a little more nostalgic in life, but also a little less tuned in to the relentless [fashion] magazine culture.

But Megan really was covered in blood half the time too. And the gore was pretty good.

There's a scene where she's literally scooping blood out of the carcass of one of our characters. I really wanted it to look as if she was at a fountain of youth and instead of drinking water, she was drinking blood. So I wanted it to look like she was slurping that blood and drinking it down. We could only get a couple of takes that were working because we had live rats in the scene at the same time which is a whole other absurd nightmare, especially rodents which are not highly trained animals. Meanwhile she's drinking this unholy combination of some kind of stand in for blood and corn syrup so she can ingest it. I felt like by the third take I was waiting for her to just puke into a pail. That scene was pretty painful for her because she was swallowing everything.

The side characters in this film really helped ground the movie in reality. Adam Brody was great and seriously disturbing in an off-putting way.

The great thing about Adam Brody he manages to keep things very charming and personable so it takes a while to really see the depth of his ambition and psychosis. There's a coldness to his single mindedness once he starts to reveal what his plan is and what he's done to Jennifer. So in an interesting way Jennifer gets to be the monster and he gets to be the villain.

When he looked towards the camera at the character Needy, it gave me chills.

It's funny because when we screened it and a lot of those looks generated really big laughs. And I wonder if that's just because people were nervously anticipating what's to come.

I'd bet it's also because they aren't used to seeing him that way either.

Yeah it's true, you have to get used to that the comedy is tied up with his very very bad intentions.

Jennifer's Body will be out in theaters this Friday.

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While promoting Jennifer's Body, Megan Fox unleashed the latest in her long line of faux-controversial statements intended to get her as much attention as humanly possible, when asked about working with Transformers director Bay:

He's like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is. So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward. He has no social skills at all. And it's endearing to watch him.

Fox's comments weren't considered so endearing by the crew who'd worked on Transformers, and they wrote a letter in response, which was posted on Bay's website. Here're some "high"lights:

Michael found this shy, inexperienced girl, plucked her out of total obscurity thus giving her the biggest shot of any young actresses' life. He told everyone around to just trust him on his choice. He granted her the starring role in Transformers, a franchise that forever changed her life; she became one of the most googled and oogled women on earth. She was famous! She was the next Angelina Jolie, hooray! Wait a minute, two of us worked with Angelina – second thought – she's no Angelina. You see, Angelia is a professional.

We know this quite intimately because we've had the tedious experience of working with the dumb-as-a-rock Megan Fox on both Transformers movies. We've spent a total of 12 months on set making these two movies... Megan has the press fooled. When we read those magazines we wish we worked with that woman. Megan knows how to work her smile for the press. Those writers should try being on set for two movies, sadly she never smiles. The cast, crew and director make Transformers a really fun and energetic set. We've traveled around the world together, so we have never understood why Megan was always such – the grump of the set?

So when the three of us caught wind of Ms Fox, pontificating yet again in some publication (like she actually has something interesting to say) blabbing her trash mouth about a director whom we three have grown to really like. She compared working with Michael, to "working with Hitler". We actually don't think she knows who Hitler is by the way.

And who is the real Megan Fox? She is very different than the academy nominee and winning actors we've all worked around. She's as about ungracious a person as you can ever fathom. She shows little interest in the crew members around her. We work to make her look good in every way, but she's absolutely never appreciative of anyone's hard work. Never a thank you. All the crewmembers have stopped saying hi to Ms. Princess because she never says hello back. It gets tiring. Many think she just really hates the process of being an actress... Megan really is a thankless, classless, graceless, and shall we say unfriendly bitch. It's sad how fame can twist people, and even sadder that young girls look up to her. If only they knew who they're really looking up to.

(You can read the whole thing here.)

After people started noticing the letter and wondering if the whole thing was some bizarro publicity ploy, it disappeared from Bay's site and was replaced with this zen commentary from the man himself:

I don't condone the crew letter to Megan. And I don't condone Megan's outlandish quotes. But her crazy quips are part of her crazy charm. The fact of the matter I still love working with her, and I know we still get along. I even expect more crazy quotes from her on Transformers 3.

Internally, of course, he's trimming his metaphorical moustache and preparing revenge on Fox for her non-"condoned" quotes. But we can't help but feel that everyone comes out of this well - Fox gets her publicity and seems "edgy" again, Bay appears to be the peacemaker who can take being called Hitler in his stide, and suddenly we're talking about Transformers again. Job well done, crazy Hollywood rumor mill!

Jennifer's Body is out October 17th.

The graphic novel doesn't exactly adapt the movie, but instead works around it; we see some events in the movie from the perspective of Jennifer's victims, although we also get a prologue and epilogue from Jennifer's perspective herself. It's an interesting take on the tie-in format, and offers up a lot of potential for adding something to the movie - but, ultimately, it remains an additional part to the movie, as opposed to something that stands alone (It also seems to reveal the ending - or, at least, an ending - to the movie, which seems somewhat counter-intuitive, considering that the movie isn't released for another month. Maybe it should come with a note to skip the last chapter until you've seen the movie).

Storywise, what's on offer is a catalog of male teen neuroses and inability to see women as anything other than... well, "other" - Each narrator objectifies Jennifer, and sees her as something that would either solve some problem or magically improve their life in some ill-defined way, and the interest of the book is as much in the different ways in which each character does that (Will she cure the jock's shrunken testicle problem? Does she "understand" the introverted emo kid because she listens to the same music?) as it is in the dark comedy of high school politics that it wants to be. The problem is, the book objectifies Jennifer just as much as any of the characters; the few Jennifer-narrated sequences aside - and even then, she comes across as little more than a generic evil demon cliche - Jennifer is only in this book as a killing machine or an thing to lust over. She isn't given any depth or attention at all, and neither are any of the book's other female characters; it's really only all about the boys.

What the book becomes, then, is this odd thing where we're shown that objectifying women is wrong, but that women are also not really anything other than lust objects, killers, or plot devices of some shape or form. That's not entirely helped by the art, which goes between Frank Cho's cheesecake cover and Jim Mahfood's gloriously cartoony take in the first chapter (See top image for an example). The mix of artists and art styles helps reinforce the episodic nature of Rick Spears' writing, but not enough; Mahfood is the most extreme example of variety, and I ended up wishing we'd had more artists that took similar chances.

Despite all of this, though, there's something engaging about the book. Spears' take on the characters allows you to feel movie scriptwriter Diablo Cody's touch, but also harkens back to Kevin Williamson's work on Scream, or the movie The Faculty, and even with all the problems surrounding the book's confused sexual politics, there's something winning about not only the victims' inner turmoil, but also seeing them get dispatched in their individual manners. More than anything, though, the book achieves its main purpose without breaking a sweat - By being so confused, and leaving Jennifer (and Needy, her best friend, who plays an important role in the book later on) so vague and incomplete, it leaves me wanting to see the movie, in order to find out if there's more to this story than meets the eye. I'm just trying to work out if I should feel cheated about that or not.

Jennifer's Body is out on September 18th.

But we'll get to that comic soon enough. Instead, let's start with Kevin Smith's return to the Dark Knight, in Batman: The Widening Gyre — the first of two mini-series he's doing with the character in an attempt to make some money in-between making movies starring Seth Rogen.

If that isn't enough movie action for you, then don't worry, Boom! Studios has you covered and then some. The first issue of the official 28 Days Later comic offers slow burn and foreboding, but also some fast-paced action to keep your interest. And the Jennifer's Body graphic novel lets you experience the new Megan Fox horror movie in a way that is completely unlike anything you'd expect, thanks to some great artwork from people like Jim Mahfood and Nikki Cook.

DC offers up some great (and diverse) takes on superheroes this week, with The Authority: World's End, Vol. 1, opening up with the day after the end of the world and providing some suitably dark post-apocalyptic stories from that point on. If you'd rather see a happier version of humanity's dark side, 1950s reprint book Showcase Presents: Eclipso gives you a glimpse at the man who can become his own worst enemy, thanks to a magically-powered evil diamond (No, really). And Gail Simone and Nicola Scott's Secret Six: Unhinged almost grabs the Book Of The Week title with its wonderfully screwed-up take on the former supervillains who now operate in the even murkier world of moral ambiguity and professional mercenaryness; funny, disturbing and gripping, it's highly recommended.

However, very little in the world of comics today can measure up to Brandon Graham, and particular King City, his tale of one boy and his magic cat. After original publisher Tokyopop pulled the series after its first volume, Graham is back with a revised version at new publisher Image. Make no mistake: This comic is entirely individual, entirely enjoyable, and easily the sexiest thing you'll find yourself reading this week. And it also has a cat that can do anything, given the right drugs. How could you even vaguely resist?

If that's not enough for you, you can always check Diamond Distributors' official list of everything reaching comic stores this week for other booty, or just go ask your local comic store what they recommend. Just make sure that King City #1 is amongst your reading pile. You can thank me later.

I think my favorite part is when Fox tells us all she knows we know the movie's making jokes at her expense, so you know she knows, right? Damnit, stop being so freaking hot and up for a laugh. No matter what you think, you have to admire her — even when she plays it to the audience. That's brand awareness pure and simple, my friends.

The rest of the night went pretty smoothly — Diablo Cody talked horror, and how her postmodern thriller started off darker:

It's funny, because when I first set out to write this, I wanted to write a very dark, very brooding traditional slasher movie. And then I realized, about a third of the way into the process, that I was incapable of doing that. [The jokes] just kept kind of sneaking in. I have a macabre sense of humor, a lot of the things in the movie that are horrifying are funny to me. I've always said that I think comedy films and horror films are kind of similar in the sense that you actually can witness the audience having physical release. They are laughing [or] they're screaming — it's not a passive experience.

Director Karyn Kusama made an interesting point about the female perspective of Jennifer's Body. It's all about taking it back.

A lot of horror is about femaleness, whether it's Carrie or Rosemary's Baby. I feel like there's a lot of fear of the female, or a celebration of it in some weird way. Something about this movie managed to take fear, and the sense that it's the female that ultimately survives, and sort of marry that in a very personal way.

Jennifer's Body will be released in theaters on Sept. 18th.

In a nutshell, this movie is exactly what it's being labeled as, A Diablo Cody Horror film. One girl's hot, the other is adorably awkward and relatable, the side characters are semi-intersting, there's an adorable puberty-stricken boyfriend, we get emo jokes at hipsters' expenses (they don't know they're laughing at themselves) and of course the extra-glib talky talk that defines a Diablo Cody movie.

It's becoming apparent that cheeseball dialog gleaned from the slang of fake teenage tongues are to Diablo Cody what sunsets and sepia tones are to Michael Bay. You know you're going to get it, no matter what you do or how much you protest. So you're either on for the ride, or get the heck off. If you can listen to Megan Fox say:

"You're totally Jell-O, you're lime green Jell-O and you can't even admit it to yourself,"

to her best friend's jealous boyfriend without digging your pencil into the side of your leg just to feel a different type of pain, then you can continue on the Diablo horror path knowing (and possibly enjoying) what you're getting. At its heart, this movie will be a litmus test for pure Cody fans — those that can hack it through the slutty girl from High School, complaining that she couldn't go to Flag's the day after losing her back door virginity and having to sit on a bag of iced peas for a day. Megan is the girl who says such things, while her blonde, innocent buddy Needy Lesnicky, played by Amanda Seyfried, is the "straight man" victim of the horror plot.

The film begins with a over-the-top-slutty Megan Fox, as Jennifer Check, beckoning her bestie away from a night out with her boyfriend to the local shit-hole pub. The place is full of students, locals, and people Jennifer has fucked or at least thought about fucking. Oh yeah, they say fuck...a lot, because you know teenagers and their swear words. In comparison when Needy gets super scared she blurts out replacement curse words "cheese fries," honest to blog.

Anyway, at said crap watering hole, Jennifer decides that they are going to sleep with the totally hot band that just so happens to be playing their terrible little town. The band is fronted by a side neck-tattooed, eyeliner smudged intentionally stereotyped Nikolai Wolf, (Adam Brody). The Megan and Adam back-and-forth was actually the cutest part of the footage we saw — say what you will about Fox's acting talents, she's learned the art of comedic timing. "Your....band....is....(ceiling eyes)...super good." I'm not sure if it was intentional, but I laughed.

So Jennifer has her heart set on becoming the next groupie, and runs off to bring back some 9/11 red, white and blue tribute shots served up by the bartender, Ms. Cody herself (irony or somethin' har har). Adam Brody then launches into a five-minute-long song that sets the bar on fire and mesmerizes young Jennifer. While the song was, for all intents and purposes, "nice," I have no doubt that it will now be a colossal hit, racing up the itunes charts and Adam Brody's lip sync video will no doubt be played over and over and over again on the youtubes.

We slowly discover that the Adam Brody band wants to get its mitts on Jennifer's body because they think she's a virgin (and as we discover, if they kill a virgin their band will continue down its path towards fame). But the hitch in the road for the next Panic At The Disco, that we all discover after Jennifer so sweetly tells us that she'd like to sex up the local Indian student because she's always wanted to sleep with a sea cucumber, Jennifer ain't no virgin. Thus, murdering her in this ritual turns her into a boy-eating demon (none of which we saw in this screening). We're left to assume most of this, when Jennifer appears in Needy's home covered in blood and feasting on her Mother's old Boston Market chicken. This is when it gets good. Jennifer spews out black vomit from the chicken, screams like a banshee and throws her best friend sexually up against the wall.

Jennifer is truly at her best when she's bad. I have to say, once I got over the initial Cody shock, I really wanted to continue watching this film. I like Jennifer all messed up, with her smile coated in fresh blood. I want to see her realize her demonic goal, to seduce and kill all the bad boys in her town, but not before the girl-on-girl kissing scene that Cody promised. And not because it's pervy, but because it's a parody or silly homage to horror — so they know you know it's stupid to have girls kissing in a flick, they just want you to know they know, DIABLO!

Banter aside, it looks like good old fashioned fun that comes complete with a soundtrack that will go out of style in three to two months.

Horror site Shock has posted the first pages from of the Jennifer's Body comic, illustrated by Jim Mahfood. The book introduces you to all the other characters in Jennifer's world, and the pages released seem to focus on a steroid injecting dim-witted jock. Let's hope he gets it first. The comic book will be released in August.

To read the entire section check out Shock Til You Drop.