Selena Gomez, who is hugely popular thanks to the Disney Channel series The Wizards of Waverly Place, had to drink a fly in a glass of lemonade for her first big-screen movie Ramona & Beezus.

As she will be the first to tell you, it wasn’t really a fly.  “The secret was that’s a raisin that they put in as a fly in the lemonade and they put air with a needle in the raisin so it would float like a bug. It took forever to get a raisin to float.”

Just 18 this week Gomez is having the kind of career that is first of all brilliant – it’s dreams come true time – and scary since her audience is the most fickle in show business, tweens.  There is always the danger that as she grows up she might disappear.  But if onetime TV sensations Sarah Gilbert and Valerie Bertinelli are any measure, Gomez could go on working until she turns 98.

At Manhattan’s London Hotel the multi-hyphenate – Gomez has her own line of clothes, sings and probably tap dances as well as acts – sat down all by herself, no hangers on, no attendant publicists, to talk about her life, hopes and new movie.

Q: I JUST READ THAT WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE IS HAVING ITS FOURTH AND FINAL SEASON COMING UP. IS THAT YOUR CHOICE, THAT AFTER FOUR YEARS IT’S OVER?
GOMEZ: No, not at all. I just think that with the characters growing, my older brother is supposed to be in college at this point and I know that I’m going into my last year in high school, and so in a way it kind of has to. But we’re milking it for all we can because I love the show and I was devastated when I found out it was going to be our last season. We will be doing another movie for it so that we can kind of tie it all in together. It was a great thing to be a part of but I don’t want to think about it ending it yet because I haven’t even started the fourth season. But it will be very hard for me.

Q: YOU’RE NOT RAMONA IN RAMONA AND BEEZUS. MOST PEOPLE WOULD THINK YOU’D BE THE STAR OF THE FILM. WHY FOR YOUR FIRST BIG FEATURE DID YOU DECIDE TO DO AN ENSEMBLE FILM?
GOMEZ: Well, I truly believe that my show is an ensemble. I know I’ve had people say that it is my show but I don’t really believe that. I think it’s Wizards of Waverly Place and I believe that I couldn’t do the show if it weren’t for my brothers or if it weren’t for my dad or my mom on the show. For this project, I just wanted to be a part of a great director, of a great film that had a great message. Originally in the movie I had five scenes and once I started working on the film they started to write more to my character [BEEZUS which is the nickname for Beatrice] which was a blessing for me and then they ended up putting my name to the title.

Q: AND ON THE POSTER –
GOMEZ: And on the poster, yes. So I was really excited. I really had to work for it but it was really fun and I think that being a part of an ensemble is way stronger than carrying something on your own, personally.

Q: WHAT ABOUT THE SOUNDTRACK FOR THIS MOVIE, DO YOU HAVE A SONG ON IT?
GOMEZ: Yes, I do. I have the theme of the movie which is called ‘Live Like There’s No Tomorrow’ and it’ll be on my next album that’s coming out. It’s basically just saying take every day that you have and hold it close to your heart and live it to the fullest because you don’t know if there’s going to be a tomorrow. It’s all about embracing yourself in that moment and living in that moment.

Q: THAT’S A WONDERFUL THOUGHT BUT WITH YOU BEING A TEENAGER THAT’S A VERY MATURE THING TO BE CONSIDERING AND THINKING ABOUT -
GOMEZ: Well, yes, but I think that’s what this movie does. It’s a family movie but it does touch on real issues like financial problems and fighting with your sister and parents fighting and how that affects the kids. It deals with relationships but at the same time it goes to show what families will do for the sacrifice of loving each other.

Q: IN THE PRESS CONFERENCE EARLIER TODAY YOU SAID THAT BOYS STILL DON’T COME UP TO YOU. IN THIS FILM YOUR CHARACTER, BEEZUS, HAS A GUY FRIEND AND THAT RELATIONSHIP IS CHANGING. SHE MAKES THE FIRST MOVE AND KISSES HIM. IS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU HAVE TO DO IN REAL LIFE BECAUSE YOU’RE A CELEBRITY?
GOMEZ: Oh, I have been doing it. I have been going up to guys but they just don’t seem to catch on. Trust me, I have. No. I think I’m very awkward in that department. I really am. I’m growing up. I’m trying to figure out who I am and what I want and so it is kind of hard, especially in my position. I’m constantly traveling. I have a busy schedule and I need someone who understands that and so it’s kind of difficult.

Q: ALSO, THERE’S YOUR CELEBRITY STATUS. DOES THAT CREATE A PROBLEM –
GOMEZ: Not really.

Q: ONCE THEY MEET YOU THEN THEY’RE COOL WITH WHAT YOU DO AND WHO YOU ARE?
GOMEZ: I hope so but at the same time I don’t know if they’re dating me because they think I’m a cool person. I don’t know if they’re dating me because their little sister is a fan of the show or because they want to get a picture. I never know. I never know and that’s another challenging part to that.

Q: DO YOU MEDITATE? DO YOU SWIM? DO YOU GO RUNNING? HOW DO YOU KEEP A BALANCE BETWEEN THE DEMANDS OF BEING A WORKING ACTOR AND A SINGER AND HAVING A REGULAR LIFE?
GOMEZ: I like to go home. I think that Texas is my meditation. It’s so not California and it’s not Hollywood and it’s not that life. I really, really love that because everyone back home, my family, is what keeps me together. I think that’s my meditation, just being with my family and getting away from all of it.

Q: HOW DO YOU SEE THE BALANCE BETWEEN YOUR ACTING AND YOUR MUSIC?
GOMEZ: I love everything that I do. I don’t just slap my name on something because I think it’s going to be huge or this or that. I love everything that I do and I know that if I was just acting I’d be itching to do music and I know if I was just doing music I know I’d want to be doing my clothing line. So it’s honestly about everything I’m doing, being extremely passionate about it and I think while I’m young why not try it all.

Q: YOU’RE VERY YOUNG TO BE A UNICEF AMBASSADOR.
GOMEZ: Yes.

Q: HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?
GOMEZ: They actually came to me about two and a half years ago and they asked me to do just their Trick or Treat Campaign with them. I knew the organization. I think that everyone knows the organization. I wanted to do it and was absolutely thrilled to be a part of it. We did the campaign and it ended up raising over a half million dollars. It was so wonderful because I was able to use my voice to encourage kids to look at other issues going on in the world and look at other kids who are less fortunate than we are. So ever since then they’ve asked me to be an ambassador and go on mission trips with them, go to different schools and go to Ghana and Africa and all these different places. It’s just been a really humbling experience for me but at the same time educating kids my age to help out.

Q: YOU MENTIONED YOUR FASHION LINE. ARE YOU WEARING YOUR OWN CLOTHES NOW?
GOMEZ: Yeah. Actually these are my jeans.

Q: BEAUTIFUL JEANS. VERY TIGHT.
GOMEZ: Well, they’re jeggings because they’re leggings. So they’re kind of like jeans, but see, you fell for it. That’s the new thing, it’s all about comfort. My style is all about comfort and being comfortable. We actually went through my closet and we picked out key items and we kind of geared it towards my favorite t-shirts, my favorite scarves, my favorite jeans and jeggings and leggings.

Q: THE NEW YORK TIMES JUST HAD A PIECE ABOUT MILEY CYRUS ALIENATING HER YOUNG FANS BY BEING TOO SEXUAL, GROWING TOO FAST. DO YOU HAVE THOUGHTS ABOUT YOUR FANS AND WANTING THEM TO GROW UP WITH YOU?
GOMEZ: I love my fans. I really do. They’re so very special to me and they hold a special place in my heart and I’m sitting on this couch because of them, talking to you. So I would love to. Just taking baby steps and having them grow with me and love me and I love them and they’ve made me a better person as I’ve gotten older.

Q: ANY DREAM PROJECT, ANY BOOK, SOMETHING THAT YOU’VE SHOWN YOUR AGENT OR MANAGERS THAT YOU REALLY WANT TO DO?
GOMEZ: I don’t know. I think as an actress you constantly want to be challenged and so you constantly want to try new things that aren’t you. I love that. So I think every role, I want to do every genre, everything that’s completely not anything that I’ve done before. It’s all about reinventing yourself for a character and that’s all I want to do.

Q: ARE YOU STUDYING AS WELL, DO YOU TAKE ACTING CLASSES?
GOMEZ: I graduated from high school so at this point right now I’m trying to figure out a backup plan. I would love to actually go to culinary school. I’d love to learn how to be a chef. I’d love to learn how to cook. I don’t know how but I’d love to.

Q: WHO WOULD YOU SAY YOUR BIG INFLUENCES WERE WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP, AT TEN, 11 AND 12; WHO DID YOU LOOK UP TO?
GOMEZ: When I was ten I looked up to Hilary Duff and then when I was about 13 I looked up to Rachel McAdams and to this day she’s still my favorite actress on the face of the planet because she’s so wonderful, so sweet, very classy and you never see her I the public eye for the wrong reasons. You just see that she loves what she does and she goes for it and I really admire that.

Q: YOU MENTIONED BRIDGET MOYNAHAN BEING A BIG INFLUENCE FOR YOU.
GOMEZ: Yes.

Q: DID THAT JUST HAPPEN NATURALLY ON SET, WORKING TOGETHER WEEK AFTER WEEK AS SHE PLAYED YOUR MOM?
GOMEZ: For some reason I completely clicked with Bridget in a different way, like an older woman figure, not as a mom. She was talking to me about issues that she’d gone through and I was telling her stuff that I was dealing with and she’s just so amazing. She was like, ‘Well, you have to keep going and do what you love,’ and I just really admired that. She made everyone on set smile and she did such a great job. I just really, really admired that.

Q: WHEN YOU SEE A MOVIE, BEING IN THIS BUSINESS, CAN YOU SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE FILM OR ARE YOU TOO AWARE OF WHATEVER IS GOING ON BEHIND THE SCENES?
GOMEZ: I don’t know. I think so. I think there are certain times because I’m in it that I think, ‘Oh, that was this –’ or I catch this or that but most of the time I really try to detach myself because I really want to be a viewer when I watch a movie. I just want to be an audience member. I really do love watching films for that reason. I know how hard everyone works on a set and so when I see a film that has a lot of production and a lot of action or a lot of heartfelt scenes or hard scenes, fighting scenes, I really look up to it and I think it takes the movie to a whole new level for me because I know that must’ve been really hard and they did it brilliantly.

Q: DO YOU KNOW WHEN YOUR NEXT ALBUM IS GOING TO COME OUT?
GOMEZ: Fall. We’re definitely looking for a back to school release.

Q: ARE YOU DONE WITH IT NOW, JUST WAITING TO RELEASE IT?
GOMEZ: No, no. I probably have about six more songs that I’m hoping to put on.

With Salt opening, it’s a perfect time to revisit Angelina Jolie - earlier this week The Herald ran portions of this interview.  Jolie, 35, sat down at Georgetown’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel in D.C. to discuss family, life, career and, of course, her kids and Brad Pitt.  She wore a black Ferragamo dress with a black single-breasted jacket, beige heels and a pair of emerald teardrop earrings.

Q: DOES HAVING TODDLERS MEAN YOU CAN RUN AS FAST AS YOU DO IN THIS MOVIE?
JOLIE: Yes. They can still run faster. Zee is the fastest in the house, but yes.
They are all over the place and the twins are going in different directions at the same time.

Q: HAVE YOU EVER PUT THEM ON LEASHES?
JOLIE: We put a lot more of the gates around. We’ve gated off a lot of the rooms in the house where they were going.

Q: I JUST READ THAT ‘VANITY FAIR’ STORY WHERE YOU SAID –
JOLIE: I haven’t read it.

Q: GOOD. IT’S A NICE ARTICLE THOUGH. BUT YOU SAID IN THAT IN TWO YEARS OR SO YOU WEREN’T SURE YOU WOULD BE DOING THIS, THAT YOU MIGHT BE DOING SOMETHING ELSE. YOU SEEM TO HAVE EVERYTHING AS WELL AS BEING THE ONLY BANKABLE FEMALE ACTION STAR. IS THAT ENOUGH FOR YOU? DO YOU HAVE OTHER AMBITIONS FOR YOUR CAREER?
JOLIE: Yeah, sure. I mean I’m somebody who likes to be very, very busy. I’m kind of energized to do things. I don’t sit down well and so I’m always reading something or thinking about something or going to make something. But I just imagine in the years to come, it’s not that I’m retiring but there will be less films at some point and I’d love to do other things. I’d love to live in Africa for six months and fly planes. I’d just like to see what else there is to do and artistically I’m sure there are other things to do.

Q: DO YOU LOOK FORWARD TO GETTING LINES, GAINING WEIGHT AND HAVING GRAY HAIR?
JOLIE: Yeah, I do actually.

Q: THE ACTION THING SORT OF CUTS AGAINST BEING A GREAT DRAMATIC ACTRESS WHICH YOU ARE –
JOLIE: Well, thank you and I’ve been so lucky that I’ve been able to do both in my career and I’ve been allowed both, by audiences really, that they’ve accepted me in both. I like getting older. I think maybe it’s something where I lost my mother and there’s something about that where you just really appreciate being able to, as you get older and see your age, have history with the people that you love. It just becomes important to you. You want to see your grandkids. You want all those things and so as it comes there’s deep pleasure in it but I’m sure that’s also because I have a very small family and I can relax into it.

Q: YOU DON’T HAVE ANY LINES THOUGH –
JOLIE: I do think that age is beautiful.

Q: BEAUTIFUL ON WOMEN –
JOLIE: And men. I think it’s beautiful.

Q: YOU DO YOUR OWN STUNTS WITH YOUR LONGTIME STUNT COORDINATOR. WERE YOU ALWAYS ATHLETIC?
JOLIE: Yeah, I was I suppose.

Q: DID YOU EVER PLAY TEAM SPORTS?
JOLIE: No. Track. I ran track.

Q: WHAT DID YOU DO, SPRINTS/
JOLIE: No. Long distance.

Q: DO YOU EVER TELL YOUR FAMILY WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO DO THE NEXT DAY AND HEAR THEM SAY NO TO YOU?
JOLIE: No. Remember, I met Brad [Pitt] while doing stunts together so were that kind of family. It’s expected for mom to go out and do something like that.

Q: YOU AND BRAD ALTERNATE RIGHT BECAUSE YOU WANT SOMEONE TO BE HOME WITH THE SIX KIDS BUT DO PEOPLE TRY TO GET YOU TO DO THINGS TOGETHER? DO YOU GET THAT OFFER A LOT?
JOLIE: Not a lot but I mean there’s always been discussion about it, or we’ll read something and there’s usually a girl in his or a guy in mine. But it’s something that you just really think about for the audience because we’d love to work together and we could figure out a way to have the kids with us. We could figure that out, but it’s trying to find that thing. I think it’s very hard as a couple to figure out what audiences are comfortable seeing you as. They don’t like certain things. Some things just don’t work and you’d only do it if you think it’d be good for a movie, that it would be fun and that people would like to see it. As much as we’d like to indulge as artists and play together we really have to find a thing that would actually be welcomed by audiences and they’d like it.

Q: WHAT ABOUT A CAMEO?
JOLIE: In one of his movies? Sure.

Q: OR HIM SHOWING UP IN THIS?
JOLIE: Actually, he was almost going to do the motorcycle guy that I knock off the thing and call me a bad name. But he was with the kids on that day and we couldn’t work it out.

Q: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT YOURSELF AS A MOM AND HOW HAS THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE?
JOLIE: I’ve become more patient and more silly. I just wake up with an immediate, constant reminder of exactly what’s important and so ever since having children I’m not thrown from that. So they’re very grounding and they just keep you on track with all the pleasures of life and the joys.

Q: WITH SIX KIDS IS IT HARD TO BE EQUALLY ATTENTIVE, LIKE WOULDN’T ONE BE MUCH MORE DEMANDING AND THE OTHER WOULD BE HAPPY GOING OFF AND READING A BOOK OR WATCHING TV?
JOLIE: You just try to feel them. At different times different ones need you and if you listen to them you can [feel that]. Because there are two of us we’re able to kind of spread the attention around, and for example they all came with me to Cancun and then I came back and spent a lot of times with the babies because they couldn’t come and then the girls came to DC because it’s a girl trip and the boys are having special boy time with dad. So we try to just really think about it and actually schedule it in a way that works out so that everyone has special time.

Q: DO THEY KNOW HOW TO PLAY MOM AGAINST DAD IN TERMS OF WHO THE DISCIPLINARIAN IS?
JOLIE: They can’t, no. We’re a united front.

Q: WORKING WITH PHILLIP NOYCE HERE AS DIRECTOR ON SALT, A MAN WHO KNOWS HIS WAY AROUND THIS GENRE, WHAT DID YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THE EXPERIENCE?
JOLIE: Well, I knew having worked with Phillip ten years ago [on The Bone Collector], I knew that he was one of those rare directors that really does love drama and dramatic films but also really loves a good action sequence. He’s very meticulous when it comes to the details of research of all of these things. So I knew that it wouldn’t be a silly movie. I knew that it would be something that was more complex than the average action movie.

Q: ARE YOU AMAZED, TOO, ABOUT THE REAL SPY CASE BREAKING AT THE SAME TIME AS THIS MOVIE?
JOLIE: It’s so bizarre.

Q: ISN’T IT WEIRD?
JOLIE: It’s so bizarre. I mean the most important thing is, like I was saying, we’ve all got two sides to us. One that’s really interested in film and that’s really interesting and then the other side of us as citizens is that it’s very important that we have a good relationship with Russia and our countries have been moving forward and we don’t want anything to set it back. It’s kind of two different ways of looking at something.

Q: LAST NIGHT ON THE SPY MUSEUM PANEL IT WAS MENTIONED THAT IF THIS MOVIE HAD COME OUT TWO MONTHS AGO PEOPLE WOULD’VE LOOKED AT IT AS AN ACTION THRILLER. NOBODY WOULD’VE BELIEVED THAT THERE WERE EMBEDDED RUSSIAN SLEEPER CELLS LIKE THIS. WHEN YOU DID YOUR PREPARATION FOR THE MOVIE WERE YOU TOLD THIS WAS A REAL SITUATION?
JOLIE: No. We never meant to do something that was trying to tell a story that would get people paranoid about it. That was never our intention. We just wanted to tell a good story and because of my age we figured that when I was a child it would’ve been that. That would’ve been when I became a sleeper, then, the Cold War. But I think people will look at the film very differently now and we had no understanding that it was that close to the surface. Of course they haven’t admitted to being spies.
 
Q: RIGHT AND WE DON’T KNOW WHAT THEIR MISSION REALLY WAS. WHAT ABOUT SPEAKING THE RUSSIAN FOR THIS FILM?
JOLIE: I love speaking Russian. It’s very, very hard. I find it a very interesting sound because it can be so hard and strong and also very sensual and very beautiful. It’s a very interesting sounding language. It took me a long time. I just had to practice over and over and over and I was told that I was getting it wrong a bunch of times and I had to keep practicing.

Q: WITH A COACH OR TAPES?
JOLIE: Well, we had Russian coaches that came down and then they’d do it with me, spend time with me and then they’d put it on tape. So I would take it home and I would just keep trying to get it exactly right and then trying not to get so stuck on the line as an actor that you’re saying it funny because you’re just trying to be –

Q: DOESN’T LIEV SCHREIBER SPEAK IT FLUENTLY?
JOLIE: He speaks a bit because he’s done some stuff and he can read it.

Q: DID THAT AFFECT YOUR RESOLVE TO LEARN IT? YOU DO HAVE THAT SORT OF SEDUCTION YOU’RE TRYING TO DO TO GET INTO THE ROOM.
JOLIE: Yeah, and well, as I said, it was interesting to see how seductive that language could become when we were doing it, that some sounds can really hinder that or some accents have a very specific feeling to them.

Q: I KNOW THAT AT TIMES IN THE FILMING, ESPECIALLY IN MANHATTAN, YOU HAVE ALL THESE PAPARAZZI BEHIND THE BARRICADES TO THE SET. HOW CAN YOU EVEN WORK WITH ALL THAT COMMOTION?
JOLIE: The funny thing is that Salt and I were doing the same thing, trying to keep our heads down and get out of there. So that suited it.

Q: WHEN YOU LOOK BACK AT THE MOVIE WHAT WAS THE TOUGHEST THING TO DO, THE LANGUAGE, THE STUNTS, THE CHASE ON FOOT?
JOLIE: The chase on foot. I wish that everybody had the outtakes of that because every time we ran at the end of you’d see all three of us [Jolie, Schreiber and Chewetel Ejiofor] just laying down on the cement, just [panting]. But I think the only hard one was the last kill. I was worried that I was going to break my arm just because something was tied to something else and it was just a little odd. There was something awkward about it that if it went wrong I was a little concerned.

Q: WHAT ABOUT JOHNNY DEPP AND THE NEW MOVIE THAT’S COMING OUT?
JOLIE: It’s called The Tourist. It’s with Florian [Henckel von Donnersmarck] who made The Lives of Others which is an extraordinary film.

Q: ONE OF THE GREAT SPY MOVIES OF ALL TIME.
JOLIE: One of the greatest movies and he’s taken on this movie which is kind of a throwback to, like To Catch a Thief, and it’s got these great and classic moments. We all wanted to just make a film that felt like a real pleasure for the audience, a place that was beautiful and something kind of romantic but also funny and a good thriller. There’s something just really, really enjoyable about it and that’s what we set out to do, the idea of really having the audience in mind, of what would just be a pleasure for them. ‘How can we make as fun to watch as possible?’

Q: DO YOU HAVE OTHER BUSINESS WHILE YOU’RE HERE IN WASHINGTON? I KNOW YOU’RE ACTIVE WITH THE UN. I KNOW YOU WERE GIVING INTERVIEWS AT THE SPY MUSEUM YESTERDAY. HAVE YOU GOTTEN OUT AT ALL?
JOLIE: Well, I had some meetings last night.

Q: CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THOSE?
JOLIE: No, I can’t.

Q: YOU’RE A SPY.
JOLIE: I just don’t know. I’d have to ask if it was okay and I don’t know. I’m sure it’s fine but I don’t know. Somebody is being shy.

Q: I REMEMBER YOU SAID YOU GOT YOUR PILOT’S LICENSE SO THAT YOU COULD DELIVER RELIEF SUPPLIES –
JOLIE: That’s one of the reasons. I love to fly but it is something that would be fun to do with my pilot’s license at some point, yeah.

Q: DO YOU FIND IT HARD TO BALANCE LIFE, WORK AND ALL THIS OTHER STUFF?
JOLIE: I feel so fortunate that I’m able to do things that I love in life and I think that when your work is a pleasure for you I’m just so grateful. I’m so grateful to have my health and my kids’ health and so I’m just happy to be busy everyday.

Q: IT IS EASY TO TAKE A MOVIE, LIKE WHEN YOU SAW THE TOURIST OR WHEN YOU GOT THIS PITCH?
JOLIE: The Tourist wasn’t hard because it was shooting in Venice and Paris. What do you think? It was Florian and so it was easy.

Q: HOW DO YOU AND BRAD FIND COUPLE TIME FOR YOU BETWEEN WORK AND ALL THE CHILDREN?
JOLIE: We plan it. We have to.

The weekend belongs to the lengthy, intricately confounding Inception and Despicable Me, which in its second weekend is expected to do over $30 million following it’s surprising $56 million debut.  That leaves Jerry Bruckheimer’s latest escapist fantasy, the $150 million to make and $100 million to market Nicolas Cage starrer The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, in the dustbin so to speak.

The L.A. Times reported that Apprentice had high awareness in pre-opening polls but little interest from those polled about seeing it.  How does this happen?  It’s rare that a studio will commit to a big budget family film without feeling, rightly, that it has broad appeal.  Yet Apprentice follows another expensive Bruckheimer flop, April’s The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, which also opened to an indifferent if not resistant public.  What’s going on here?  Obviously Bruckheimer’s “golden touch” has disappeared but is it something deeper?  Could it be the Disney brand?  Once invincible in family entertainment, the studio’s film division has endured rough sledding that led to the departure of its longtime film chief Dick Cook and replaced by the TV executive responsible for the revival of the Disney Channel with the American High School musicals. 

There is a bright spot, a shining one by any standard:  Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 3 which as the ads tout is the best reviewed film of the year and a realistic candidate for a Best Picture Academy Award nomination (now that there are ten nominees the field is considerably widened) and not simply a Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination.  Pixar is held to a higher standard than any other animated outfit and with this third installment it delivered on all counts.  Why Toy Story 3 might even end up as summer’s biggest box-office hit come Labor Day.  Will it be enough to offset the live action debacles?

What about The Beaver?
With Mel Gibson’s current firestorm involving profanity and alleged racism and alleged spousal violence filling up hours of broadcast and internet entertainment coverage, what does this mean for Jodie Foster’s The Beaver which stars none other than Mr. Gibson?  Offbeat, to say the least, as it tells of a man who speaks only through his hand puppet, a beaver, the movie is likely to premiere at September’s film festivals in Venice and/or Toronto before its commercial run in November.  Will Gibson’s latest notoriety, which could go on and on as both side of the domestic dispute air charges and countercharges, help the box-office?  Or keep the curious away?

Summer sleepers
Each summer brings along with the heat and the suntans the opportunity for an outsized hit no one expected.  Will that be true this year?  We’re halfway through and no The Hangover sized hit has yet happened.  Be patient.

Christopher Nolan is ambitious, intelligent and proof with his $180 million sci fi dream invasion drama Inception that the mighty can stumble the most.

There wasn’t a moment in Leonardo DiCaprio’s tortured performance that felt real. Instead I felt how much better he was in a similarly tormented role working for Martin Scorsese for Shutter Island.  Then again there wasn’t a moment in this hectic, 148 minute scramble that felt emotinally earned.

Nolan’s A-list supporting ensemble seemed to be drawn from a Who’s Hot casting call and they are all either terrible or struggling: 
** petite Ellen Page who seems to have wondered in from another movie,
** Oscar winner Marion Cotillard who probably wishes she were in another movie, even back in Nine, as she weeps and snarls and weeps as The Shade (as in a dead ghostly presence),
** Luckless Joseph Gordon-Levitt whose thankless role as Leo’s assistant at least gifts him with the film’s one truly effective stunt, a twirling set that echoes Fred Astaire’s dancing on the walls and ceiling in Royal Wedding,

** and then there is poor Ken Watanabe whose English is so garbled he should be subtitled.

Only Cillian Murphy, as one of the few recognizably human fictions in this dreary, never-ending nightmare, manages to suggest a real person. Newcomer Tom Hardy, who stars as the new Mad Max in the rebooted franchise, has a pouty-macho presence that’s intriguing enough to suggest the promise of better work in better movies.

For those who loved Lost where anything and everything was up for grabs Inception may be the summer’s ultimate movie experience, one to see again and again. For anyone else it’s a bloody bombastic chore, sound and fury signifying so very very little.

There’s nothing like a good movie to lay waste to the nightmarish experiences of so many bad ones.  Happily, even naturally, with the heat has come several hot-hot movies that rate as Don’t Miss:

Despicable Me This 3D animated romp manages to be consistently clever in its fiendishly paced storytelling of how Gru (marvelously voiced by a Russian accented Steve Carell) who might in a John Waters movie be campaigning as The Meanest Man Alive becomes a loving parent to three orphan girls.  Delightfully offbeat Despicable Me is the nicest surprise in big screen animation since Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

The Kids Are All Right For once a Sundance favorite lives up to the hype with a truly enchanting comedy-drama about a family – two moms, college bound daughter and angsty 15 year old son – who weather the appearance of the kids’ sperm donor dad, a free spirit straight outta the Seventies.  Pitch perfect in the writing (Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg), cast and acted with an uncanny eye by director Cholodenko, Kids simply enchants.  Bravo to Annette Bening and Julianne Moore and the not so mighty moms, Mark Ruffalo as the overgrown motorcycling lug who discovers he’s spawned two amazing kids, and Mia Wasakowska and Josh Hutcherson as the more than all right kids.

The Girl Who Played with Fire The second film adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s trilogy plays more like a traditional Hollywood thriller as Lisbeth Salander (the great Noomi Rapace) on the run from a trumped up triple murder charge tracks down the sadistically evil gangster who is her father.  Meanwhile cunning reporter Mikael Blomkvist, Salander’s steadfast ally, tries to steer the investigation towards the truth.  Yes, it’s in Swedish with subtitles but who wants to wait years for Hollywood’s version?

L’Affaire Farewell The perfect bookend to Salt, this revelatory account of what Ronald Reagan called one of the most important espionage tales of the 20th century is also a stunning surprise.  Who knew about the KGB Colonel, code name Farewell, who passed so much critical information to the French and Reagan that the case is now rated as instrumental in the fall of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of the old Soviet Union?  Directed and mostly written by Christan Carion (whose true story of the Christmas armistice of 1914, Merry Christmas, was Oscar nominated as Best Foreign Language Film).  Opens Aug 6th in Boston.