Tonight, I had a transcendental experience. Dan and I were sitting on the couch, when the first preview I've seen for the motion picture version of All the King's Men played on television. I almost cried.

I probably should not go and see this movie. It's almost certainly going to break my heart to see the elaborately constructed plot and characters of Robert Penn Warren's absolutely masterful novel broken down into anything that would fit into a marketable movie length. But I'm going anyway, because they've sold me with the casting. Sean Penn, Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins and Kate Winslet. I can't resist, and I've been looking forward to seeing it ever since I found out it was being made into a movie in Louisiana. The movie was supposed to be released almost a year ago, but I've heard the schedule was thrown off by Hurricane Katrina. It's out on September 22, and I've decided it's a congratulatory present to me from the entertainment industry for getting through a massive work deadline that falls that day.

The rest of you have two weeks to read the book if you want to know why you, too, should be geekily ecstatic about the movie. I'll loan you my copy. Call me.

Now if someone could just recognize what a fantastic family drama Eudora Welty's "The Optimist's Daughter" would make.