The King Is Dead, Long Live The Queen

L. Brent Bozell and Helen Mirren both made the news at IMDb again, but this time in separate stories. First Bozell:

Brent Bozell, whose Parents Television Council has been at the forefront in campaigning for tougher regulations on television indecency, said Friday that he will step down as president of the organization on Jan. 1. In a statement, Bozell remarked, "It has simply become too much for me, and with a large family, it's just not healthy for me. More importantly, however, it is not healthy for the PTC."

And now Helen:

Helen Mirren's performance as Queen Elizabeth II is being hailed by critics and audiences at the Venice Film Festival. The Rome newspaper La Repubblica headlined "Queen Wins Venice's Heart." In the film, Mirren portrays the queen having to deal with a crisis that threatens the British monarchy in the wake of Princess Diana's death in 1997. The British trade publication Screen Daily predicted that Mirren's performance in The Queen "is likely to be crowned with a host of awards nominations." The online film commentator David Poland wrote that Mirren "lives at the center of the work, underplaying the role to within an inch of not connecting with us, but keeps us firmly at the end of the leash until it is time to show us this very reserved character's heart." The French news agency Agence France Presse reported that Mirren, director Stephen Frears, and cast members received a 15-minute standing ovation at Saturday's screening.

Perhaps these two stories are unrelated, but I doubt it. I'm sure that after condemning Mirren (of all people!) for using language he categorized as "vulgar and obscene", Bozell abruptly realized that he was a self-righteous man-child engaging in a useless masturbatory hypermoral campaign and consequently decided to hang up his hat.