PAPA, WHY DO THEY HATE US SO?

Bad day to work for a studio in the US today - Hollywood folk who just want to make the world a better, happier place woke up to find that UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) had voted 191-2 to approve The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. That all sounds nice, but what made the American suits drop bricks was Article 8 which says that countries are authorized to identify "situations where cultural expressions ... are at risk of extinction" and take "all appropriate measures" to preserve them. This opens the doors to countries basically banning whatever they want in terms of movies, television and film if they feel like it endangers their homegrown culture.

MPAA head crybaby, Dan Glickman, is going to give a speech later today about how bad this is for peace in the Universe, and they had already sent a letter to Condoleeza Rice back on Sept. 9 about what a blow this is to fluffy puppies, cute kittens and all good and lovely things. Their bone of contention seems to be that "cultural expression" isn't defined in enough detail so that it could be applied to...anything!

Read the full story here.

Voting Fun Facts: the crafty French and Canadians initiated this vote (guess the Canadians are sick of MPAA puppet organizations trying to tell them what they can and can't broadcast) and the only two "no" votes came from the US and Israel. Four countries abstained, including Australia.