Much has been written about the difficulties Disney's marketing executives have had in getting a handle on how to sell Brad Bird's Ratatouille, given its difficult title, adult story line, French setting, etc. But film critics are suggesting that the movie sells itself -- even while they themselves are doing their best to persuade moviegoers to see it. "You should probably just take my word that this one is unmissable," advises Lou Lumenick in the New York Post.In the Wall Street Journal, Joe Morgenstern asks, "Is the world ready for a movie that sees an upwardly mobile rodent in a kitchen as a cause for celebration, rather than extermination? Once you've met the clean little rat in question, and registered the high preposterousness of the premise -- not to mention the elegance of the execution -- the answer is yes." Bird and his fellow animators, writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times, have "made Ratatouille so imaginative, good spirited and funny that it not only blurs the line between reality and fantasy, it manages to blur it between species as well." And between age groups, too, Michael Phillips suggests in the Chicago Tribune. "Ratatouille may be rated G, but its sense of humor is more sly, more sophisticated and more interesting than most PG-13 or R-rated comedies at the moment," he writes. Several critics seize about the metaphor of food to describe the movie. "It blends a savory stew of ingredients that, when whisked together, create a wondrously tasty and visually stunning dish," writes Claudia Puig in USA Today. Says Michael Sragow in the Baltimore Sun: "Ratatouille is a sublime dish of a movie, and the company's piece de resistance." And A.O. Scott in the New York Times has probably never written a more sterling review for a movie than this one for Ratatouille, which he calls "a nearly flawless piece of popular art, as well as one of the most persuasive portraits of an artist ever committed to film. It provides the kind of deep, transporting pleasure, at once simple and sophisticated, that movies at their best have always promised."

Since his illness, Roger Ebert has mostly limited his reviews to "important" films that have usually earned his "thumbs up." Not so in the case of Evening, which certainly has a cast of "important" actors, including Vanessa Redgrave, Claire Danes, Natasha Richardson, Hugh Dancy, Toni Collette, Glenn Close, and Meryl Streep. "There are few things more depressing than a weeper that doesn't make you weep," he writes at the outset of his review. Most other critics agree. "An impressive pedigree doesn't always guarantee a felicitous outcome," Carina Chocano writes in the opening of her review in the Los Angeles Times. Similarly Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post comments that the movie "ultimately flattens under the weight of its own pretensions and impeccable pedigree. Indeed, it's so perfectly wrought that you won't believe a word of it." Clearly Kyle Smith in the New York Post is unimpressed by the "pedigree." His review begins this way: "This weeping ladydrama -- this cinematic doily, this chintz wing chair from a P-town antique boutique -- takes us to the oxymoronic world of WASP emotion. It's overstuffed with boring Protestants, understuffed with story and beset by hysterical (in both senses) acting. I'm not going to name any names but ... OK, Glenn Close, Vanessa Redgrave and Hugh Dancy: I've seen more grace and subtlety from a cat tossed into a swimming pool." On the other hand, Wesley Morris in the Boston Globe finds much to praise about the movie and its stars. "Evening is the sort of film certain moviegoers say they want more of during the summer and never get," he writes. "Well, now they've got it: a tony period drama full of the most esteemed stars ... an antidote to summer super-productions. Nothing in Evening blows up. None of the costumes are made of Lycra, and the acting is the only special effect that matters. ... Evening delivers these women in top form."

Fox's Live Free or Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis, took in $9.1 million when it premiered on Wednesday -- good, but hardly overwhelming -- leading box-office analysts to predict that the stand-out movie this weekend will be the new Disney cartoon starring a rodent whose name is Remy, not Mickey. There is wide disagreement among them about how much Ratatouille is likely to earn, with many expecting it to be the lowest-grossing movie for a Pixar movie ever, falling below last year's Cars, which debuted with $60.1 million.

Movie stars, who are accustomed to receiving the latest hot gadget in advance of its release in the hope that they'll be photographed with it, have been out of luck when it comes to landing Apple's new iPhone, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Friday). Famed publicist Liz Rosenberg, whose clients include Madonna, Liza Minnelli, and Cher, told the newspaper that she had been unsuccessful trying to get an iPhone for Cher. "Doesn't winning Oscars, Grammys and Emmys entitle her to move to the front of the line?" she asked. But the Times report also indicated that Steve Wozniak, who cofounded Apple with Steve Jobs, was planning to queue up in front of an Apple store in San Jose, CA at 4:00 a.m. today in order to get one. (He did say that Jobs had offered to send him one but that it wouldn't arrive until Saturday. "This is more a celebration," he said.)

Anti-smoking groups that have long complained about scenes in movies showing the stars smoking will apparently get a big boost from a new British law that takes effect Sunday barring smoking in enclosed public places. The law will apparently also apply to all film productions in the U.K. Under the law, producers may apply for exemptions in the case of productions where smoking is "integral to the plot or storyline." But London officials recently rejected an application for an exemption in the case of a forthcoming play about Pope John Paul I in which a cardinal is seen smoking, forcing a rewrite of the scene. An actors' union spokesman said later that authorities would only allow exemptions to productions about real-life persons, like Winston Churchill, who were known for their smoking.

German military officials are backing off from their earlier remarks that filmmakers would be barred from shooting scenes at military locations for the forthcoming Valkyrie, about the World War II "generals' plot" to assassinate Hitler, because the star, Tom Cruise, is a Scientologist. Producers had indicated that they wanted to shoot several scenes at the Bedlerblock memorial in Berlin where Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, played by Cruise in the film, plotted the assassination. The German Defense Ministry said Thursday that while it shares part of the building with the memorial tenants, the location is actually run by the Finance Ministry and it would be up to them to decide whether to issue a filming permit.

People may grumble at all the media attention lavished on Paris Hilton, but they nevertheless scampered to their TV sets to watch her on CNN's Larry King Live Wednesday night, giving the show its best ratings in almost two years and forcing Fox News Channel into second place. The Hilton interview drew more than 3.2 million viewers (to FNC's 2.6 million), astonishingly nearly half of them in the 25-54 year-old demographic. King has been averaging 1.06 million for the first six months of this year. A day earlier, when his guests were the two surviving Beatles and the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison, he drew 1.47 million. The Hilton interview also helped Anderson Cooper, who followed with a one-hour discussion of it that drew 1.9 million viewers. Meanwhile, several websites on Thursday slammed King for failing to prepare for the interview (something he has acknowledged he rarely does) and therefore not being able to ask follow-up questions. For example, they noted, he failed to challenge Hilton's assertion that she has never taken drugs. Yet films have been posted on the Internet showing her doing just that. On Thursday, the -- in this case, appropriately named -- Smoking Gun website posted seven clips of Hilton apparently smoking pot and hashish and negotiating to buy them. The video was reportedly taken in Amsterdam, where many drugs are legally available. But at one point, she is seen discussing how she "can get this s*** back to America" and later says that she wants to consult "an expert like Chuck, that dude who sold us all that weed," on how to do so. In yet another clip, Hilton appears to be looking for an outdoor spot to smoke pot with some friends, asking three times, "Are we gonna get arrested?" Even the Hilton-friendly TMZ website posted video of her apparently smoking pot. (She told the site that she just likes to roll her own cigarettes.)

They may find spotting the tennis ball a bit difficult on their tiny screens, but Verizon Wireless customers who subscribe to its V Cast Mobile TV will be able to watch the Wimbledon tournament from England on cellphones, courtesy of NBC2Go, beginning Saturday. In a statement, Ryan Hughes, head of media programming for Verizon, said: "Customers who are at the beach or a barbecue this holiday week can still see every serve, volley or break point from the best tennis players in the world." Coverage is set to begin at 12:00 noon ET on Saturday, but starting times will vary throughout the week.

Texas prosecutors have dropped charges against all of the alleged pedophiles who were caught on hidden cameras in a sting by NBC's Dateline. The sting, conducted in a house wired with cameras and microphones in Murphy, TX, resulted in the arrest of 24 men who thought they were meeting underage boys and girls for sex after engaging in online chats with the decoys. In one instance, a deputy D.A. in a neighboring county, Louis Conradt Jr., who had apparently engaged in sexually explicit online conversations with a decoy claiming to be a 13-year-old boy, shot and killed himself when police arrived -- a Dateline crew in tow -- to arrest him. "The fact that somebody besides police officers were involved is what makes this case bad," Collin County District Attorney John Roach told the Associated Press Thursday. "If professionals had been running the show, they would have done a much better job rather than being at the beck and call of outsiders." Chris Hansen, the reporter who fronted the Dateline piece, told the wire service: "I don't want to get involved in the D.A.'s business or the police business. ... I can tell you in the other locations [where Dateline conducted similar stings], these issues did not come up."

Former Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington has lashed out at ABC, other cast members of the show, and the television industry in general, blaming his firing on racism and double standards. "I apologized and showed my remorse for what I said [calling a gay cast member a "f****t"] and for the pain I caused anyone," Washington told Newsweek in an interview appearing on its website today (Friday). "If a black man can't get forgiveness in this country, when so many other people like Robert Downey Jr. and the governor of California get second and third chances ... I think that says a lot about race and this country where we stand." He said that the network's decision to send him to rehab after he used the offensive term was an attempt at "reprogramming" him. "There is no rehab for homophobia -- that was just some crap being put out by the network," he told the magazine." I went into an executive counseling program which many people in this industry know about and go to. They knew what the program was but chose to call it what they wanted to fit their agenda."