born 23 February 1970

Costel Cascaval, birthplace unspecified, Romanian actor

Lisa Arbuckle, state of Iowa, third assistant director

Marie-Josée Croze, Montreal, Quebec, actress

Mike Baronas, Waltham, Massachusetts, Italian horror enthusiast

Niecy Nash, Palmdale, California, actress

Paul Anthony Stewart, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, actor

Rita Stock, Lisbon, Portugal, actress

Russell Darling, St. Johns, Arizona, computer graphics supervisor

Shôko Aida, Higashimurayama, Japan, actress

Steven Scott Austin, birthplace unspecified, American low-budget buttkicker

Szonja Jakovits, Cambridge, Massachusetts, second assistant director

Valerio Bevilacqua, born in Italy, American bit player

Vit Janacek, Nové Mesto na Morave, Czechoslovakia, writer/director

Wojciech Kulinski, birthplace unspecified, Polish actor

We have a clear Winner today. It’s the Canadian who played the French speech pathologist in The Diving Bell And The Butterfly. That was a movie that I really liked, and the person I saw it with really hated. It’s always amusing when that happens. Sometimes it’s a huge schism-causer, a dealbreaker. Other times, such as this one, it only reaffirms that you are one person, and the other person is another, with wholly different tastes. It’s like the time I took my grandmother to see O Brother Where Art Thou. Guaranteed to repulse anyone who actually remembers the thirties. Happy birthday Grandma (yesterday): love you!