Notables: Well, we've seen every one of these before - except for Brüno. I don't get the Sacha Baron Cohen phenomenon. Mostly because I don't find shock humor funny or particularly creative. Though it does require a bit of courage (you certainly won't win a lot of friends doing what Cohen does), it's still cheap none the less. I've read a few pieces here and there about how this film exposes and challenges homophobia in the world. Does it? Look, I haven't seen the film. I won't see the film because I know it's filled with sexual situations and nudity and general mean-spiritedness. But I really do think I know a lot about the film from the reviews I've read and from what I've seen in the previews and even the nightly news. And as best I can tell, the character of Brüno is so over-the-top, so in-your-face with his extravagant sexuality, so other-worldly-silly, that no one he meets in the film - no one - would react with anything but surprise or a posture of what-in-the-world-is-going-on-here or even some anger. Their reactions are made all the worse by Cohen's bush league, bombard-you-when-you-least-expect-it style of filmmaking. Granted, I'm sure the over-the-top Brüno encounters some over-the-top conservatives/evangelicals/politicians/general public figures in his film. But does over-the-top meeting over-the-top really tell us much of anything?

It's sad, really, because I think we desperately need to find a way forward in the conversation about these matters. It's getting awfully complex, awfully heated. But I'm more willing to turn to helpful people like Andrew Marin and N. T. Wright (please check out these links!) to pastorally confront some of what is going on. Not Brüno.

I'm not going to link to any reviews. Most are filled with some pretty explicit details about the film. I will however point this out: most gays in Hollywood are really upset with the over-the-top nature of the film. They actually think a project designed to expose homophobia is actually encouraging it.

Anyway, enough with Brüno. He's had his day. Quite frankly, he's about to be knocked from the top of the hill by a certain boy wizard that everyone and their mother loves.

Speaking of that boy wizard, there are a few articles from the folks at Christianity Today that you might want to check out:

Josh Moody's "What Would Jonathan Edwards Say to Harry Potter?"

Connie Neal's "Is Harry the Chosen One?"

A general editorial from the folks at CT: "Why We Like Harry Potter"

And in case you don't have all that much love for this stuff, here's Ted Olsen with a look at those who are "(A Bit Less) Positive About Potter."

Top Five Books (according to USA Today research)
1. Glenn Beck's Common Sense, by Glenn Beck
2. Black Hills, by Nora Roberts
3. My Sister's Keeper, by Jodi Picoult
4. New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling

Notables: Well, Pottermania has pushed Rowling back into the top five. That was to be expected. Deathly Hallows is actually the last book of the series, so it looks like the movie (based on the next-to-last book in the series) is serving as a nudge to "hurry up and finish up reading before the last movie comes out."

As for the rest of the list, we've seen all of this before. However, I do want to point out an interesting piece the Chicago Tribune recently ran about Christian fiction. Did you know that Christians - particularly Christian women - are gobbling up books set many years ago in Amish communities? What does that tell us? And did you also know that a series of Christian books are coming out about zombies drunk on the blood of Judas, or that we're about to see a trilogy about vampires wrestling with matters of faith? And what does that tell us?

Top Five Albums (according to Billboard)
1. BLACKsummers' Night, Maxwell
2. Hannah Montana 3, Soundtrack
3. NOW 31, Various Artists
4. Nothing Personal, All Time Low
5. The E.N.D., The Black Eyed Peas

Notables: Nothing here grabs me.

Top Singles (according to Billboard)
1. "I Gotta Feeling," The Black Eyed Peas
2. "Best I Ever Had," Drake
3. "Boom Boom Pow," The Black Eyed Peas
4. "Knock You Down," Keri Hilson (featuring Kanye West and Ne-Yo)
5. "Fire Burning," Sean Kingston

Notables: And nothing here grabs me either.

Top Five Web Searches (based on the Google Trends's closing report on Thursday)
*Exercise caution when searching; some topics may be inappropriate.
1. jared kushner
2. linda chavez
3. emmy nominations 2009
4. chevron houston marathon
5. lox

Notables: Donald Trump's daughter, heiress-to-millions Ivanka, just announced that she's engaged to heir-to-millions Jared Kushner. It's safe to assume the engagement ring is the size of a small country.

I guess Linda Chavez took some big swipes at Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor yesterday. These confirmation hearings are always pretty intriguing. The grandstanding is unbelievable.

The Emmy nominations were announced yesterday. Here's the list, if you care. You might spend a little time trying to connect the dots to see any themes and so forth. There might be something there.

Item four is, well, about a marathon.

And "lox" is either a reference to a salmon fillet that has been cured or liquid oxygen that fuels F-1 engines. I'd say you'd better keep the two straight.

And on that bizarre note, I'll see you next week…