the Kevin Spacey mise à jour

Looks as though they've stopped production on "House of Cards." Whether temporarily or permanently, it's hard to say. Kevin Spacey's reputation is now in the mud, so this is the cover-your-ass phase, in which the people working with Spacey seek to avoid guilt by association by distancing themselves from him and doing something that will be interpreted by the public as both punitive and soul-cleansing. The American public, meanwhile, is finally waking up to the full extent of Hollywood's sliminess. This may result in the irony that much of the public will sympathize, on some level, with the jihadi Muslim critique of Hollywood (and of the West in general, of course) as a den of iniquity. Or not: we proles tend to forget scandals fairly quickly, especially as new scandals are always rolling in. People won't hate Hollywood for long; they crave entertainment. I've long believed that if the terrorists really wanted to strike a psychological blow, they'd need to saw off the heads of some beloved celebrities.

Meanwhile, speaking of jihadi Muslims...