An actor's actor, Norton's known for playing the disturbed, tortured, and homicidal on screen. A political liberal and environmental activist, he's much less menacing in real life.

· In case you haven't heard, Jon Stewart is going to host the Oscars again. Obligatory press release self-deprecation follows: "I'm thrilled to be asked to host the Academy Awards for the second time because, as they say, the third time's the charm." [Variety, THR]
· NBC greenlights a pilot for Rat Entertainment's cop drama Blue Blood, a project that will see the collision of irresistible party-boy force Brett Ratner with immovable rock-star object Ben Silverman, unleashing a wave of good-time energy that will likely reduce all of Hollywood to smoldering rubble. [Variety]
· The next time Hell's Kitchen star Gordon Ramsay sears his scrotum on a hot oven, it will be an Endeavor agent who holds the bowl of ice water into which he can dip his still-sizzling testes. [THR]
· Fight Club alter-egos Brad Pitt and Edward Norton reteam for Universal's State of Play, a feature adaptation of the British miniseries about a journalist's investigation into the murder of a congressman's girlfriend. We're unfamiliar with the source material, so we won't promise any scenes in which the duo strip off their shirts and stage a much-clamored-for FC rematch. [Variety]
· The Weinstein Company's $2-2.5 million purchase of George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, ahem, reanimates the Toronto Fest market. [THR]

It's been a while since we've checked in with Scriptland (discarded original title: Final Draft Aficionado), the LAT's weekly column on "screenwriters," the mythical creatures sometimes credited with creating the story/dialogue combinations that become movies once producers, directors, and actors collaborate to make sense of the jumble of oddly formatted words called "screenplays." Today's piece looks at a mild Comic-Con controversy that arose over the authorship of the upcoming The Incredible Hulk, Marvel's attempt to reboot a franchise it had brought to the screen as recently as the summer of 2003. Fans needed to know: Was the scribe comic-book-flick go-to guy Zak Penn, writer of X2, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Elektra, or Ed Norton, an actor—gasp!— with a reputation as a selfless improver of script pages in need of a quick punch-up and who may or may not have generated the uncredited idea that ex-girlfriend Salma Hayek's titular Frida character should have a mustache that would distract from her frequent toplessness? The Times explains:

· When a reader goes through the trouble of spending hours tinkering around in MS Paint to create a fan-art masterpiece , we have no choice but to share it with you. Behold, the Incredible Norton. (Click the photo for a larger version.)
· If you watch just one video of Britney Spears amusing herself by babbling semi-coherently about the tabloid media that's ruining her life into a paparazzi agency's video camera, make it this one.
· And also: Is Britney more charitable than a certain A-list golden boy?
· Kiefer Sutherland savagely bites Forest Whitaker in a Walk of Fame sneak attack!

Because Fridays are about feeling good (in the neighborhood, if you will, and we do hope to see you at the 'Bees for after-work drinks!), a heartwarming story about actor Edward Norton at an unnamed NYC restaurant: