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In the second installment on its series on Hollywood's desperate attempts to recapture the attention of teens who are abandoning the multiplex in favor of simultaneous sessions of text messaging, ringtone downloading, and snorting of crushed Ritalin, the LAT relates a moment of clarity achieved by David Gale of MTV Films while observing one of these beautiful, demographically desirable creatures in temporary captivity:

As the head of MTV Films, Gale was at the theater for a research screening of his "Jackass: Number Two," a crude teen comedy coming out next month. The film had just started when a teenager seated next to Gale began pecking away on his BlackBerry.

"It was an amazing experience. My first instinct was to slap him," Gale said. "But then I realized he was just enjoying the movie."

In fact, the teenager was e-mailing a friend, recounting the movie's best jokes.

"The kid was just doing what kids do," Gale said. "This is how they watch movies. This is how they consume entertainment. And when they like something, they let people know."

We suspect that the kid was "pecking away" on a Sidekick, as no teenager without a high-paying studio development job would be caught dead bringing a BlackBerry to his high school's weekly Technical Virginity party. And if Gale leaned a little closer to see what his test-screening guinea pig was actually typing, it was probably closer to "creepy mtv dbag sitting nxt 2 me thnks i like his shitty movie. lol! stapling ur balls 2 stuff is so 2004" than a viral transmission of Jackass jokes. The studios should probably go back to their more reliable methods of extracting teen opinions on their product, capturing them at the mall with a giant butterfly net, then threatening to scorch off their genitals if they don't post "John Tucker Must Die l0oks pimp. ima definitely see it!! =]" in the movie's MySpace comments.